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For most novelists, writing is a solitary activity. That is unfortunately no longer the case for legendary fantasy author George R. R. Martin. Ever since the creator’s A Song of Ice and Fire series became the epic HBO franchise Game of Thrones, his writing of the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, has become more of a group effort.
While Martin is technically alone as he sits down at his ancient DOS computer to write, the specter of an impatient fanbase lingers behind his back, urging him to finish the novel that is now more than a decade past its initial due date. The world beyond that word processor is even more crowded. Every time Martin emerges from his New Mexico homestead to give an interview about one of the many upcoming adaptations of his works, he is inevitably confronted about The Winds of Winter‘s status. After he gives the usual dissatisfactory answer that it’s coming along, but slowly, the internet responds with understandable outrage and the cycle of disappointment continues apace.
Now, however, Martin appears to have come to a new stage in his Winds of Winter group-writing process: acceptance.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about The Ugly Chickens, a short film Martin produced based on one of his good friend Howard Waldrop’s stories, reporter Lily Ford gets in the obligatory question about The Winds of Winter‘s process. Breaking with the usual precedent of “fine, but slow” Martin finally acknowledges the possibility that the book will never see the light of day.
“Unfortunately, I am 13 years late,” he told THR. “Every time I say that, I’m [like], ‘How could I be 13 years late?’ I don’t know, it happens a day at a time. But that’s still a priority. A lot of people are already writing obituaries for me. [They’re saying] ‘Oh, he’ll never be finished.’ Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. I’m alive right now! I seem pretty vital!” He adds that he could never retire — he’s “not a golfer.”
For what it’s worth, this is still a relatively optimistic update from the author. “Maybe they’re right [that Winds of Winter will never be finished]” is a far way away from “They’re definitely right.” Still, devoted Martinologists have clocked that this is the first time Martin has spoken so frankly about even the mere possibility he won’t finish the novel. In doing so, the Game of Thrones creator is coming to a conclusion that his fans have already reached long ago.
The reasons for Martin’s struggles with The Winds of Winter over the years are fairly self evident. For starters, George R. R. Martin the pop culture personality and Warner Bros. Discovery cash cow is likely a lot busier than George R.R. Martin the fantasy writer ever was. But more importantly: Martin just happened to build a fantasy world that grew so big over the span of five books that the sixth and seventh books are functionally impossible to write.
Den of Geek has been on the “George R. R. Martin’s Winds of Winter progress report” beat for so long that I can’t even track down the first article we discussed it in. In one of those old articles, I borrowed a paradoxical analogy about God from Sunday school that I’ll invoke again here. With A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin created a boulder so big he can no longer lift it. The politics, mythology, and lore of Westeros are so dense and the roster of characters has grown so large that there is no logically and dramaturgically satisfying way to wrap up everyone’s story.
As he did previously with the fourth and fifth books, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, Martin probably plugs away at The Winds of Winter until a contradiction pops up and then has to backtrack to resolve it. That’s how an update assuring he’s about three-quarters of the way through can become “on second thought, maybe I’ll never finish it” just two years later.
It’s a frustrating state of affairs for everyone, to be sure. But it must be particularly frustrating for the man at the center of it all. Be nice to your friendly neighborhood fantasy writer, even as you seethe at the likelihood of never getting to finish your favorite story.
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