‘Winds Of Winter’ Release Date: George R.R. Martin Admits He’s ‘A Very Slow Writer’
Fans of the Game of Thrones novels can’t help but experience excitement when thinking about the alleged 2016 Winds of Winter release date. However, author George R.R. Martin still remains tight-lipped if his forthcoming novel will, indeed, hit shelves early next year.
During a recent talk at Northwestern University, GRRM admitted that he got surprised that the Game of Thrones television series caught up with his pace.
“The show, of course, has caught up to me, which I didn’t actually think would ever happen. I had such a huge lead, but the truth is, I’m a very slow writer.”
In a previous interview with BBC Radio, George gave a glimpse of his writing routine.
“I don’t do it that rigidly. I go over in the morning and sit down, I usually reread what I’ve done the day before to try to build up a little momentum. Sometimes if what I wrote the day before is not very good I spend the whole day rewriting what I did the day before. But hopefully I just rewrite a little and I’m sort of in the groove and then I go on and I write another scene or two.”
He said that great days would normally result to five or six pages, but “those days don’t come very often” and that “a lot of days, it’s kind of struggling.” By taking the interview date and GRRM’s provided writing pace into consideration, he might have been working on the Winds of Winter manuscript for more than three years now.
GRRM is not oblivious to the fact that some fans are complaining about the overdue Winds of Winter release. When a reporter once brought up the issue of fans being worried that GRRM could die before completing the seventh book, the novelist said that the question was “pretty offensive.” To further show he was irked, GRRM punctuated his answer to Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger with his middle finger.
Meanwhile, according to Entertainment Weekly, George also revealed the origin of the infamous “winter is coming” proclamation. The line is constantly used in the HBO series because apart from being the Stark family’s motto, it also serves as a reminder of the terrifying winter nights of Westeros’ history.
“There was so much snow that winter, you couldn’t see. [It was] all snow, all ice, and so very cold. It was like the trenches during World War I, but they were trenches of ice. I remember walking through the trenches and the tunnels of ice, the wind blowing so you couldn’t even see. It’s an experience that never left me.”
Just like the Winds of Winter release date, GRRM did his best to not divulge information about Jon Snow’s fate. After dying in last season’s finale, fans have been hopeful of his return. When asked by an audience member if the Lord Commander of the Knight’s Watch would return, George answered, “No comment on that. I’m just saying, read the books.”
“It used to be: Who’s Jon Snow’s dad? Now it’s: Is Jon Snow really dead? But I think he probably is, what do I know?”
The actor admitted that he didn’t think Jon would come out alive after the multiple stabbings he acquired, but Sean likewise said that “anything could happen.”
[Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images]
