George R.R. Martin is very much aware of his fans running short on patience waiting for his long-overdue novel The Winds of Winter. Yes, 14 years is more than enough to finish a book, but the author still hasn’t delivered his promise.
He’s not the only famous fantasy author who took a lot of time before publishing a highly anticipated installment. J.R.R. Tolkien notably spent almost two decades before he finished The Lord of the Rings, the sequel to The Hobbit.
George R.R. Martin is only 14 years late, J.R.R. Tolkien took 17 years to write The Lord of the Rings
After George R.R. Martin released A Dance with Dragons in 2011, he immediately started writing the manuscript for The Winds of Winter and even announced his plan to publish it before the final season of Game of Thrones. It was delayed several times that the author no longer gave a concrete release date.
In 2022, he gave a hopeful update that he’s covered about three-quarters of the novel with only around 400 to 500 pages left to write. In the years that followed, he remained stuck in this progress until he announced last December that he was 13 years late.
Some fans have given up hope that he would actually finish the novel, but others remain firm in their belief that Martin will keep his promise. After all, J.R.R. Tolkien took more time to write a follow-up tale to The Hobbit, which he published in 1937.
Shortly after finishing the book, Tolkien began his work on The Lord of the Rings. He finished the draft of the novels in 1948, and in 1950, he started working on the appendices. The author soon made revisions to match the events in the second edition of The Hobbit, going back and forth to rewrite paragraphs.
The final version of the trilogy was sent to his publisher in 1954, with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers released in the same year. The Return of the King was published almost a year after its predecessors.
Tolkien spent about 17 years working on The Lord of the Rings. We understand that this is a trilogy, but if we’re counting the combined number of pages based on their first editions, Martin’s The Winds of Winter is still longer at approximately 1,500 pages.
George R.R. Martin finally shares an update on The Winds of Winter
Early this month, Martin gave a small update on the progress of The Winds of Winter. It’s nothing much, actually, but it’s a good reminder that he hasn’t forgotten to give it some attention. “I think the one I’m writing is coming pretty well, but I wish it would come faster,” he said in his interview with Collider.
The 17-year wait for The Lord of the Rings proved to be worth it, and we’re hoping the same applies to Martin’s upcoming novel.
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