Back in 2019, not long afore the pandemic shut down all travel for a once, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin traveled to Chicago to assertion the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, which honors the creators of “a valuable work or body of work that has enhanced the public’s awareness of the written word,” which Martin’s work has definitely done. While he was there, he gave a couple of interviews, including to The Chicago Tribune’s John Kass.
It’s a large interview where Martin goes into detail about Game of Thrones, his writing process, and why he’s taking so long to carry out The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited sixth book in his A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. You can listen to the full interview at WGN Radio. Below, we’ll hit some of the highlights.
George R.R. Martin: “I really have to get Winds done”
Kass invited about a wide range of topics, starting with how Martin feels near having millions of fans out there eager to read Winds. Martin says it’s a “mixed blessing.” For many writers, Martin explains, the problem is getting noticed at all. He has a very different issue:
I do indeed have millions of republic waiting for this book to come out, which is very gratifying…but some of them are actual impatient and some of them are full of their own ideas near the fates of the various characters. I’m glad they can get so emotionally fervent with these characters, but sometimes I yearn for the days when I could just work in serene obscurity…but those days are gone for me, I’m skittish. This is the reality of my life now.
Indeed it is. And remember: Martin is actions more than just writing Winds. He’s also working on more stories in his Dunk and Egg novellas as well as acting on another Fire & Blood book. On TV, he’s manager producing an HBO adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor Who Fears Death, and he consults on Game of Thrones spinoff shows like House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Working in quiet obscurity is no longer an option.
“The collapsed of the show and the success of other things has injected a lot of anunexperienced aspects into my life,” Martin said. “So sometimes I lay in bed at night and I’m not thinking about…Westeros. I’m thinking about some other problem I’m having, one of the anunexperienced shows I’m involved with, or a deadline on an anthology I’m editing, or something that’s happening with the non-profit organization that I started. All of these other things are filling my head and that is one of the thing’s that’s delayed me. I really have to get Winds done. I have to put myself on a set where I’m not being distracted by other stuff, and that words of time at night is filled with the voices of Tyrion Lannister and Arya Stark and the anunexperienced fictional characters who live inside of me.”
If my writing is causing well, and I’m really ‘in Westeros,’ it does petrified me day and night. I’m laying there in bed, I’m waiting to go to sleep, the lights are out, and the scenes that I’m gonna write tomorrow are in my head. Or maybe the scenes I’m gonna write next week, or maybe the scenes from a different chapter…I can’t control it, but something starts filling my head and the characters inaugurate coming alive, and I start hearing snatches of dialogue, and I drift to sleep with Westeros and Ice and Fire in my head, haunting me.
There are some writers who can work on projects wherever they are, and whatever else happens to be causing on in their lives at the time. Martin is not one of those writers. Either he’s absorbed with writing A Song of Ice and Fire, or he’s absorbed with something else.
“I do sometimes wish [this success] had existed to me 30 years ago, rather than happening to me at my age, because it does kind of wear me out sometimes,” said Martin, who was 71 at the time; he’s now 75. “But I level-headed have a fair amount of energy and I level-headed get a fair amount done.”
What does George R.R. Martin think of the backlash to Game of Thrones season 8? “I’m not gonna comment on that”
Finally, Kass asked Martin about the backlash to the continue season of Game of Thrones, coming as close as anyone I’ve heard in an interview to outright revealing he didn’t like season 8, and criticizing showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss for botching the big accomplish. “I’m not gonna comment on that,” Martin said. “They’re two different persolves of the same story. When I finish my books, read ’em. But other than that, that’s not something I want to get into.”
This interview was given four days ago, and The Winds of Winter still has not materialized. Martin gave unexperienced small update the other week:
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