George R. R. Martin has once again spoken about the fate of "The Winds of Winter." Fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire" have been waiting for the sixth novel of the cycle for almost fifteen years, and in a fresh interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the writer admitted that he continues to work on it — although the process is moving slower than he himself would like.
According to Martin, work is often hindered by a lack of mood and parallel obligations. Having dealt with them, he expects to focus closely on the novel and bring it to completion.
"It has been made clear to me that 'The Winds of Winter' is the priority. But I'm not always in the mood for it. I want to deal with other things first — the novellas about Dunk and Egg and the sequel to 'Fire & Blood.' If I free myself from everything else, I think I can finish 'The Winds of Winter' fairly soon."
At the same time, the interview does not specify exactly when these words were spoken. Earlier it became known that Martin has already handed over sketches of about a dozen stories about Dunk and Egg to the showrunner of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" for adaptation. It is not entirely clear whether he meant these specific materials or new novellas that he planned to return to only after completing "The Winds of Winter," or if some of them will still see the light of day before the novel's release.
The process is also slowed down by constant edits to what has already been written. Martin admits that he regularly returns to finished chapters and rewrites them — sometimes several times.
"I'll open the last chapter and say, 'Oh, damn, that's not very good,' and start all over again. Or I'll decide that the Tyrion chapter isn't clicking and switch to Jon Snow. But if I'm not distracted, sooner or later I still get into the flow."
Separately, the writer touched upon the theme of the saga's finale. According to him, he originally planned far more deaths than in the "Game of Thrones" series. However, the success of the adaptation influenced some decisions. For instance, Sansa Stark could have died in the book version, but now she has a chance to survive the events of the cycle.
"I was going to kill more characters. Not the ones they killed in the show. They made a happier ending. I don't see a happy ending for Tyrion — his story is tragic from the very beginning. I wanted to kill Sansa, but she is so appealing in the show... perhaps I'll keep her alive."
These words only strengthened the long-standing suspicions of fans: the finale of the literary version of "A Song of Ice and Fire" was intended to be significantly darker than the television one. However, Martin also had some encouraging news — some heroes who died in the series, on the contrary, may survive the finale of the book cycle.
At the same time, Martin emphasizes that he intends to finish the story himself and does not plan to hand it over to another author.
"If something happens to me, the book will remain unfinished."
The writer, however, again declined to name specific release dates for "The Winds of Winter," only emphasizing that if he does manage to complete the book, it will become the most voluminous novel of the cycle — as early as 2024, the manuscript exceeded a thousand pages.