Please lend me your ears, procrastinators, boss-haters, and vile undergrads. Have you ever inserted additional spaces on an essay to make it the least number of pages needed? deliberately raised the font size for periods to increase your page count? claimed to be working toward a deadline even if you were most clearly not?
Then please come sit by George R.R. Martin if this describes you. You might recall that Martin is dealing with the most well-known incidence of writer’s block in human history. Since at least 2010, he has been working on The Winds of Winter, the eagerly awaited penultimate book in his Game of Thrones series. Recently, as if to make up for more than a decade of missed deadlines, he has been discussing how the book was worth the wait (funny, I think I told my British Lit professor the same thing when I needed an extension). Martin recently stated that The Winds of Winter is “approximately three-quarters of the way done” in a livestream hosted by his publisher, but he is hesitant to give a publishing date out of concern for upsetting his readers. He also disclosed that this Game of Thrones book will be the longest one yet, referring to it as “a gigantic book as enormous as a dragon.”
Can we really believe Martin? Because we’ve been duped before, and because the person detests being reminded of deadlines missed, “I’ve stopped making forecasts since people keep asking me when it will be finished,” said Martin. And after I calculate what I believe to be the best case scenario, events take place. Then everyone becomes upset because I “lied.” In making these predictions, I have never lied. They’re the best I can do, but I believe I overestimate how much I can accomplish and underestimate how many distractions there will be from other projects and requests.
about everything. How did Martin get himself into this situation? Dear reader, allow me to take you on a trip through the spectres of past deadlines. In 2010, Martin joyously declared on his blog that The Winds of Winter’s first four chapters were finished. Then, in 2011, things started to go wrong. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he declined to provide a release date for the sixth book, claiming that some fans don’t seem to understand that he is only providing predictions. I have a history of being overly optimistic. We were so young in 2011! How foolish!
Martin stated that The Winds of Winter would be released in 2014 while speaking with the Spanish blog Adria’s News in 2012. However, he did qualify that statement by saying, “I am pretty poor for predictions” (just wait, this is going to become a theme). After 2014 passed without the Winds of Winter appearing, Martin’s publisher then threw cold water on his fans’ hopes. According to HarperCollins’ Jane Johnson, “I have no information about likely delivery.” “Writing these increasingly intricate books takes a tremendous amount of attention. The length of these creatures is similar to two or three novels by other authors, therefore fans should really appreciate that. Everyone heard that, right? Instead of demanding that the man keep his word, we should just be appreciative.
Martin said, “I still have a lot of pages to write, but I also have a lot of pages that are already written,” to Access in March 2015. Like a true college student, in my opinion. Then, a month later, he said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he wanted to publish the book in spring 2016 to coincide with the premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones season 6. He added, “Maybe I’m being unduly enthusiastic about how quickly I can finish. But in order to clear my schedule and do this, I postponed two convention appearances and declined a lot more interviews. However, as soon as January of 2016 rolled around, he said, “I am not going to create another deadline for myself to trip over. Just the deadlines are making me anxious. The next time, I’m going to try that on my editor. Fans were frightened in September 2016 when The Winds of Winter was advertised on Amazon France with a publishing date of March 2017. However, HarperCollins has since revealed that the book was a big fat nothingburger.
Back in January 2017, Martin was adamant that this was going to be his year, saying, “I think it will be out this year. He posted on his blog, “(But hey, I thought the same thing last year.)” Then, though, he continued to tease his followers by stating, “I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? I still experience both good and bad days (excellent question), and that’s all I care to say. You should expect at least one Westeros book from me in 2018—possibly even two. a young guy can dream Why don’t you finish one book first, sir, and then we can discuss two?
In June 2018, it was revealed that Martin would co-write the pilot episode for the first of many Game of Thrones spin-offs that HBO had ordered. He resorted to his trusted blog to reassure fans who were naturally anxiously awaiting his next book: My first focus continues to be Winds of Winter, according to Martin. It is absurd to believe otherwise. Ridiculous!
