My Writing Style

When I decided that I wanted to take a shot at writing I spoke with several folks who had already written a book that was published either by the writer or a publisher. The one thing that seemed to be common among most of the people I talked with was “write what you know”. What they didn’t tell me was how to write.

I had written tons of stuff in the Army, from memos to regulations. Heck I even had a chance to write responses to Congress and talking points for interviews. I figured; how hard can this be. I was in for a very brutal lesson on writing versus military writing.

The first book I wrote was about the time I spent in Kosovo as a diplomatic observer of the ceasefire between the Serbian Army/Police and the Kosovar rebels. I used my patrol notes as the foundation for my book and I was very deliberate in what I wrote. I made sure to cover everything that happened on a daily basis. When I was done, I had written almost four hundred pages.

I sent the manuscript to an editor I had found and waited to see what he would say. I figured there would definitely be some grammar and punctuation errors, but the rest would be fine. While I was waiting, I began writing a second book which was supposed to be a collection of short stories.

About a month later I got a message from the editor. He suggested that I consider a major rewrite of my book and cut it down to around three hundred pages. I opened the attachment and there were so many corrections it was hard to even read what I had written. He also told me that manuscript would likely require approval from the State Department before being published.

I sat down and regrouped trying to figure out what to do next with my writing. I considered taking a writing course or joining a social media group for people who wanted to become writers. Neither one of those options seemed to work out for me so I thought about my English courses at school. I had always done well in writing theme papers and essays. So I figured I would give that a try.

I sat down and wrote an outline for a book I had always wanted to write. My outline was a few bullet points for each chapter that captured the main themes of the book. I also included a rough character sketch of each of the characters in the book and wrote everything on a dry erase board.

The next day I began writing the book. I wrote about fifteen hundred words a day and three months later it was finished. It ended up being about ninety thousand words which would be about three hundred pages. Being on a schedule and having an outline was a great help for me.

Some of the other writers I know have said that was too restrictive for them, but it works for me. The best advice I could give someone who wanted to be an author is to find your own style and use it. Try a writing course if you think it would help and do as few rewrites as possible. I think anyone can write a book if they really want to. It’s really just a matter of sticking with it and working through the days when it is difficult to sit and write anything. Most writers deal with that at some point in time so don’t let it get to you.

Wish all of you the best. God bless all our veterans and those currently serving our country in the Armed Forces. HOOAH!