Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesEveryone’s procrastinated at some point in their lives: you’ve turned in homework late, abandoned a creative project, or put off an important errand. But George R. R. Martin has turned that vice into a running joke. Martin has been working on The Winds of Winter, the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series that served as the source material for Game of Thrones, since 2010, and his first tentative completion goal was 2014.It’s now 2025, there’s still no signs of Winds of Winter, and Game of Thrones veered from the books to forge its own path long ago. Martin still provides updates on the book every now and then, but many fans now doubt that he’ll ever manage to finish Winds and its planned sequel, A Dream of Spring. A new update from Martin, however, reassures fans that he’s heard their concerns, and that he’s still determined to finish his story. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin will be producing an animated film based on Howard Waldrop’s A Dozen Tough Jobs, a novella based on the Labors of Hercules. The running joke when Martin announces a new project is that “he’ll do anything except finish Winds of Winter,” but this time he got out ahead of the grumbling.Martin in 2012 with the last published Song of Ice and Fire book, A Dance with Dragons. | Clinton Gilders/FilmMagic/Getty Images“Some of you will just be pissed off by this, as you are by everything I announce here that is not about Westeros or THE WINDS OF WINTER. You have given up on me, or on the book,” he wrote on his blog. “You don’t care about anything but WINDS OF WINTER. You’ve told me so often enough.” The post wasn’t just a defence of his choice to take on more creative projects, but a reassurance to fans who had “given up.” “Thing is, I do care about [the books],” Martin wrote. “And I care about Westeros and WINDS as well. The Starks and Lannisters and Targaryens, Tyrion and Asha, Dany and Daenerys, the dragons and the direwolves, I care about them all. More than you can ever imagine.”Sure, that’s what he’s been saying for over a decade now, but this update comes with the recognition of the criticisms he’s been facing. He’s heard the very loud fan backlash, and maybe that will be motivation enough for him to finish what he started all the way back in 2010. And if not, well... he wouldn’t be the first person to let procrastination get the better of him for good.