Before the Worldcon 2016, Martin already admitted in an interview with the local publication that his writing process is slow because he is a painstaking writer.
He explained that there are good days when he writes more pages and there are bad days when he writes nothing at all.
Martin’s admission was not a comforting thought for fans who are waiting for “The Winds of Winter” for so long already.
The fifth book of the fantasy novel series “A Dance of Dragons” came out in 2011 so it has been over five years of gap already.
The previous speculations are saying that “The Winds of Winter” shall come out anytime from October this year to April next year or just before Season 7 of “Game of Thrones” premieres on HBO next year. However, since the premiere of the HBO hit series might be delayed either in May or June, it also opened up the release date window for “The Winds of Winter” anytime from October 2016 to May or June 2017.
Fans at the Worldcon 2016 were also expecting that George Martin would at least do a free public reading of a chapter of “The Winds of Winter,” which the author is previously fond of doing, but there is nothing of that sort happened, much to the dismay of many fans.