Game of Thrones spoilers probably incoming. I’m not doing this ironically. I have already expressed my frustrations with the last two seasons of Game of Thrones, and I legitimately want to see Martin finish out his series the way it deserves. It would be really cool–however unlikely–if he read it.

So, you know… if you know him, pass this along.

Dear Mr. Martin,

I hope this letter finds you well. I assume you’ve been watching Game of Thrones‘s final season on HBO with the rest of us.

I don’t want to bore you with a laundry list of my complaints about the show, but I have been disappointed in seasons 7 and 8. Let’s just say that I find it inexplicable that the executive producers decided to truncate these last two seasons to just 13 episodes. This condensed schedule has forced the show’s writers to take numerous plot shortcuts and make several unearned narrative leaps, all for the sake of finishing a show that no one except the executive producers were rushing to be done with.

In short, the show’s final two seasons have been utterly lacking in character development and the richness that your fictional universe contains.

And that’s why I’m writing to you today–or, at you, since this is just a blog post.

I hope you understand the incredible opportunity that the disappointing conclusion to HBO’s show presents you. If you were to publish The Winds of Winter and provide some of the sorely missing narrative depth to the conclusion of the series, you could change the public perception of these stories.

You probably already recognize this, which is why I’m not going to belabor the point.

Instead, I just want to extend my support to you as one (self-published, entirely unknown) author to another. A Song of Ice and Fire is your world. Regardless of how well HBO’s series did (and the upcoming successor series likely do), only you, the mastermind behind these beautifully complex characters and their heart-wrenching stories, can finish them the way they were meant to be finished–the way they deserve to be finished.

Keep at it. There is an entire fanbase–myself included–that would happily read your final installments in this series. I don’t care that I’ll get the Cliffnotes ending from HBO before either books six or seven are published.

I want to see how you choose to write them, with all of the intricate narrative and character development your stories are famed for.

Fuck all of the annoying “fans” who complain that you’ll never finish, that you can’t finish. They’re assholes. These are your books, and I trust that you’re doing everything you can to finish them the right way.

Good luck in your efforts, and if you ever want to vent about drafting or editing struggles, I am happy to commiserate.

Sincerely,

Steve D’Adamo, a loyal fan