George R.R. Martin Still Writing The Winds of Winter—And He’s Determined to Finish It Himself

George R.R. Martin is still hard at work on The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited next—and intended final—novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire saga.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin made it clear that not finishing the book himself would feel devastating. “I would hate that,” he said. “It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish.” He added that if he ends up putting everything he has planned onto the page, The Winds of Winter could become the longest book in the series.

Martin has been writing the novel since 2010. Back in 2022, he shared that the book was about three-quarters complete, estimating between 1,100 and 1,200 pages. For comparison, the current longest entry in the series is A Dance with Dragons, which runs just over 1,050 pages.

Over the years, some fans have suggested that another writer should step in to finish the story. Martin has firmly rejected that idea. He compared such a move to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the final novel by Charles Dickens, which was left incomplete after Dickens’ death in 1870. “If that happens,” Martin said, “my work won’t be finished.”

While readers continue to wait for The Winds of Winter, there is new material from Westeros on the horizon. A fresh Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, is set to debut on HBO Max on January 18.

For now, fans remain patient—hoping that Martin’s determination will eventually bring his epic fantasy story to the ending he has always envisioned.