Why George R.R. Martin Kept Delaying ‘The Winds of Winter’?
George R.R. Martin’s long-awaited book, The Winds of Winter, has become one of the most famous delays in modern publishing.
The sixth novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series was supposed to follow A Dance with Dragons, and fans have been waiting for it for years. Initially, Martin hoped to finish the book quickly, using content cut from the previous novel, but progress has been slow.
According to Martin, the manuscript is expected to be over 1,500 pages, and as of late 2023, he estimated he had completed around three-quarters of it. He admitted he was still “struggling” with the remaining chapters.
Martin has never hidden how challenging writing these novels can be. In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, he optimistically suggested that The Winds of Winter could take just three years, joking, “I hope it doesn’t take me six years like this last one has.” He also admitted he had many other projects in mind but wanted to focus on finishing this book first.
In April 2015, Martin revealed he hoped the novel would be done before Game of Thrones Season 6 aired. This was a major concern because the show was quickly surpassing the events of the books. Martin even skipped convention appearances and other projects to concentrate on writing.
Despite this, the book was not ready when Season 6 premiered. Reflecting on the delay, he told Entertainment Weekly, “I was red hot on the book and I put it aside for six months… I should have just gone on from there, because I was so into it and it was moving so fast then. But I didn’t because I had to switch gears into the editing phase and then the book tour. The iron does cool off, for me especially.”
Martin has openly admitted missing multiple deadlines. He told Forbes, “The book is not done, not delivered. No words can change that. I tried, I promise you. I failed. I blew the Halloween deadline, and I’ve now blown the end of the year deadline. And that almost certainly means that no, THE WINDS OF WINTER will not be published before the sixth season of GAME OF THRONES premieres.”
At one point, he swore off all other projects until the novel was finished. He wrote on his blog, “Teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions, forewords, nothing… I’ve dropped all my editing projects but Wild Cards.”
Despite these promises, Martin has continued to give small updates, teasing fans with mentions of his trips and other side projects, always noting that The Winds of Winter comes first.
Martin has also shared personal challenges that have slowed his writing. After the death of his friend, sci-fi author Howard Waldrop, he admitted it was difficult to focus. He said, “writing came hard … I would have liked to turn out a lot more.”
Even so, he keeps engaging fans with playful hints about future works, promising that more will come once this long-awaited book is completed.
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