'Winds of Winter' writer George R. R. Martin and Joe Lansdale pose before SundanceTV's 'Hap & Leonard' Screening at the Jean Cocteau Theater on February 23, 2016 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Photo : Getty Images/Steve Snowden)
It has been a while since George R.R Martin gave updates on his upcoming novel "The Winds of Winter." Development for the book has been slow in the past few months, but a recent report suggests that fans may not have to wait any longer for the sixth installment of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.
Fans of the books have been complaining about the lengthy time gap between Martin's novels. In response to the backlash, Martin posted a new update on his Live Journal blog.
"Not done yet, but I've made progress," Martin said about "The Winds of Winter." "But not as much as I hoped a year ago, when I thought to be done by now. I think it will be out this year. (But hey, I thought the same thing last year)."
"The Winds of Winter" was previously said to precede the premiere of "Game of Thrones" Season 6 but it did not come into fruition. Agitated fans fired up discussions about the long wait for the book. After all, "The Winds of Winter" will be the first "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel since 2011.
Martin added that he has written "dozens of chapters" and "hundreds of pages," but admitted that there is still a lot left to do. To satiate fans' thirst, Martin has since released several excerpts from "The Winds of Winter."
The renowned writer has admitted to being a slow writer. At a convention, he even asked fellow novelist Stephen King how he writes so fast. For the record, the notoriously prolific King has published 54 novels and 200 short stories in his long-spanning career.
"How the f**k do you write so many books so fast? I think, 'Oh, I've had a really good six months - I've written three chapters!' and you've finished three books in that time," The Independent quoted Martin on what he told to King. The latter revealed that he spends three or four hours writing with a goal to finish six "fairly clean" pages at the end of each day.
For "The Winds of Winter," Martin admitted that he is still "months" away from completing the book.
