Want to write military fiction?

[bluepencil]

This is where I'm going to dump useful links for this genre. Though I tend to focus more on the politicial and conspiratic elements in my stories, in the end I found that pretty much all of them deals with war and loss to some extent.


First, of course the general how-to:
http://www.military-sf.com/

Then here are useful references for practically anything you need for an alien invasion:
http://www.militarynewbie.com/manuals.php

And as to why it's worth writing about:
http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/sfnews2/04_dec/news1204_5.shtml

 

[grant]

I'll admit I'm no soldier, but from experience among soldiers I wanted to add three things.

1. Be practical where possible. Soldiers quite literally live or die on it.

2. Being creative isn't the same as being impractical. As an example from Mobile Suit Gundam (first one) Zeon soldiers on Earth want to destroy the Gundam, but they don't have the mobile suits to challenge it. Do they give up? No, they lure it out and use men to attach explosives to it, nearly destroying it.

3. Bureaucracy is real. Most organizations (military included) do their best to get through red tape, but it still most definitely exists. Current example for States (unsure about rest of world) is a booklet from the Vietnam War on traps and explosives commonly used. A Marine officer found it useful in dealing with IED's in Iraq, but the military refused to reprint it. I assume that most other armies have similar problems.

I realize many others with family in the military might be angry with me, but I also have family in the military and I simply want to make sure that they don't have an over optimistic or negative image.

 

[bluepencil]

Good call.

Oh, and I forgot; of course the essential ATOMIC ROCKETS page, for when you want to put Science! into your Science Fiction. ^_^

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html

 

[Legacy|iB]

Great work - very fascinating links.

There's a lot of basic information worth reading in the first link on some bits that need to be taken into account when writing anything military related. As a person who likes to write about the military, I'll be sure to read through it in detail later.

The second link is gold for me, however. I like to know about some specific equipment related things and refer to them in my writing but beyond that, I also like to find and read military manuals for fun.

 

[rukia8492]

oe you could simply ask vaia PM those of us military guys in this thread for help and we can help to the best of our abilities and we can give advice about how things dealing with military work from based on our firsthand experiances.

just trying to give another possible venue.

 

[bluepencil]

Oh, in the General* section. Oops. I had no idea.

Well, thanks for that anyway. ^_^





*oh god, my mind reels with all the possible puns. Ow.

 

[Croaker]

oe you could simply ask vaia PM those of us military guys in this thread for help and we can help to the best of our abilities and we can give advice about how things dealing with military work from based on our firsthand experiances.

just trying to give another possible venue.

I, for one, would never have found that thread.

Good topic, in my thinking. Resources bookmarked. ^_^

 

[bluepencil]

This is a more general resource, but that works out two ways. We can get not just military manual but easy access to the contexts in which they may happen. Quite a few free science fiction novels, too (Bolos! comes to mind).

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbi...ct&key=military

Currently reading Myths and Misconceptions About Air Power.


edit:
Seriously. I'm starting to love it. Now if I could just find a way to mass-gank the resources off this site.

http://www.ndu.edu/inss/books/books%20-%20.../chinacont.html

Whohoo! We tend to forget that while Russia and China are/were both Communistic countries with emphasis on mass movement, they still hold different ethos and methods. Since they share a tense border, their doctrines may also seem to be sculpted AGAINST each other rather than the capitalist nations.