Like most of us on this planet, Game of Thrones author George RR Martin experienced a lousy 2020. There was a bit of silver lining, however. Martin reported in a blog post on Tuesday that he wrote "hundreds and hundreds of pages" for The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Fans might hear that and exclaim "Yippee!" but there's a catch. Martin wrote: "I need to keep rolling, though. I still have hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion."
Martin has admitted struggling with the book, which is set to be the sixth novel in the series that spawned the global blockbuster Game of Thrones HBO series. He said his productivity might be related to the isolation required by the coronavirus pandemic, or that perhaps he "just got on a roll."
The most recent installment, A Dance With Dragons, came out nearly a decade ago. Fans haven't shown a lot of patience for the process, though they had fun teasing Martin about a promise to imprison himself on a volcanic island if he didn't turn in the book in during 2020.
Don't lose faith. This could be the year. "I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a 'promise,' and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline," wrote Martin. "All I will say is that I am hopeful."
