You would be hard-pressed right now to find an author with a more eagerly -awaited next installment than George R. R. Martin with Winds of Winter.

This follow-up to the hugely successful Song of Ice and Fire (a continuance of the series upon which Game of Thrones is based) was anticipated by year-end, and now the TV series is about to catch up to the book series.

It would be completely unprecedented to have the TV show “spoiling” the books, but since the plot has to advance and the book won’t be out before it does, it’s likely to happen on some level.

He missed his deadline. Twice. And because he felt that the product he was rushing to produce wasn’t good enough to go to print.

George was very, very apologetic about it in this blog entry, and brought up the very good point that the TV series has already deviated from the books in matters of character death and development, so it’s a fair call to say that the books won’t necessarily be “spoiled” since you can’t take the TV show at face value.

Still, that must have been one incredibly hard blog post to write. And an even harder conversation with the editor and publisher.

So there you have it: even George R.R. Martin thinks his writing sucks sometimes, and even George R.R. Martin has days when the words just won’t come.

Food for thought, and like George says, “Keep writing. Chapter at a time. Page at a time. Word at a time.”

Keep going, George. We’ll be waiting.