How I Came Up With the Ideas for my Novel The Soldier's Journal

The Soldier's Journal

My original plan for writing a novel was to capture the events from my combat deployments in order to make sure they weren't lost over time.  These were events of courage that I felt if I didn't write them down, no one would remember the brave men that died or risked their lives.  With this as a goal, before I had learned about writing, I intended on writing a true story, maybe a memoir.  But I heard others tell stories that I wanted to capture as well, and these stories weren't mine to tell so I discarded the memoir idea in favor of a book of short stories.

When I began writing this book, I realized I didn't know a lot of the information, the details, to make it an engaging book, especially for the events that I heard third hand, and I didn't always have access to those that had witnessed the events.  It was about this time that I read Tim O'Brien's books and realized that I could write the stories as fiction by using the facts that I knew and the other details that I knew from my experiences to fill in the blanks, which ultimately wouldn't be true stories but probably better told stories.

My original manuscript was called The Soldier's Notebook.  My intention with this book was to present the Afghan War from multiple perspectives, American and Afghan.  This proved too difficult given my work schedule and access to individuals with the experience I needed to know about in order to write the book the way I wanted.  I still might write this book, but at the time it didn't seem possible.

At about this time, the U.S. Congress approved women for service in combat arms and special operations.  Simultaneously, I was reading a book on writing that suggested if you wanted to give your plot a face lift, then change the sexes of your protagonist or major characters.  The Soldier's Notebook had primarily been told from a male point of view, the only view I knew, and at the time the war was primarily fought with men as women weren't permitted in combat roles.

All of this combined into an idea that would tell a story from the point of view of the first female Green Beret to serve in Afghanistan.  I combined this with her father's journal that described the war in 2006 as opposed to her version of the war in 2019, which gave to stark comparisons of how the war had changed and yet how many of the elements had remained the same.

I divided up my true war stories between the female protagonist and her father and I also inserted scenes where she faces sexism from soldiers and officers.  I interviewed a number of women about their experiences in the Army and in elite positions in order to get a flavor for the type of situation she would face.

It took me a year and a half to finish my first draft, which I used as my thesis for my MFA in Creative Writing.  I've spent the last six months editing and redrafting and submitting to agents.  No luck so far.

In future posts, I'll outline my new strategies for getting my book published and tell you what is working and not working.  If I can't find an agent to represent me, I'll self-publish.  that means I'll have to figure out how to market my novel, I'll probably use Kindle Publishing, and I'll have to find a cover.  More to follow.  Wish me luck.

RR

Resources:

Five Reasons How and Why Veterans Should Write a Book

How I wrote my Query Letter

Of course, after you write your novel, most of you know that if you want to pursue traditional publishing you need to find an agent to represent you and the first step to doing that is to write a Query Letter.

When I drafted my first query letter, I googled query letter and read around twenty articles on how to write successful query letters.  I then drafted mine in accordance with their varied instructions.

Query Shark

I then found the web-page Query Shark.  I followed her instructions (one of which is to read every entry to her blog), I learned a lot, and I revised my query letter.  I did submit my query letter to Query Shark, but she admits that because of the large amount of submissions, if she accepted the query letter to post on her site, it might take 3-6 months.



This Query Shark revised Query Letter is what I sent to the first 9 agents to seek representation.  On a side not, most agents require 30 pages or 2-3 chapters with the query letter, and most require that you send all of this in the body of an email, which requires you to copy and paste and reformat everything, so be aware.

From these original 9 agents I emailed 2 months ago, I have received 2 negative replies.  Most of the agent web-pages stated that if I received no contact after six weeks, then I should assume that they do not want to represent me.

Rachael Herron

Moving on, I paid a professional to look at my query letter and suggest improvements.  I paid $100 to Rachael Herron, self-proclaimed query letter whisperer.  I heard about her service on her podcast, How Do You Write?, and received her suggestions within 48 hours.  I rewrote my query letter and plan on sending them out as soon as I receive my manuscript back from the structure editor that I hired.





Here are reprints of my 1st draft, the draft after I read Query Shark, and the draft after I had Rachael Herron look at it:
Query Letter - 1st Draft
Query Letter - After Query Shark
Query Letter - After Rachael Herron

In future blog entries, I'll let you know about my success with my new query letter and let you know if I change them any more and why.

RR

Resources

Specific Web-pages for Query Letter assistance:
Query Shark Web-Page
Rachael Herron Web-Page

Query Letter Articles:
https://nybookeditors.com/2015/12/how-to-write-a-darn-good-query-letter/
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-write-the-perfect-query-letter
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/successful-queries

The Evolution of my Novel - The Soldier's Journal

Here is my novel summary from the current version of my Query letter:

Riley Mason—primed to break the glass ceiling of Special Forces—has fought sexism her whole military career, and just as she discovers a mystery surrounding her father’s death, she finds herself fighting the system again while trying to keep her men alive.

