George R.R. Martin making “good progress” on The Winds of Winter

George R.R. Martin gives us yet another update on how well writing on The Winds of Winter is going!

Okay, let’s get the obvious questions out of the way: No, George R.R. Martin hasn’t finished writing The Winds of Winter. In fact, it sounds like he still has a ways to go. But writing the other day on his Not a Blog, the Song of Ice and Fire author does sound optimistic about his progress, which continues a trend I think bodes well.

“This writing stuff is hard,” Martin begins. “Even so, it has been going well of late. Three more chapters completed this past week. And good progress on several more.”

That’s good to hear, although of course then he has to throw in this: “Still a long long way to go, though. Do not get too excited.”

I’ll be honest: after waiting for The Winds of Winter to hit store shelves for nearly a decade, I don’t think many people are going to get too excited. We’ve been here before.

At the same time, Martin seems to be writing much more frequently than usual about the progress he’s making on the sixth installment of his series, even giving us specifics. “Of late I have been visiting with Cersei, Asha, Tyrion, Ser Barristan, and Areo Hotah. I will be dropping back into Braavos next week,” he wrote in June. “Now you will have to excuse me. Arya is calling. I think she means to kill someone.”

You can tell by the jokey way he’s writing that he feels pretty good about it, which is great news. Perhaps the end of Game of Thrones really has taken some of the pressure off and let Martin relax back into his work.

But of course, considering his normal writing pace, we still probably have a long while to wait. That warning about not getting excited is all too real.

“Me and the Frog are headed back to Westeros,” Martin finishes, referring to this:

That’ll do, frog.

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