Cue the GTA: San Andreas meme “Ah sh*t, here we go again,” because it’s now getting hard to keep track of how many updates George R. R. Martin has shared in regards to his sixth novel, The Winds of Winter.
Every time we get our hopes up for the next installment in the Westeros saga, Martin emerges from the shadows and, like the villains in his novels, completely shatters our hopes. Don’t believe us? Go ahead and read his latest update on the highly anticipated Winds of Winter:
“And, yes, yes, of course, I’ve been working on WINDS OF WINTER. Almost every day. Writing, rewriting, editing, writing some more. Making steady progress. Not as fast as I would like.. .certainly not as fast as YOU would like… but progress nonetheless.
It keeps me out of trouble.”
This comes from his blog post ‘Actors Join the Strike!’, where he passionately addressed the current state of affairs in Hollywood, highlighting the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes that have left the industry in a state of paralysis. Let’s hone in on the subject matter of this article however, which is the current status of his long-awaited novels.
The hit HBO series Game of Thrones is based on Martin’s epic fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. Seasons 1 to 5 followed the first five books: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons.
The last three seasons were mostly original content, as Martin hadn’t finished The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, which were meant to be the basis for the show’s final seasons. Said seasons also weren’t received very well.
In the vast world of A Song of Ice and Fire, no book is more pivotal than The Winds of Winter. The House Stark motto, “Winter is Coming,” echoes throughout the series, yet its true weight only became evident when the looming danger of the Night King revealed itself. In fact, Martin himself aptly conveyed the grim future in The Winds of Winter, saying:
I’ve been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places. …. Things get worse before they get better, so things are getting worse for a lot of people.
The most recent book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, was published in 2011. By then, Martin was five chapters into writing The Winds of Winter, and by October 2012, he had completed 400 pages of the novel.
However what transpired afterward were a series of numerous updates on the novel’s progress and unfulfilled promises that eventually left his devoted fans transitioning from eager anticipation to utter indifference.
Back in October last year, Martin disclosed that he had already completed about three-quarters of the novel, with 1,100 to 1,200 pages already done, leaving roughly 400 to 500 pages to go. At the time, it seemed like a ray of hope for optimistic fans, but those who kept tabs on his other projects knew better.
The 74-year-old author is knee-deep in the production of AMC’s Dark Winds, a Wild Cards TV show adaptation, the Game of Thrones’ prequel, House of the Dragon, and the upcoming spin-off show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. How then can we honestly expect him to finish The Winds of Winter when his TV projects appear to be the primary focus right now?
The ongoing strikes have put several of his TV projects on hold, which is unfortunate for the affected writers and actors. Yet, on the bright side, this could mean that Martin now has a chance to make progress on the novel. If he seizes this opportunity, there’s a chance we might finally get to read The Winds of Winter by the time 2024 arrives.