Haunted by her father’s death in Afghanistan when she was only twelve, Captain Riley Mason follows in his footsteps, conducting combat operations in Iraq and becoming one of the first women to earn the coveted Green Beret. Even in the elite ranks, though, she is challenged by sexism at every turn. Pushed to the sidelines of the Afghan war and forced into an administrative job, she finally proves herself to her commander and is given the opportunity to lead a Green Beret team into combat.  Just before the team launches, however, she discovers her father wasn't killed by enemy fire, but by an American traitor.  Arriving in the same base where her father served his last days, she wrestles with combating the enemy and protecting her men.  All the while, she tracks her father's killer in order to bring him to justice.

The truth is, that description is a far cry from the original novel I planned before I began my studies for my MFA in Creative Writing, and was very different from the original thesis I began writing.  I'll try to break it down for you, in case there are some aspiring writers out there who are interested in how my novel evolved.

Military Short Stories

When I went to combat in Afghanistan for the second time, I began collecting true stories.  I didn't know what I was going to do with with, but I thought they were worthy of being remembered in detail if nothing else.  I also added stories from my first time to Afghanistan in 2002 and experience in Panama during Operation Just Cause in 1989.  These stories sat on my computer for over a decade.  During that time, I pursued a Master's in International Relations and a MBA, but I didn't enjoy either program, and I realized that what I really wanted to do was write.

Application to the MFA in Creative Writing program at UTEP

In order to apply for the MFA program, I had to submit 30 pages of a novel.  I combined the stories into a story.  I was accepted into the program.  When I look at the pages I submitted, I am embarrassed with the quality of work I submitted and surprised that they accepted me on the basis of those pages.  I am also grateful that they took a chance on me.

I assumed that I would have to write a lot of stories in the program, so my plan was to write scenes for a book that I called The Soldier's Notebook during the program, and then put the scenes together for my thesis.  The best laid plans and all that.

The Soldier's Notebook

My idea at that time was to write a story called the Soldier's Notebook which would be told in seven parts, each part from a different character's point of view and all would tell different sides of the war in Afghanistan.  

The first would be a Green Beret newly arrived in Afghanistan and assigned to do staff and admin work.  He finds the notebook for which the novel is named, and begins to use it to write his daily list of things to do, helping teams that are forward deployed, writing home, sending supplies forward, etc.  At the end of this part, he finally goes forward on a MEDEVAC and while he is there, he passes his notebook off to a soldier on the ground who needs paper to write down vital signs for the wounded soldiers.

The second part is told from the POV of the combat soldier who was passed the notebook.  He begins to use the notebook as a daily journal to tell about the combat missions he goes on, the firefights he is involved in, the interrogation of the enemy, the loss of friends and comrades.  This part ends with him passing the notebook to an Afghan girl during his last mission.

The third part is told from this Afghan girl's POV as she discusses her family life.  The girl uses the notebook to teach English to local girls.  Her brother returns from Pakistan where he was trained by the Taliban.  At first, she is glad to see him again, but then she realizes that he has been changed by his training.  At the end of this part, her brother threatens her because she is teaching girls and becoming educated herself.  he hits her and takes the notebook.

The notebook is used by the brother to learn how to set up IEDs.  Then he passes the notebook on to a protege.  The protege decides he does not agree with the Taliban way of life and betrays them to Americans, turning in the notebook.  the Americans turn the notebook in with the Taliban bombers they capture as evidence.

That was my first plot.  Obviously, that is not the novel I wrote as you can see from the query letter above.

MFA Program

The MFA Program was different than I expected.  I was forced to take the program online because I was still active duty military and had to work.  UTEP was one of the only universities that offered a degree completely online, so I was forced to take the program with them and as such I didn't do much research before I applied.  The program was primarily concerned with writing short stories.  I took one poetry class, no play writing classes were offered until my last semester, and I only saw one class orientated toward writing a novel.  I was told that the program had a lot of these classes on campus, but that the professors in their online classes didn't offer them.

When it came time to write my thesis, I decided to write a compilation of military stories  similar to Tim O'Brien's stories about Vietnam.  I decided this because I wasn't completely sure how to put a novel together and at the end of the program and I had a collection of short stories, so it seemed like the easy way to go.  for my first semester, I pursued this as my thesis.  After about four months, I had a dream or something, I don't really know how the idea came to me, but I came up with the idea described in my query letter at the top of this post.  I then spent the next 18 months writing it from scratch in chapter order.  I wrote the last 200 pages in two months in order to make my deadline.  (I had to extend my thesis twice, because the normal time for writing a thesis is only 1 year, but I took 2).

