In a recent post on his personal blog, George RR Martin had an interesting explanation as to why he hasn’t been more productive as fans continue to wait for his novel The Winds of WInter to be completed.
“This has not been a good year for anyone, with war everywhere and fascism on the rise … and on a more personal level, I have had a pretty wretched year as well, one full of stress, anger, conflict, and defeat,” Martin said.
“I look forward to telling you all about our adventures… though it may take a while. I had a thousand emails waiting for me on my return [from Belfast, Amsterdam, London, Oxford, and Glasgow], and then I went and brought a case of covid back with me from worldcon, so I am way way behind,” he continued.
“Meanwhile, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and all their back stories while 2 world wars were going on,” one X user responded.
“Is there anything those dastardly fascists won’t do to make honest people miserable? And now, they even scheme to inflict writer block on poor vulnerable novelists by highly varied indirect and devious means,” another quipped.
The Winds of Winter is the much-awaited sixth book in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The manuscript is expected to be over 1,500 pages long.
Martin reportedly started the book in 2010, but it has been delayed several times, leading Martin to avoid setting a release date. By October 2022, Martin said he had finished about three-quarters of the book, with 1,100 to 1,200 pages written and 400 to 500 pages left to go. He gave a similar update in November 2023, noting that he was still “struggling” to complete it.
Back in 2020, Martin struck a similar tone, blaming Covid and lockdowns for his slow progress.
“I have to confess, after half a year of pandemic, quarantine, and social distancing, I am showing signs of cabin fever… half of which is quite literal in my case. Yes, I am in an actual cabin in the mountains. No, I have no fever. Yay! For the present at least, I am healthy… for an out-of-shape guy of 71, at least … and doing all I can to stay that way.
“If nothing else, the enforced isolation has helped me write. I am spending long hours every day on THE WINDS OF WINTER, and making steady progress. I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week. But no, this does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week. It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go. Please do not give any credence to any of the click-bait websites that like to parse every word of my posts as if they were papal encyclicals to divine hidden meanings.”
