George R.R. Martin says he missed the critical due date for his new 'Game of Thrones' book because he's bad at deadlines
Martin was supposed to finish his latest book in the series, "The Winds of Winter," before the sixth season of "Game of Thrones" airs in April. Unfortunately he's missed multiple deadlines due largely to writer's block.
The author penned an honest blog post to try and explain why his latest book would not be available for purchase before HBO's show returns. In it, he says "writing didn't come fast or well" and that thinking about missing the deadline - and press reports that he was going to miss his deadlines - made him so stressed that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Basically, he got in his own head. And Martin says he's never dealt well with the stress of deadlines.
"You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact," Martin explained to fans. "You can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s."
Martin says he's always hated deadlines, and that's why he became a novelist rather than a newspaper reporter. He's a creative perfectionist who can't be rushed.
"I have always had problems with deadlines," Martin wrote. "For whatever reason, I don't respond well to them. Back in November, when I returned to Northwestern to accept my Alumni Award, I told the Medill students that was why I started writing fiction instead of getting a job on a newspaper. I knew even then that daily deadlines would kill me."
Martin says he's disappointed with himself, and that there are no excuses, but he hopes his audience can enjoy both the show (which he admits will likely spoil some of the book) as well as his finished work...whenever it's finally finished. He makes no promises about when it will be published.
"I am going back to my stance from last March, before all this," he says. "It will be done when it's done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it."