How much from Game of Thrones season 8 will be in The Winds of Winter?

Jaime goes back to Cersei

In Martin’s books, Jaime has spent the better part of the last three books rethinking his relationship with Cersei and questioning the things he has done for her throughout his life, like joining the Kingsguard. In A Dance with Dragons, Jaime ignores Cersei’s plea for help with her problems in King’s Landing and instead rides off with Brienne of Tarth to rescue Sansa Stark.

Martin enjoys twisting expectations and crushing our hopes, so it wouldn’t be out of character for a now-redeemed Jaime to fall back into bad habits and return to Cersei. That goes double when you consider that, on the page, Brienne may be deliberately leading Jaime into a trap laid by Lady Stoneheart. He they both survive this betrayal, the two might not have the best relationship anymore and Jaime may think Cersei is the only choice he’s got.

Daenerys Targaryen burns King’s Landing

While Daenerys’ pyromaniacal actions in “The Bells” were controversial to say the least, they were so crucial to the final arc of the show that it’s hard to imagine that some version of the won’t end up in Martin’s books. That said, fans hope that Martin will take more time building up to Dany’s fateful choice, putting at ease fans who thought the Targaryen madness switch was flipped way too quickly on TV.

If Dany does burn King’s Landing, there’s a great line from A Clash of Kings that will be become bitterly iconic in retrospect:

"The thought of home disquieted her. If her sun-and-stars had lived, he would have led his khalasar across the poison water and swept away her enemies, but his strength had left the world. Her bloodriders remained, sworn to her for life and skilled in slaughter, but only in the ways of the horselords. The Dothraki sacked cities and plundered kingdoms, they did not rule them. Dany had no wish to reduce King’s Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father. But before she could do that, she must conquer. Daenerys, A Clash of Kings"

It would be just like Martin to give Daenerys this hopeful moment only to turn it on its head later, crushing us all.