Ooh-Rah!

I had a nice topic all ready to post for today about plotting and brainstorming. But then I started thinking about using a patriotic picture, and well, one thing led to another…

On this Memorial Day I have one more reason to honor and pray for our troops than ever before. My nephew recently graduated from Marine boot camp. Ooh-Rah!

So, today, you get pictures of the event, plus some Marine-style writing tips.

YOU GOTTA EARN IT!

Recently extended family drove to Parris Island, SC to see my nephew graduate. He was able to come home with us and that boy…no, strike that…that MAN talked non-stop for about 3 days! Sheesh. But I learned tons about the Marines. Did you know you are not a Marine until you’ve completed the crucible, 2 ½ days of endurance training? You have to earn every privilege from the way you cut your hair to the way you roll your sleeves, to the way you tuck your pants in your boots.

The Drill Instructors (DI’s) are extremely tough on recruits. They have to be. If someone can’t make it in the trenches, they need to be weeded out now, before they get on the battlefield. Otherwise, they’re a danger to themselves and everyone else.

For thirteen weeks, you are a recruit, but at the end of the crucible, the exhausted, sleep-deprived, hungry men and women who have EARNED the right to be called Marines gather around the Iwo Jima memorial and are pinned right there, before they eat, shower, or sleep. One Drill Instructor said if you don’t cry, you didn’t work hard enough to earn it.

We must EARN the right to be called authors. No, I don’t mean we have to be published before we can call ourselves that. But we should work hard at our craft (exercise), submit our work for consideration (enlist), take instruction from those who’ve been in the trenches before us (drill instructors), and stand tall and firm against rejection and those who tear our work to shreds (contests, line edits).

BULLDOG!

The Marine Mascot is the bulldog. I don’t remember the full story and since I just decided to post on this topic this morning, I don’t have time to research the entire story. Sometime during the day, I’ll post a link to the full story if I can find it. Forgive me if I get any details wrong. The bulldog name stuck when, during a certain battle, a troop of grossly outnumbered Marines fought and defeated their enemy for several days. They never gave up. The enemy started referring to them as bulldogs and the name stuck.

We need to be tenacious to make our goals. Never, never, never give up. We’ll never be published if we don’t roll up our sleeves (they gotta be tight, in order to show our muscles!) and dig in. Keep it up and you’ll see your dream come true. Go Marines! Go writers! Ooo-Rah!

TEAMWORK!

During the crucible, the DI’s throw everything they can at the recruits. It’s a simulated battlefield, and it’s the closest the recruits have come to being in a live battle. Each squadron, or group, has to react to whatever situation is thrown at them, and remember, they are operating on little food, little sleep, and lots of adrenaline. They have to depend on each other to navigate the jungle (the swamps of South Carolina!) and get the injured (the biggest guy in their group who was DEAD weight and didn’t even put his big toe in the dirt to help…according to my nephew who is a drama king) to the helicopter or wherever they needed to be. Under all that pressure, the rest of the team has to make snap decisions on how to get all of them to the drop point in time.

Teamwork…doesn’t that sound like something we as writers can relate to? Critique partners, SEEKERS!, contest judges, agents, editors! Wow, we need to stop complaining about those low contest scores (okay, there are those rogue judges, but we won’t go there) or that editor who rejected our latest masterpiece and think of that person as one of our team leaders. That editor is our DI and someday we’ll appreciate their tough instruction that’s meant to make us stronger writers.

I could go on and on, but I’ll leave some things for comments. If you have a story or link you’d like to put in comments where you can draw parallels between military and writing preparedness, let’s hear it.

Ooh-Rah! God bless our Troops!