Aftermath

After I defended my thesis, and I received input from my panel, I waited about 45 days and didn't even look at my novel.  Then, I read the whole thing again, corrected all my spelling and grammar errors (once again, I'm surprised they passed my defense with all the errors I found).  I then wrote a query letter and sent the letter and the first 30 pages to 9 agents.  So far, to have replied that they are not interested.  I don't expect any replies from the rest since it has been a while.  Meanwhile, I rewrote some parts of the novel, sent the query letter to a query letter expert, and sent the whole novel to a structure editor.  And now the waiting begins.  After I get the editor's suggestions, I'll revise the novel again and send it to some more agents.  Simultaneously, I'm writing a few other non-fiction books and starting a fantasy novel and another fiction thriller.

Let me know if you have any questions on the evolution of this novel.  In future posts, I'll upload my original and revised query letters and the progress on agent hunting.

RR

Current Writing Status November 10, 2018

Here’s my current status with writing.

I’m not retired yet, so I’m trying to work on some things and get some other works in the oven to see if I can make any money.

When I finished my MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP), my thesis was a 400 page novel called The Soldier’s Journal.  I had to defend my thesis before a panel of professors, and I passed and received my degree.  Afterwords, took a month off and re-looked at the novel, and rewrote another draft.  I then wrote a couple drafts of a query letter and sent them to some agents attempting to get representation.  I sent two query letters nine weeks ago and one responded with a no.  I sent six more about six weeks ago, and one replied with a no, but most said on their web-page that they were busy and if I hadn’t heard back in six weeks then I should assume its a no.  So, I’m 0 for 8.  Since, then I paid a service to look at my query letter and rewrote it, I think it is a lot better now.  I also, sent my novel to a structure editor and am currently waiting for it to be returned to me with her edits and recommendations.

I have had 4 short stories published, two on line and two in a compilation book.  I didn’t get paid for any of these though, so, of course my goal is to get paid for my stories.  But at least I have some published for my resume.

So, while I’m waiting for my editor to get back to me, I’m working on a couple non-fiction works that I hope to have the first draft finished of one by the end of the year, and the second by February 2019.  I’m not really looking for representation for these books, I plan on using Kindle Publishing to get them on the market.  It will be my first time, so a learning process, and I’ll tell you all about it in case you are interested in doing the same.

So this is where I’m at in my writing career.  In future posts, I’ll keep you updated on my progress with my novel, non-fiction books, and short story publishing.  I also want to track the money I’m making to give new authors some realistic tracking and financial planning for themselves.  I’m fortunate to have a military retirement paycheck coming in when I finally retire next month, but I know a lot writers don’t have the safety net.  I also want to review some of the things I mentioned in this post such as: my MFA experience, my short story publication experience, my query letter, and my novel writing experience.

I look forward to sharing my writing experience with you guys, and I hope you find some information you can use.

RR

Now What? Retiring after 31 years, what's the next step?

Thirty-one years of working for the Army.  Thirty-one years of doing what the Army told me to do, and letting the Army take care of my health care, take care of my family, give me direction, pay my salary, having my back.  And now what?

I have all these veterans benefits that I have to figure out: health insurance, life insurance, education benefits.  They aren't black and white, and there seem to be a lot of decisions to make.  Thousands of veterans have done it already, so I thought it would be clear and easy, but it sure doesn't seem like that.  So, one of the things I want to do in this blog is clarify these benefits and the steps I went through to retire and receive these benefits.

So this is my blog.  It’s about the things that affect my current life.

Retirement.  After 31 years in the Army, my retirement was a little scary.  There were a lot of unanswered questions that I ‘googled’ and ‘yahooed’ and asked and searched for and never got complete and accurate answers.  So, for this part of my blog, I’m trying to keep my fellow soldiers informed.  Trying to pass on the information that I wanted when I was getting ready to retire.  Things I could have used, such as my finances during the first 6 months of my retirement, using the VA health system, using education benefits, and a myriad of other things that I don’t even know now to list here.

Writing.  I acquired my MFA in Creative Writing about 6 months before I retired.  Instead of working, my goal was to make up the difference in my salary by writing after I retired.  So the other half of this blog will be how I worked through the ins and outs of writing a novel, starting a platform, and making money and learning about writing.  Hopefully, this will help some other wayward writer or retiree to have realistic goals and aspirations.  I don’t intend to destroy dreams, rather, share my experience so they are better prepared.

Job hunting.  I'll have to search for another job in the mean time, until the writing money comes in, so I'll also discuss the ups and downs of that process.

I hope that the information here is helpful, for ultimately I hope to write something useful and if one person uses this information, then I will have succeeded.

For those of you who may not know, a PACE plan is a contingency plan.  PACE stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency.  It's usually attributed to ways to communicate, four methods in case one or two don't work.  Here, I want to discuss the plans I made for my retirement and how my plans worked, or didn't work.

Thanks for joining me here on the blog, I hope the information is useful to you.

RS