George R.R. Martin Gives Update on Winds of Winter, Hopes to Be Done By 2021

George R.R. Martin has an update on the long-awaited next book in A Song of Ice & Fire, hoping to have it done by next year. Martin posted to his blog to give an update on The Winds of Winter, the anticipated next book in the series that HBO turned into the Game of Thrones franchise.

“I am spending long hours every day on The Winds of Winter, and making steady progress,” Martin wrote. “I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week. But no, this does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week. It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go.” Martin also added that he was “heartbroken” when he had to cancel his plans to travel to Wellington, New Zealand to attend the 78th World Science Fiction Convention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but said, “I can always visit Wellington next year, when I hope that both Covid-19 and The Winds of Winter will be done.”

He gave a few further details, noting, “Of late I have been visiting with Cersei, Asha, Tyrion, Ser Barristan, and Areo Hotah. I will be dropping back into Braavos next week. I have bad days, which get me down, and good days, which lift me up, but all in all I am pleased with the way things are doing. I do wish they would go faster, of course. Way way back in 1999, when I was deep in the writing of A Storm of Swords, I was averaging about 150 pages of manuscript a month. I fear I shall never recapture that pace again. Looking back, I am not sure how I did it then.”

The last book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, released in 2011 just a couple of months after Game of Thrones season one premiered. Martin was delayed in part by his work on the show, though he stepped back from writing an episode a season after season four, as well as being involved in pitches for spin-offs. He co-created a distant prequel with Jane Goldman, set thousands of years before the show, which HBO did not move forward with. He also developed House of the Dragon with Ryan Condal, which was picked up by the cable network and is expected to release in 2022.