Speaking back in 2013, he opened up about the most “emotionally difficult” passage he has ever done.
No new ASOIAF books have come out since then, although he is known to be working on The Winds of Winter – the sixth of a planned seven books in the story.
Game of Thrones, the TV show the books were initially based on, finished in May; and the challenging moment Martin mentioned from the books was also deeply troubling on screen.
He told the Austin Chronicle: “Some of it can be difficult to do. I mean the Red Wedding was the hardest thing I ever wrote.”
The Red Wedding was a massacre in the third book, A Storm of Swords, and it also caused shockwaves through the fanbase when it aired on TV.
He added: “I wrote the entire book, I skipped over the Red Wedding and wrote all the way to the end, and then I came back and did the Red Wedding, because it was just emotionally difficult to do that.
“But you know, hopefully, if it’s hard to write, it’ll be hard to read, too. It’ll affect the reader emotionally.
“I mean if the reader is just reading the book and terrible things happen, and they just put it aside and say, ‘What’s for dinner,’ you’ve kind of failed. Your characters haven’t achieved any reality here.
“If sad things happen in the book, the readers should be sad about them.
“And that does involve a certain amount of emotional vulnerability on the part of the writer.”
In a far more recent interview, published earlier this month, Martin gave another update on The Winds of Winter, saying that – now the show is finished – he feels less pressure to complete it in a rush.
Eight years after the publication of its predecessor, A Dance with Dragons, it’s safe to say fans are climbing the walls waiting for its release.
“I felt a tremendous amount of pressure for years now,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“The most pressure I felt was a few years ago when I was desperately trying to stay ahead of the show. There was a point when the show was coming out in April and my editors said if I could finish the book by December they’d rush it out.
“And the pressure I felt that fall was the greatest pressure I’ve ever felt and then at a certain point it became apparent I’m not going to finish it by then.
“I don’t only want to finish it, I want to make it as good as I possibly can.”
He continued: “Since then there’s been pressure but not like there was at that point. There’s no longer a race. The show is over. I’m writing the book. It will be done when it’s done.”