When the virus forced everyone into isolation in 2020, Martin was finally stranded at home with nothing to do but write. This was the perverted fulfilment of fans’ wishes. He wrote on his blog, “If nothing else, the forced isolation has helped me write.” “I am working on The Winds of Winter for many hours every day and am making good progress. I just finished a new chapter, one from three days ago, and one from last week. The book will not, however, be finished tomorrow or published the following week. I still have a long way to go, and it will be a large book.
When Martin indicated he still had a ways to go, he wasn’t joking. He said on his blog, “I will make no predictions on when I will complete,” in June 2021, seeming downright furious at the idea of being held accountable for all his missed deadlines. Every time I do, online assholes see it as a “promise” and wait impatiently to publicly humiliate me when I fail to meet the deadline. I’ll just say that I’m optimistic.
Concerning those a-holes on the internet (could he be referring to me?)
Martin certainly seemed to be tired of hearing from them. He opened up about the pressure from the Game of Thrones fanbase in an interview with IGN, saying, “I get that Winds of Winter, the sixth book, is late. Even if I receive 100 positive comments, a couple of my readers will still remind me on my blog; I will wish them a Happy Thanksgiving, and they will reply, “Never mind Happy Thanksgiving, where’s the book?” I adore the fans, despite the fact that I believe Twitter, the internet, and social media have unleashed a venom I haven’t seen in years. Particularly when it comes to established franchises or media like comic books, love and hate are extremely close. Why don’t you just finish the book, sir, if you can’t stand the heat?
Martin appears to have a new approach this year: to divert attention from the book’s lateness, he teases readers with suggestions about its content. The author discussed the differences between the book and the television series in a blog post. I am much more of a gardener, he said, “and an architect would be able to give a short, succinct, easy answer to that.” “As I write them, my stories develop, shift, and grow. Sure, I generally know where I’m headed. the main scene pieces, the ultimate locations, have been in my thoughts for years—in the case of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, decades—now. However, there are many little devils in the details, and occasionally, when the words flow, the ground shifts beneath my feet.
Additionally, it appears like The Winds of Winter and A Song of Ice and Fire (the impending conclusion to the series, which I won’t even bring up) may have a different number of deaths than the television series. One thing I can say without giving anything away is that not every character who lived to the end of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE will also live to the end of A GAME OF THRONES, and not every character who died on A GAME OF THRONES will die in A SONG OF ICE & FIRE. (Some probably will. No doubt. perhaps most. But by no means all) ((Of course, with the chapter I write the next week, I might alter my mind once more. Gardening is that. Then what happens? You’ll have to wait till I arrive. There will be some similarities. The majority won’t.
All of this gets us to the present, when Martin is now facing pressure from cartoon characters. Martin makes an appearance as a guest of the cartoon presenter Dr. Ike Bloom in a forthcoming episode of Stephen Colbert’s Tooning Out the News. Dr. Ike Bloom describes the author as “a struggling writer—let me modify that, absolutely pathetic—who is having difficulties meeting deadlines.” Ike, you literally pulled the words out of my lips! When Bloom phones James Patterson in the hopes of obtaining Martin “some ideas on how to be a successful author,” the segment swiftly turns into a lighthearted roast.
Martin confesses that he missed his deadline 11 years ago when Patterson presses him for more information. Patterson quips, “I’ve heard of writer’s block; this is more like writer’s constipation.” Martin continues by saying that he has completed roughly 1,100 to 1,200 pages of the book so far and only has “another 400, 500 pages” left to write. The solution to your difficulty is to divide The Winds of Winter into three books, says Patterson. They’ll be pleased when you divide the 1,100 pages into three books and send them one each year; you’ll then find yourself ahead of schedule. After all these years of failures, as if Martin’s readers would believe it, yet it’s a good concept.
Are we certain that all the missed deadlines were worth it for this incredibly lengthy, incredibly fantastic, nearly finished book? Even though it seems as though Martin’s suffering would never end, we are still holding out hope. Hey buddy, do you know about Procrastinators Anonymous? Maybe they can assist. I don’t even want to discuss about the third and last book in the trilogy, A Dream of Spring.
