Up until the Season 6 mid-season finale of "The Walking Dead" last week, the show had really only covered about two days in its first 8 episodes. That pace will change next year when the show comes back to finish the season.

According to The New York Times, Robert Kirkman, who wrote and created the universe in comic book form before it was a hit TV series, said that the show will cover much more ground in the second half of the season.

Since there were so many stories to cover within those two days, it was necessary for the episode count to stretch in order to maintain clarity. But there will be a notable difference in the next half of season, which some fans may not have been expecting.

"There was just a lot of story to tell in a short amount of time," Kirkman told The Times. "In the next half of the season we change things up quite a bit. A lot more time passes."

Since he also serves as an executive producer on the TV show, Kirkman is directly involved with the storylines and helps to shape them moving forward. Although he has already written a roadmap moving forward for the show in the comics, he likes to make sure that the television version diverges from his source material.

But there are certain scenes that he said need to happen in the show, so they get adapted more faithfully from the comic series.

Kirkman also talked about how the first half of the season was not just a zombie action sequence, but rather a way for the show to make progress in character development, putting the protagonists where they need to be when part 2 of the season begins. That required showrunners to get the Alexandrians hip to the new world survival techniques. It also meant Rick (Andrew Lincoln) had to find his humanity again.

The comic writer also defended the Glenn (Steven Yuen) controversy during the first few episodes of the season. He said that he really wanted the fans to feel the harrowing journey that Rick, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and others feel in this world.

Kirkman also had a few comments about the fate of Alexandria.

"I hate to spoil things and try to avoid that, but many characters in this mid-season finale did remark on the fact that while things look dire, they can stay in the houses and rebuild," Kirkman added.