George R.R. Martin returns to isolation to write The Winds of Winter

George R.R. Martin gives us insight into his unique writing process as he returns to his mountain hideaway to write The Winds of Winter.

George R.R. Martin has been writing A Song of Ice and Fire for well over two decades. For most of the last one, he’s been working on The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the series. A lot has been made about how slow it’s been in coming, but since HBO’s Game of Thrones ended last year, Martin has given us more updates, and it sounds like things have picked up.

His most recent post on his Not A Blog gives us some insight into his writing process. Martin has never been an author who can just pick up and write wherever he is — he doesn’t write if he’s traveling, for example; the conditions have to be just right.

At the moment, those conditions involve him and a rotating crew of assistants (each of whom must quarantine for two weeks before hanging with Martin for another two) isolating themselves in a mountain cabin, where Martin can write without distraction. “Everyone morning I wake up and go straight to the computer,” he writes. “Then I start to write. Sometimes I stay at it until dark. Other days I break off in late afternoon to answer emails or return urgent phone calls. My assistant brings me food and drink from time to time. When I finally break off for the day, usually around sunset, there’s dinner. Then we watch television or screen a movie…Some nights I read instead.”

"I sleep. The next day, I wake up, and do the same. The next day, the next day, the next day. Before Covid, I would usually get out once a week or so to eat at a restaurant or go to the movies. That all ended in March. Since then, weeks and months go by when I never leave the cabin, or see another human being except whoever is on duty that week. I lose track of what day it is, what week it is, what month it is. The time seems to by very fast. It is now August, and I don’t know what happened to July."

It sounds lonely, but Martin admits it has its upsides: “It is good for the writing.”

Obviously we can’t know exactly how good, but I think Martin’s recent willingness to write openly about his progress is a great sign that he’s actually making some. “My life is at home, on hold, and I am spending the days in Westeros with my pals Mel and Sam and Vic and Ty,” he writes. “And that girl with no name, over there in Braavos.”

There are a lot of reasons why Winds has taken so long to write, but one is that Martin has been distracted by the popularity of Game of Thrones, which put a lot of extra pressure on him to finish the book. Ironically, had it not been for the show, I suspect we would have The Winds of Winter by now.

But now that Game of Thrones is over, Martin seems more comfortable, which is good news for his fans of ASOIAF.

Not that we should expect Winds to release next week, mind you. In another post, Martin advised us that there’s “[s]till a long long way to go…Do not get too excited.” Still, I’m encouraged.

It’s also interesting to hear about Martin’s writing style. “I wonder if I will ever figure out the secret of having a life and writing a book at the very same time. I certainly have not figured it out to date.”

Whatever works, I guess.

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