Margaret Note Spelling
Small beautiful events are what life is all about.
So, short of actually joining the military, what's the next best thing I can do in order to deeply understand the military culture/way things work/attitudes enough to reproduce it extremely accurately and confidently in my book? I mean the US military, primarily; and not specific to a service, either, since I anticipate writing about multiple ones.
For that matter, is it even possible to write an accurate portrayal of military life from research alone?
The main problem I'm running into right now, I think, is simply not knowing the right questions to ask. I do know a lot of basic details, at this point probably more than the average civilian (I have an ex-military family member) but again, knowing the right questions to ask is the key thing and I know there have to be a lot of things I'm taking for granted which just aren't the case. I've roamed Quora at length for a few things and there are always "related questions" which surprise me because I never thought about them at all.
Anything, any method of research, you can suggest would be a great help! My goal is to understand as much about normal military life--not the exciting stuff, just the everyday functioning--in multiple services as you can without actually living it. Not just the details but the spirit of it, the things they take for granted, the random expected norms.
How can I best do that?
For that matter, is it even possible to write an accurate portrayal of military life from research alone?
The main problem I'm running into right now, I think, is simply not knowing the right questions to ask. I do know a lot of basic details, at this point probably more than the average civilian (I have an ex-military family member) but again, knowing the right questions to ask is the key thing and I know there have to be a lot of things I'm taking for granted which just aren't the case. I've roamed Quora at length for a few things and there are always "related questions" which surprise me because I never thought about them at all.
Anything, any method of research, you can suggest would be a great help! My goal is to understand as much about normal military life--not the exciting stuff, just the everyday functioning--in multiple services as you can without actually living it. Not just the details but the spirit of it, the things they take for granted, the random expected norms.
How can I best do that?
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