George R.R. Martin says that he is working his hardest to publish The Winds of Winter by next year.
“I wish it was out now,” Martin says, adding that he has always prioritized publishing the book before season 6 of Game of Thrones.
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Martin, who has become legendary for keeping fans waiting for the next installment in A Song of Ice and Fire, admits that he may be “overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish.” But he is doing everything he can to facilitate the arrival of The Winds of Winter.
“I canceled two convention appearances, I’m turning down a lot more interviews,” the author relates. “[I’m doing] anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done.”
To that end, Martin wrote a recent Not A Blog-blog post assuring fans of his concentration on The Winds of Winter. While he does have other work to do – editing anthologies, developing new television ideas with HBO, and producing several film projects, to name a few – the author promises that “The writing I’m doing is all on The Winds of Winter.”
Martin also muses that, in retrospect, the writing break he took after A Dance With Dragons was published in 2011 was a mistake.
“I was red hot on the book and I put it aside for six months,” he says. “I was so into it. I was pushing so hard that I was writing very well. I should have just gone on from there, because I was so into it and it was moving so fast then.”
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But, of course, hindsight is 50/50, and it’s entirely understandable that Martin’s other duties – in addition to the fact that he’d just completed a novel more than a thousand pages long – seemed to warrant a break. Still, Martin admits that creatively, “The iron does cool off, for me especially.”
And as for The Winds of Winter, where does the hotly-anticipated novel stand in Martin’s estimation of quality?
“On Tuesday, I think it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done. On Wednesday,” he says, putting voice to the demons of every writer in existence, “I think it’s all garbage and I should throw it all in the fire and start again.”