This year, something is going to happen on HBO’s Game of Thrones that hasn’t really happened before. Although Game of Thrones has always written the series a bit differently than George R.R. Martin’s novels, fans of both the novels and the TV series will no longer see the broad strokes coming. This is because HBO’s fantasy drama is going to take a big step beyond the books, mostly because the next installation of A Song of Ice and Fire, Winds of Winter, has not been published yet. Here’s why George R.R. Martin says Game of Thrones has caught up with his writing.
Writer's block isn't to blame here, it's distraction. In recent years, all of the work I've been doing creates problems because it creates distraction. Because the books and the show are so popular I have interviews to do constantly. I have travel plans constantly. It's like suddenly I get invited to travel to South Africa or Dubai, and who's passing up a free trip to Dubai?
Travel may not seem like such a nuisance. After all, with the right equipment, an author should be able to write anywhere, right? But Indiewire also reports that Martin doesn’t get any writing done when he’s off and doing events for HBO’s Game of Thrones.
I don't write when I travel. I don't write in hotel rooms. I don't write on airplanes. I really have to be in my own house undisturbed to write. Through most of my life no body did bother me, but now everyone bothers me every day. I have assistants and minions whose main job is to make sure people don't bother me so I can actually get writing done.
This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. We already know Martin is a bit of an oddball and writes all of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels using a DOS program he actually admitted was invented in the 1980s. It’s called Wordstar 4.0 and it’s a program that reached its height of popularity in 1985. So, hearing that Martin isn’t carting a laptop around to do some writing on the side is the least surprising thing, ever. Although, he’d be the first person to tell you that he was surprised when the show ever caught up to the large tomes he has written.
Still, as we gear up for the sixth season of Game of Thrones, we do know that George R.R. Martin has met with showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss to talk about the broad strokes of where the books are going. We also know that Martin has every intention of releasing The Winds of Winter in 2016. So, hopefully he will stop getting distracted for a long enough time to be able to finish his final draft of the book, and soon.
The end will eventually be bittersweet, but for now we’re just waiting for Book 6 to come out. On TV, catch new episodes of Game of Thrones this April or check out what we know about the upcoming episodes.
