The 71-year-old Game of Thrones author hopes The Winds of Winter will arrive by next summer, but he’s finding the pressure of millions of people waiting for the book quite the burden. Speaking with NPR of the difficulty, Martin said: “Yes, especially because a certain portion of them are really impatient and snarky about it. You know, you can get one person who posts 150 messages in three days, all of which is ‘Where is Winds of Winter?’”
Martin continued: “If any of you go home and post on your Twitter account, ‘Hey I was just at the Chicago Public Library Sandburg Award dinner and George R.R. Martin was there,’ you know by the third message someone will say, well, ‘What the hell is he doing there? Where is Winds of Winter?’
“So at this point, it is what it is.
“And, you know, I should probably leave right now and go back [to] writing Winds of Winter.
“It’s very important [to] me to finish A Song of Ice and Fire.
“I want to finish it.
“I still have two more books to do, and I want to finish it strong.”
READ MORE: GEORGE RR MARTIN REVEALS HIS BIG DISAGREEMENT WITH LORD OF THE RINGS
The Game of Thrones author added: “So people look at it and say, you know, this entire thing is an important work, not a half-finished or broken work.
“I know some of the more cynical people out there don’t believe that, but it is true.”
Earlier this month, Martin spoke out on why The Winds of Winter is taking him so long to write, where he made similar comments.
Speaking with WGN Radio, he admitted that fame was taking a toll on him as he preferred when he “could just work in quiet obscurity.”
The 71-year-old said: “I do indeed have millions of people waiting for this book to come out, which is very gratifying.”
Martin added: “But some of them are extremely impatient and some of them are full of their own ideas about the fates of the various characters.
“I’m glad they can get so emotionally involved with these characters, but sometimes I yearn for the days when I could just work in quiet obscurity…but those days are gone for me, I’m afraid. This is the reality of my life now.”
The writer also spoke of how he can’t get Westeros out of his head, even when he’s trying to sleep; feeling “haunted” by his creation.
He said: “If my writing is going well, and I’m really ‘in Westeros,’ it does haunt me day and night. I’m laying there in bed, I’m waiting to go to sleep, the lights are out, and the scenes that I’m gonna write tomorrow are in my head.
“Or maybe the scenes I’m gonna write next week, or maybe the scenes from a different chapter.”
