It looks like George R. R. Martin won’t be able to catch a break anytime soon, as the author is still under fire from his fans due to his slow working pace on his new book, “Winds of Winter”. While many fans seem to understand the writer’s struggle and the fact that he can’t just snap his fingers and get the book done, it’s still a frustrating situation for many, including apparently Martin himself.
And now, recent reports indicate that the book might have to go through yet another delay in its release, as the writer is still struggling to put some pieces together. We don’t know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes, but the implication is that Martin has been struggling to properly connect some pieces of the story in a good way.
It’s also possible that the delay is due to his perfectionism, as it’s obvious that Martin will need to put a lot of effort into this book in order to meet the expectations of his fans. His previous works were also constantly reviewed and some people were digging in them in extreme detail, but given how much time has passed since the last one, it’s clear why some people would expect even more.
Plus, “Game of Thrones”, the show based on the books, has been climbing in popularity itself, resulting in even more attention focused on Martin’s work on his book series. Some fans who were following both the books and the TV show were disappointed by the way the release schedules worked out for the last season, but at least they got to see some important plot developments without having to wait for the book.
There are also some rumors that Martin might be looking into adding something special to the new book in order to make the wait truly worthwhile for his fans, but we have no idea if that’s true or not, nor what those additions could be.
It’s true that there are multiple plot points which fans would like to see uncovered, and probably not all of them are going to be touched in the new book, so the author might have changed his plans in order to add even more content.
But then again, that would be counter-productive to a large extent, as it would put him in an endless vicious cycle where he’s always considering adding more, and never actually finishes the book. It’s an actual problem with some types of creative works, and it’s happened before.
Still, it’s been about five years since we saw “A Dance with Dragons”, and fans will definitely have some heightened expectations by this point. Hopefully the next book isn’t going to become a victim of its own popularity, as this is also something fans have been afraid of.
In fact, some critics have been warning Martin for quite a while that this is where he might be headed, and the author should definitely consider picking up the pace on the new book and getting it done in a reasonable timeframe if he doesn’t want to face some serious backlash from his fans.
Martin himself has been relatively quiet in the last few months, only coming out to say that he’s cancelled some appointments in order to focus on his work more actively. We don’t know what the current status of his writing is, but hopefully he’s been able to make some solid progress behind the scenes.