It’s probably not news to you that one of the biggest challenges in writing is creating authentic scenes, settings, and interactions to make the words on the page feel real. Sometimes, particularly with fantasy, this challenge is made smoother because of how alien the situation is to the reader. After all, they’ve never met a real dragon, so how would they know how they should behave?
In contrast, the obstacles mount higher when you’re dealing with very realistic settings and characters, ones that your audience will be familiar with. One of the toughest things to write authentically portraying the military.
Many service members are voracious readers, and they are keenly aware of misrepresentations that happen in literature. Hopefully if you’re writing military fiction you’ve done some thorough research, but if the military only has light involvement in your story, here are a few of the major things to be aware of so your work doesn’t get called out.
1. “Don’t get misty, Francine.”
2. Don’t Misuse Acronyms
That’s DMA, or “Dima” if you’re in the military. This is a common problem for mediums that use audio, like films is the use of acronyms. The military uses a lot of them. It’s as much a joke to them as it is to us.
What happens a lot in movies is character spelling out acronyms, when in reality, acronyms are spoken phonetically as often as possible. This is for the simple reason that Fob (as goofy as it sounds) is faster to say than F.O.B.—and when lives are on the line, you say what’s faster to say.
In my experience, military scenes in writing tend to have kind of the opposite problem, where acronyms are completely absent from places where they would normally be used. It’s understandable, because generally we as writers outside the military aren’t going to be acquainted with the second language that is military acronyms.
It’s worth looking up some common ones, though, and if your character is using acronyms in dialogue, do your best to translate them to a phonetic equivalent.
3. “Don’t get cocky!”
The last issue we’ll talk about isn’t limited to military characters by any means, but they’re often the ones who bear the burden of this cliché: the Mary Sue. Very often, in every form of media in which there’s some sort of token military character, they become a juggernaut of talent and ability, able to shoot the wings off a fly at five hundred feet while flying a helicopter upside down in space.
Don’t fall into this trap. In real life “having military training” means the same thing as any other profession in the world; they’re trained as specialists in one particular role (which hopefully they do well) and have little to no experience in other roles, so consider what role your military character is meant to fill and apply their due weaknesses everywhere else—or be sure to prepare a reason for their skill in other fields.
Keeping these things in mind will help you deliver authentic feeling military characters and scenes, enough to satisfy both military readers and your civilian fans!
Thanks for reading, and if you have additional suggestions for making military writing feel real, don’t hesitate to share in the comments.
I’m a writer. I’ve been in the Army 25 years. I approve of this post.
Endorsement from a serviceman!? This made my day! Thanks!
The other thing is to set the story in another time period. Modern readers might know everything about their own service, but they’re not all that familiar with WW I for example. In writing such a story, I don’t load it up with too much slang. In a recent story, (submarines) depth-charges hadn’t even been invented yet but there were other hazards. If you like reading military history, writing military fiction is a natural choice and lot of fun.
Ah, yes, a unique challenge all on it’s own! One nice thing about taking a setting back in time is there is TONS of well documented research, and even a little bit will help a lot. On the other hand, military culture changes very slowly, so you can also benefit from whatever knowledge you have when writing in many time periods, including futuristic sci-fi material.
Great post. I don’t write or read about the military, but I know I get very annoyed at stories that get details wrong about certain people groups I know about. Getting it right matters.
Absolutely! You never know who’ll pick up and read your work; getting those small details right pays off in connections of trust with your readers.
This is very helpful, thank you! I am attempting a modern fiction piece that has some military involvement, and while my history geek brothers can detail what the life of your average Roman soldier was probably like, modern military is a different beast entirely.
Great post! One of the best movies I’ve ever seen perfectly illustrates #1: Howard Hawk’s classic, “The Thing From Another World.” The dialogue overlaps but is believable, the military men and the civilians crack wise to relieve the tension they feel. They did that to maintain their sanity.
Thanks for a great post!! As someone in the military attempting a modern day fiction piece with some military involvement, it’s good to know what works and doesn’t! I don’t want my piece to be all military when in all actuality it’s a background character. I don’t want to overload my story with military jargon and information. This was a nice segue.
Thanks! I’m glad that it’s been helpful!
Years of Experience in Military and Law Enforcement. If you base Characters and Action on people/things you Knew, Saw, Experienced, it is easier to make them accurate. Although I will have to admit, sometimes readers will not BELIEVE someone performed some incredible or strange action that happened, or that there WAS such a weird person in real life. But, Hey, that is the danger in all fiction based on a grain of truth.
Absolutely. Best way to portray any character is to draw from familiar experience! Great advice.
One thing you didn’t mention that my dad, a WWII sniper always talked about, is the role of boredom in the military. There is such a thing as “hurry up and wait” in the service. From time in memoriam, the vast majority of the time a soldier spends in the military is waiting for things to happen. If you have to have a soldier wax philosophical, have a soldier do it while sitting bored out of his/her mind. Thanks for the great post. Very much appreciated.
Excellent point, Patricia! Thanks for the added insight, and for reading! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