George R.R. Martin Explains Why He's Struggling With Finishing THE WINDS OF WINTER
The pressure is on for George R.R. Martin to finish his next book in A Song of Ice and Fire, The Winds of Winter, and we have no idea when he’s going to finish it. This has been a long a difficult writing process for Martin and in a recent interview with The Guardian, he opens up and explains why finishing the book has been a struggle for him:
“I’ve been struggling with it for a few years. The Winds of Winter is not so much a novel as a dozen novels, each with a different protagonist, each having a different cast of supporting players and antagonists and allies and lovers around them, and all of these weaving together in an extremely complex fashion. So it’s very, very challenging. Fire and Blood by contrast was very simple. Not that it’s easy, it still took me years to put together, but it is easier.”
At least he’s not looking to rush out a crappy version of the story! He may be taking his time with it, but that’s because he wants it to be the best possible version of the story that he can give the fans. So, as frustrating as it may be, when the book is released, it will be the version of the story that Martin and his fans will be proud of.
This is just a massive undertaking for him, and while writing this, he’s working on developing several other side projects for TV. On top of helping develop multiple Game of Thrones shows for HBO, including the prequel series that was already announced, he’s also executive producing an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death; developing a superhero series called Wild Cards; and he’s working on “a couple of other shows for HBO that I can’t talk about yet”.
When talking about juggling all of these project, he says “It’s all fun, but there are days when I feel a little dizzy. It’s a good problem to have.”
We’re just going to have to be a little more patient with Martin as he finishes up his book and develops all of these projects. Under the circumstances, he seems to be doing the best he can.