On ‘A Song Of Ice And Fire’, George R.R. Martin Says He Relates To Frank Herbert: “He Felt Locked In By The Success Of ‘Dune’, So He Kept Writing Them”
In giving a telling and admittedly sad insight into the continued delay of A Song of Ice and Fire‘s next entry The Winds of Winter, author George R.R. Martin has admitted that, like Dune author Frank Herbert, each passing day finds himself losing more and more passion for his iconic work.
Speaking to his thus far 14-year struggle to finish the book during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd, the seasoned fantasy author began with a brief recap of his writing process, asserting “I will open the last chapter I was working on and I’ll say, ‘Oh fuck, this is not very good.’ And I’ll go in and I’ll rewrite it.”
“Or I’ll decide, ‘This Tyrion chapter is not coming along, let me write a Jon Snow chapter.’ If I’m not interrupted though, what happens — at least in the past — is sooner or later, I do get into it.”
To this end, Martin noted that the current state of the series’ winding and intricate story also gave him pause, with the writer recalling a writing session wherein “I wrote a Tyrion chapter I just loved. Then I looked at it and said: ‘I can’t do this, it will change the whole book. I’ll make this into a series of dreams. No! That doesn’t work either…'”
Pressed by Hibberd as to whether he had ever considered just abandoning the book altogether, Martin made it clear, “I would hate that. It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish.”
Following the subsequent admission that he has no back-up plans in the case he dies before he completes Winds of Winter, “If that happens, my work won’t be finished,” Martin then curiously took a beat to recall his first meeting with the aforementioned Herbert, as took place during a 1975 book convention “near the end of Herbert’s life”.
“He [told me he] didn’t like Dune anymore and he didn’t want to write any more Dune books,” he recalled. “But he felt locked in by the success of Dune, so he kept writing them.”
Asked in turn “Do you relate to how Herbert felt?”, Martin told his host, “I’m not necessarily tired of the world [of Ice and Fire]. I love the world and the world-building. But, yes, I do.”
Putting a stamp on his melancholy as the conversation drew to a close, when casually asked by Hibberd about what he had on deck for the Christmas holiday, Martin sighed, “I don’t know. I think I’ll stay home. I have to write more Dunk and Egg.”
“There’s supposed to be another Fire and Blood book, too. I do think if I can just get some of these other things off my back, I could finish The Winds of Winter pretty soon. It’s been made clear to me that Winds is the priority, but … I don’t know. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that. I’m so far behind on everything.”
