George R.R. Martin’s Writing Condition Is the Hidden Reason The Winds of Winter Keeps Slipping

George R.R. Martin is not a write-in-a-coffee-shop guy. He needs his cave, his desk, his routine. And lately, the 77-year-old author has been everywhere but there. Which means, yes, The Winds of Winter is basically on ice while he travels and does, well, everything else.

He can only write at home

In a chat with January Magazine, Martin spelled out why work stalls when he is on the road. It is not mysterious — it is logistics and brainspace:

"I need my own place. I need my office and my settings. I’ve tried. I have occasionally taken a laptop with me or in the old days a notepad or something like that. But I can’t write, really, except in my own setting with my office around me where I can really get lost in the world that I’m creating instead of the world around me."

And the man has been very much in the world lately: he hit New York Comic Con, before that Worldcon in Seattle, and Bubonicon in Albuquerque. With that kind of calendar, the manuscript is not moving much. That is the short version.

Everything he is juggling right now

• Westeros TV: He has been busy feeding updates on House of the Dragon and on HBO’s new series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which HBO has on deck for early next year.
• Stage play: There is a play called The Iron Throne in the works, and yes, Martin is involved.
• Other screen work: Over on AMC, there is Dark Winds. He also continues to steer the long-running Wild Cards anthology series as an editor.
• Film producing: In 2024, he financed and produced the short film The Ugly Chickens in honor of his late friend Howard Waldrop (per Variety).
• Science side quest: He is an investor and cultural advisor to Colossal Biosciences and its de-extinction project. That is exactly what it sounds like.

To be fair, that list would derail anyone’s writing schedule. He told Entertainment Weekly he still wants to finish the novel, but added, "But honestly, I love these other things, too." You can see the conflict.

Where Winds actually stands

When was the last concrete update? I honestly cannot remember, and that seems to be the point. The recent check-ins have not been the reassuring kind. In March, he said he is still working on the book and wishes it would come faster. In August, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he is not only writing The Winds of Winter, he is also working on another Dunk and Egg story. That is great for the broader universe; it does not make the main wait feel shorter.

He knows fans are frustrated — he has said the book is his top priority (again via THR). The reality, by his own admission, is a two-parter: the story has been hard to crack, and his schedule is brutally packed. Result: delay city.

Quick timeline check

For context, the main series rolled out like this: A Game of Thrones (1996), A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005), and A Dance with Dragons (2011). The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring remain TBA.

So if you are waiting on Winds, you are not alone. In the meantime, there is plenty of GRRM-adjacent stuff to watch, read, and side-eye while we wait for him to get back to his office and shut the door.