|
Charles,
I agree wholeheartedly with the legit criticism!
Only a handful of Vets now know the exact acronyms used by those service
men in WW2 and often soldiers and Marines misunderstand each other when
referring to special acronyms used in Korea. My one brother drops acronyms
from the Viet Nam war and some of us (there were eight brothers and three
sisters in our family) laugh nervously when the younger one has to explain a
strange "formed word" like the acronym: A/DACG, arrival/departure airfield
control group.
I remember as a kid hearing the first WAC and WAVE
acronyms and I wondered about them. Then "words" like SONAR and LORAN
caught my eye, but when you really get into the latest acronyms you bump into
things like: (JMOHC) Joint Military Operations Historical
Collection.
Now...the rule seems to be that if the writer NEEDS to use acronyms--sometimes in
hot verbal exchanges between troops it becomes vital that talk is in
shorthand! However, remember that the reader needs the reliable structure
of introducing acronyms or other "special words" by first spelling out the phrase that is to be eventually used as an
acronym--the "Woman's Army Corps" followed by WAC. I
usually give the reader breathing room and type the full literal title or phrase
that the soon-to-used acronym will be substituted for
as: Joint Military Operations Historical Collection
or (JMOHC). I'll do that on many unfamiliar
terms even several times spread over one or two
pages-always adding the acronym last--until I think the reader had gotten
it. However, this is almost always on simple acronyms--not the
awkward one just typed right above.
I therefore tend to over-explain things when it comes to
acronyms, but have deleted them in whole or part or changed them to fit my
writing as they would naturally occur in the writing, and then let some
character in the book correct me with the right acronym say...further
down. This latter idea happens for me when I need to lighten up the
tension of the writing; if I'm using loads of declarative short sentences back
and forth between several characters which increases
tension.
The best way to help out on this question of what terms,
phrases, acronyms work best, I found, was to read difficult technical sections
into a tape recorder, listen to the results, and then sleep on the matter for a
few days. If I re-read the suspect portion and it sounds rough or
over-baked, I listen to the tape while it's turned
up LOUD. Generally, this gets me going. Caveat: Acronyms
do have their place and should NOT be discarded because they appear weak in the
context used. Even "Sarge" is often better than the official
"Sergeant," and "NCO" is almost self-explanatory. But these are poor
suggestions if you're writing an article for
Cosmopolitan!
Blake
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 3:44
PM
Subject: Re: Kunsan and Inchon
Blake,
Thanks for posting your writing guidelines. I have filed them in a
prominent location for quick reference.
One suggested addition for military writers is to be clear with the use of
acronyms. I received the following comment from a reader of my novel Stay
Safe, Buddy.
"I enjoyed your book very much. My only criticism is your use of acronyms.
A reader without military experience cannot follow a lot of acronyms such as
CO, NCO, BAR, MC, AF, and so on. It detracts them from the story line. I also
needed to know how many men in a Squad, Company, Division and so on."
J. Charles Cheek
Bob,
All the more reason to write 10000 words! You
must have sent letters--kept notes--and how about pals??? Relatives
must remember something about what you said and did back then. Trace
your unit's movements. Start off that way... "We pulled out of the Pusan without Ray and
Joe..."
Blake Mooney
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003
2:32 PM
Subject: Re: Kunsan and Inchon
HAHAHA. Blake, I wrote a newspaper column for
14 years. Several years ago, I wrote a column for a sports tabloid. They
paid me a nickel a word. Often I would have to pepper it with "ands"
"buts" "howevers" and on the "on the other hands" to get it up to the
required length of 600 or 700 words.
Bob Dove
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003
1:13 PM
Subject: Re: Kunsan and
Inchon
Bob,
That's a pretty good beginning of a
novelette--about 10000 is all you need to add. Many great writers
thought that the novelette's length was more powerful than full-length
novels as there is a tendency--no--a need to "fill pages" with
"restatements, paraphrases, reiterations, and fantastic personal
digressions, etc.," until the reader was either dead or dying and didn't
know it. The HUGE books written by many writers today--often 900
pages!--are hack jobs. Their whole story could be effectively told
in a longish short story or novelette, but BIG books pay more and
there's the point. Since you have experienced the actual war no
one knows better how it feels to be chased around a tree by a bear than
the man who was chased around the tree by the bear.
Try and do a quick rough draft of your most
powerful memories--ignore formats and "simple-minded" theories of
writing--tell it in the FIRST PERSON!
