The One Thing Standing Between George R. R. Martin and Finishing The Winds of Winter
Fourteen years on, The Winds of Winter still isn’t here—and George R. R. Martin finally opens up about the struggle behind the delay in a candid new interview.
Here we go again: another small peek behind the curtain on George R. R. Martin and the forever-in-progress The Winds of Winter. Fourteen years on, he finally spelled out a pretty basic roadblock in a new interview — and honestly, it makes sense, even if it is maddening.
What Martin actually said
Speaking to January Magazine (picked up by IB Times), Martin explained that he just does not write well unless he is physically in his own space. He has tried to be portable. It has not worked.
"I need my own place. I need my office and my settings. 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."
The schedule problem
Here is the catch: Martin travels. A lot. Conventions, events tied to his interests, and all the HBO work that keeps Westeros alive on TV — that is his calendar. He is closely involved with House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and more projects still in development. Great for the shows. Not great for sitting in the same chair, in the same office, long enough to crank out a 1,500-page fantasy novel.
Quick reality check
- The Winds of Winter has been in the works for about 14 years.
- The last mainline A Song of Ice and Fire novel was A Dance with Dragons (released back in 2011). In some regions it was split into two paperbacks; the second half carried the subtitle 'After the Feast' — not a separate book, just a split edition.
- Martin is 77. That is not a judgment, just part of the math.
- The Winds of Winter is not the end. A Dream of Spring is planned as the final book, which means even if Winds lands, there is still another mountain to climb.
- Between travel, cons, and shepherding TV projects, the uninterrupted at-home time he says he needs is hard to come by.
So... are we ever getting it?
The honest answer: maybe, but this does not sound imminent. If Martin truly needs his office to disappear into Westeros, and he is still bouncing around the world for work and appearances, then the bottleneck is obvious. Fans have already shifted from asking when Winds is done to quietly accepting that A Dream of Spring is even further out.
I would love to be wrong. Until then, the shows keep coming, the pages inch along, and the wait continues.