George R.R. Martin still writing (and rewriting) The Winds of Winter

George R.R. Martin is writing a lot for Cersei and Tyrion Lannister lately, which is always welcome. The work on The Winds of Winter continues.

Writing on his Not a Blog, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has updated fans on the progress of The Winds of Winter, his long-awaited (really, really long-awaited) follow-up to 2011’s A Dance with Dragons.

Let’s ask the obvious question first: IS IT FINISHED GEORGE?

“No, sorry, still not done, but I do inch closer,” Martin wrote. “It is a big big book. I try not to dwell on that too much. I write a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a sentence at a time, a word at a time. It is the only way. And sometimes I rewrite.”

"Of late I have been spending a lot of time with the Lannisters. Cersei and Tyrion in particular. I’ve also paid a visit to Dorne, and dropped in to Oldtown a time or three. In addition to turning out new chapters, I’ve been revising some old ones (some very old)… including, yes, some stuff I read at cons ages ago, or even posted online as samples. I tweak stuff constantly, and sometimes go beyond tweaking, moving things around, combining chapters, breaking chapters in two, reordering stuff."

So it doesn’t sound like Winds is going to come out tomorrow, but maybe we can take comfort in the fact that this is how the other five books were written, as well?

Martin mentions that he was “on a roll” over the summer, which tracks with him posting more about it around that time. But then a couple of unidentified gut punches set him back in August and September. “But I slogged on, and of late I am picking up steam again.”

Martin is also involved in several TV projects, including an HBO adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s fantasy novel Who Fears Death. With that pesky virus slowing things down, most of those series are stuck, but HBO’s Game of Thrones Targaryen-focused prequel series is moving along nicely. “[W]e are making great progress on the HBO prequel HOUSE OF THE DRAGON,” he wrote. “[Showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik] are in London, casting has begun, it is all looking very exciting.”

Look out for House of the Dragon sometime in 2022. Is it too much to hope that Winds could come out before then…?

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