Just you and the bear! For helping you get
started, here are some of the most important principles most great
books follow: short stories to War & Peace tomes! All
great books seem structured around these first six points! These
are NOT associated with clever software programs that
"write" (via formulas) your story! The six are highlighted in
BOLD RED. The
remaining are important but NOT as critical as the first six!
For you information or concern, you and any other
veteran can use any aspect of this copyrighted material. I taught
writing for over 35 years at The New University School and this
is the structure (plot) line that over 90 percent of all great
books follow: "Red Badge of Courage," (Stephen Crane), "All
Quiet on the Western Front," Eric Remarque, and "For Whom the
Bells Toll," (Ernest Hemingway). Just a few titles to keep all
this simple and direct. And please don't be misled by the
following word, "FICTIONAL." All the great books on war must
always "leave the mind of the lead character and "enter the mind of the
secondary characters" via speculations on the writer's part.
Such projected and imagined interior monologue(s) occur in all the
other characters' minds! That's the "fictional" part of all "true"
stories.
A COHERENT LINE OF STRUCTURED PLOT DEVELOPMENT
How to Plot a Fictional Story
Blake Mooney©
New University School
New Orleans, LA
1963
1. Quickly establish a sympathetic lead
character from whose point of view the story is
told.
2. Immediately confront lead with urgent
and vitally important problem which he must but cannot
solve.
3. Detail lead's efforts to come to grips
with problem.
4. Introduce series of rising
complications, based upon the successive dynamic of struggle and
failure, which act to take narrative forward.
5. A point of absolute crisis, the 11th
hour, where all looks bleakest, must show lead about to rally or
fail.
6. Finally, full resolution is reached
where lead satisfyingly solves original problem and effects lasting and
meaningful change on his personal life and his entire set of future
consequences. If lead fails to solve original problem lead must arrive
at a state of enlightened resignation. In either case, lead must have
been tested to the utmost before coming through or failing.
7. Lead must be focus of book throughout.
8. Lead can be either protagonist or antagonist.
9. Do not switch point-of-view from lead.
10. Avoid all non-individuated characters.
11. Avoid episodic development of story material.
12. Avoid indirect development of all characters.
13. Establish distinct motivation for all characters.
14. Establish absolute clarity and conviction to all encounters.
15. Do not improvise, wander, digress, detract, deviate, roam,
zigzag, stray, or in any way indicate writer's fatigue by flying off at
a tangent with the plot.
16. Maintain sense of proportion throughout story. Use of similes
(Like ancient trees, we die from the top), metaphors (the
spring of our life), and anecdotes (word comes from Greek
meaning "things unpublished" and are little asides or stories within the
main story line) should always be avoided if they are longer than
two lines.
NOTE: Unless specific approval to quote or
copy any part of this copyrighted document is given by the above author,
any copying or duplicating by any means will be treated as an
infringement upon the author’s copyright. Full credit must be given, if
approval to quote any or all of this document is approved. Blake
Mooney©
—END—
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 10,
2003 11:59 AM
Subject: Kunsan and Inchon
By this time, Sept. 10,
1950, my company was well on its way toward the invasion feint we
pulled off at Kunsan on Sept. 13. And Maines, Clance, and Puttin had
only three days left to live.
I wish I could remember the
date we set sail from Yokohama on the British frigate Whitesand Bay.
We had to sail all the way around Japan to get to the west coast of
Korea. The trip had to take four or five days.
The next time I go to war I
am going to write some of that sort of stuff down.
Bob Dove
1st Raider Co.
Korea 1950
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 10,
2003 11:18 AM
Subject: The CIB and its
worth
For those of us who have the award of the
CIB and it was issued in 1950 or so, I found out that a badge from
that time sells for around $35.00.
It is because the old ones
from WW II and Korea are solid sterling silver and the later issues
are I think 1/20 sterling, there for are only worth a few bucks to
collectors.
Collectors of military items are hot after the
old badges for their collections, so hang on to yours if it is from
the time of WW II and or Korea.
I still have the one issued
to me on 7 March 1951 and is worth more to me for what I went
through, then to sell it for a few
bucks.
John Sonley Korea
1951
Stay safe, buddy.
J. Charles
Cheek (John)
Author
of "Stay Safe, Buddy"
A Novel
about Humor & Horror during the Korean
War
www.authorsden.com/jcharlescheek
|