| (1) First off, you have to have actually been | | | | journalists and veterans are veterans. Their job is |
| through a war. It may sound inane to even | | | | to write and our job is to fight. To write a |
| mention this qualification, however, several | | | | successful and accurate memoir and to |
| journalist have been writing books and passing | | | | adequately get your point across, a veteran |
| them off as war memoirs. Those books are not | | | | needs to learn how to write. |
| war memoirs; they are journalistic interpretations | | | | (6) Interview friends that fought with you. Even if |
| of the war. A real war memoir can only be | | | | you start writing immediately, it will still help to |
| written by someone who was there and part of | | | | hear different points of views for similar stories. |
| the fighting (on either side). This means that | | | | In your eyes you may have seen something one |
| journalists and politicians do not count, and neither | | | | way, but another person could have caught a |
| do Generals who stayed in the homeland. | | | | thousand different things that you missed. This will |
| Accurate and full rounded depictions of war can | | | | help with descriptions and capturing the minute |
| only be gotten from those on the ground. | | | | details. |
| (2) Start writing immediately. Too often veterans | | | | (7) Take criticism well. If you're writing an |
| don't start writing until years and years after their | | | | accurate war memoir and telling all the stories. No |
| wars. By that point in time, memories can | | | | matter what, some people are not going to like it. |
| become foggy and fragmented. A person recalling | | | | The pro-war people will only want you writing |
| something will generally be guessing. Guessing how | | | | stories that make everything look great, as if no |
| they were feeling, what they were thinking. A | | | | one dies during war. The anti-war people will want |
| person cannot memorize pain. However, if a | | | | you writing stories that make everything look |
| journal was kept, or writing commenced | | | | horrible, as if everyone dies during war. Listen |
| immediately after returning home, the memories | | | | politely to both and then shake it off. Just tell all |
| will be raw and still on the surface. | | | | the stories and let people judge them for |
| (3) Do not leave anything out. Living through a | | | | themselves. |
| war is no easy task, and when writing and having | | | | (8) Finish the entire book before you go back and |
| to relive through everything that you've already | | | | start editing. Often when people start writing, |
| been through, it can be a morose and daunting | | | | they'll write one chapter and then they'll want to |
| experience. However, a writer cannot let | | | | edit it again and again. This will get a person |
| emotions get in the way of telling a true story. | | | | nowhere. A year could go by and they could still |
| Granted, it may be hard to write about almost | | | | be on chapter one. The best thing to do is write |
| dying, or having to kill someone, or having your | | | | the whole book at once. That way when you go |
| friend kill themselves. But a story needs to include | | | | back and reread the beginning again, you'll have |
| everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's | | | | fresh eyes. |
| our duty as veterans to give a full and accurate | | | | (9) Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Ernest Hemmingway is |
| depiction. | | | | credited with writing over thirty drafts for some |
| (4) Do not try to write politics into the story. Too | | | | of his books. That is dedication. All writers need to |
| often war memoirs will be written, and once read, | | | | have that same amount of dedication. How often |
| it becomes instantly apparent that the author is | | | | in life does something happen perfectly on the |
| trying to convey a pro-war or an anti-war point | | | | first try? Hardly ever, if never. Writing is the |
| of view. This muddles up the writing. If a writers' | | | | same way. The first draft might be crap, the |
| intent is to only giving one point of view, they are | | | | second might be slightly better, the third might be |
| going to leave out necessary stories. In | | | | good, the fourth might be crap again, but by the |
| conjunction with rule number 3, all stories need to | | | | time you get to the twentieth, you might have |
| be told. If all stories aren't told it's not an accurate | | | | something that is publishable. |
| depiction of war, it's just a one sided view. Talk | | | | (10) Allow yourself to write for the fun of it. |
| about the good times, the bad times and | | | | Realize that even your writing never becomes |
| everything in-between. | | | | published, writing about the war will act as a |
| (5) Read several books on writing. Books by | | | | cathartic release and may help deal with the rest |
| journalist written about the war are outselling | | | | of life. |
| books written by veterans about the war. People | | | | Recap: Start writing immediately, don't try to get |
| would rather read a war memoir by a journalist | | | | anything across except what really happened, tell |
| than an actual veteran. This is simply because | | | | all the stories, learn how to write, interview |
| journalists are better writers. Journalists are | | | | friends, take criticism well, edit, and have fun. |