George RR Martin’s devastating Winds of Winter progress and plans for if he dies | Books | Entertainment

It’s been a long time since George RR Martin last gave an update on The Winds of Winter.

Not only that, but 15 years have passed since A Dance with Dragons, his latest A Song of Ice and Fire novel, was published, and seven years since Game of Thrones concluded on TV.

In a new interview, the 77-year-old gave his most extensive progress report for a long time and it’s far from encouraging for his increasingly impatient fans.

The author has confirmed he has 1100 pages finished, which is longer than A Dance with Dragons and a figure he’s given before.

Asked how much he has left to go, he replied: “If I wound up doing everything in my head, this could be the longest book in the series.”

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin was asked if he would ever just consider stopping, but he replied: “I would hate that. It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish.” Amid the distractions of TV adaptations, he says he often rewrites chapters and sometimes entirely scrapes ones he loves because he knows they would change the book.

Asked if another author could finish The Winds of Winter and the final book, A Dream of Spring, either before or after his death, he said it just won’t happen.

The writer confirmed: “If that happens, my work won’t be finished. It’ll be like [Charles Dickens’ unfinished final novel] The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

When asked what his Christmas plans were, the news was even worse: he admitted he’s simultaneously working on other books he’d previously said he wouldn’t touch until Winds was completed.

Martin shared: “I don’t know. I think I’ll stay home. I have to write more Dunk and Egg. There’s supposed to be another Fire and Blood book, too. I do think if I can just get some of these other things off my back, I could finish The Winds of Winter pretty soon. It’s been made clear to me that Winds is the priority, but … I don’t know. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that. I’m so far behind on everything.”