The Winds of Winter: A Fantasy Poem

What if dragons were, very nearly, lesser gods?

What if a dragon decided you were the enemy?

The Winds of Winter, Scene I: The Incantation of the Dragoness

I started The Winds of Winter in 1999. I'd intended to write it in prose, of course — what else? It's been centuries since "fantasy" implied "poetry." But the story wanted to be in verse; I couldn't begin to get it to take shape until I gave in and wrote it that way.

It's taken me ten years. No, it's not that long: if the remaining scenes are of average length, it will come out around 6250 words. But it has been that hard. I've started it over twice — once to fix a Giant Plot Hole, and once to switch the meter.

I also cut it in half once. In the beginning, I had a plotline involving a villain. Once I fixed the Giant Plot Hole, the villain's plotline proved to be dramatically incoherent. Nothing I could do with those scenes fixed that. So it got the axe.

Most of the villain's scenes, like most of the surviving scenes in Winter, don't stand alone well enough for me to put them up. But one of the scenes I had to cut was a flashbook, and I think it can stand alone. So here it is.

Outtake from The Winds of Winter: The Endless Echo of Defeat