The thing about reading other people's work, is that you can't always see the extent of what is behind it. It's quite plausible that GRRM was reading something about medieval history and came across a little snippet about using red sawdust for blood, and thought "Oh that's pretty cool" then he just wrote it down somewhere. Then when he found himself wanting something cool for a scene, he simpy reads over all his old ideas and found a good match for the scene.
The moral of the story is, write down every tiny thing that occurs to you while you're researching. Most of it you'll never find a use for, but then there will be those odd things that fit perfectly, and you can work it in so seamlessly that one day, someone will be reading your book thinking 'How does he come up with this stuff?'
There are great little details everywhere, you just have to look for them, and you need to capture those little things that occur to you from time to time.
Martin, Dunnett, and Mantel are known for vivid details, much of which was provided by lots of research. In my case, I don't always set out to research a specific thing. I just stumble onto it and think, 'that's a cool idea, I need to remember that.' I'll either get it into notes for specific WIPs, or just try to remember the keywords so I can find it again later.
This is why newbie writers run from me when I tell them to start reading nonfiction aggressively. There's so much grist out there.
He probably just made it up then. Which makes it a function of creativity, not research.Well Chasing, out of curiosity I looked up "puppet show blood sawdust", just to be very specific and improve my odds if an article existed with these words. Google lead me to this very post (the first hit) and nothing else of interest. I might find more if I searched for a while.
Now I'm wondering how one would paint or dye sawdust red without causing it to stick together
They use red sawdust for barf cleanup, and there are mulches that are blood-red without sticking. You just have to have the right kind of wood.
Or shavings/sanding dust from something previously painted red.They use red sawdust for barf cleanup, and there are mulches that are blood-red without sticking. You just have to have the right kind of wood.
It's these little details that really make the immersion work for me, and GRRM is a master of them.
What irks me though is when the author mucks it up. I'm reading Scott Lynch at the moment and after carefully building his world, his society and the twelve-or-thirteen god pantheon of his religion, his main character has twice now referred to a ship having been "rechristened" with a different name. Wham! There goes that immersion right there...
For what it's worth, "Christ" and "christening" both come from the Greek Khrisé, khristos "anointing, anointed one." Anointing is a ceremony common to many cultures, so "christening" isn't necessarily all that... ahem..."Christian."