Brandon Sanderson Officially Defends George R.R. Martin’s 15-Year ‘Winds of Winter’ Delay [Exclusive]

4 days ago 12

Published Oct 5, 2026, 1:45 PM EDT

Few authors understand the expectations surrounding a gigantic fantasy series better than Brandon Sanderson, but even he isn't interested in judging George R.R. Martin for the extraordinarily long wait for The Winds of Winter. Instead, Sanderson thinks people should remember that there's an actual person sitting behind the unfinished manuscript. Speaking with Collider's Maggie Lovitt at FanX Salt Lake, Sanderson was asked about writers dealing with pressure from fandoms who are eagerly waiting for their next books.

Sanderson specifically discussed Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, both of whom he considers friends, while acknowledging that his own approach to writing happens to be very different. Sanderson's output is famously consistent, but unfortunately that means he is regularly (and unfairly, in his opinion) compared with Martin's progress on The Winds of Winter. However, he argued against the idea that he was uniquely talented or anything like that. Sanderson told Lovitt:

“It is really hard. It's been hard to watch. So George and Patrick are friends of mine, and I just have a natural psychology that lends itself well to slow and steady writing. I'm not really fast. I'm really steady, and that's not because of anything about me. It's just I was born with a psychology that is good at getting up every day and doing a little bit. A lot of my writer friends work more by powerful personal inspiration, and that sort of thing can be a lot harder.”

Brandon Sanderson Says Fans Should Remember the Person Behind the Book

Sanderson then noted that fans should be aware of the fact that personal struggles can collide with the pressure of millions of people demanding a piece of creative work. He added that he knows plenty of friends in the industry, as well as family members, who have suffered from mental health challenges, and he urged those fans to think before criticizing. He continued:

“Some of my writer friends — not to get into the details — but they've had some mental health challenges, and man, having some family members who deal with the same things, I can't imagine mixing that with the pressure of millions of people waiting to read the thing that you're going to produce. You have to produce when you're inspired, but then the mental health challenges make it harder, and then the stress of everyone makes it much harder."

Martin published A Dance with Dragons in 2011 and has spent the subsequent 15 years working on The Winds of Winter along with his now sprawling TV empire. Stay tuned at Collider for more, and watch Lovitt's full conversation with Sanderson in the player above.