writing project idea that i can't write

[mg357]

dear s&w forum, i am an amateur writer and i have this idea for a small writing project. It's a romance story about a Navy Seal and his wife. But i can't do darn thing with this idea. So if there are any writers here on this forum who like my idea and can use it please do so. sincerely and respectfully mg357 a proud member of the sw forum. p.s. the Navy seal character is a young guy age 33 almost 34 he is a christian man and he loves his wife very much in fact the top 4 things that he loves go in this order. his wife is some what younger she is 29 almost 30 also a christian and she loves her husband very much also.
1. god
2. wife
3. usa
4. the navy

[Iggy]

You forgot one very important love in a Seal's life. The USA.

[sipowicz]

Originally Posted by mg357

It's a romance story about a Navy Seal and his wife.

MG, you have to first make up your mind...is it a romance story or a marriage story?

[feralmerril]

Well, mark my son in law wasnt a seal but was a air search para rescue and got back from iraq 2 years ago and married my daughter, they are 33/34 and christian. Maybe I will write about them some day?

[DeathGrip]

MG,It could be a great thing because I can see conflict in the four things you mention,All be it,They are each in their own ways good and important yet there are fine lines we must all consider due to life's many twist and turns.

[GatorFarmer]

Mid 30s is actually getting old for the Navy. If you joined up at 18, then you'd have 16 years in. If you joined up after college, then it'd be more like a dozen years.

The divorce rate for military marriages is somewhere between 60 and 90 percent. It depends on rank, time in service, and to what degree double counting is excluded (i.e. service members marrying and then divorcing each other). Spec ops types deploy a lot and tend to be on the higher end of things divorce rate wise, but that also has to do with the personalities of those involved of course.

To be a SEAL someone in that age bracket would presumably be either an officer or a chief. I suppose they might be a first class (E6) but most like a chief if they are enlisted.

Personally, the main drama I could see would be in making one or both an unreliable narrator and oblivious to events around them. Unless you're going for the religious market - which is popular - in which case your central theme can be a crisis of faith, or redemption, or some such.

I actually am a Navy spouse, one of the few non prior service male spouses that one will run across.

[writerinmo]

You need to come up with the ending first... otherwise your story will have a tendency to wander around. When I write, I know before I even start how it's going to end, it's the journey in between where I throw all sorts of the usual stuff in. Plus it has to have a genre it's devoted to. Not like you can just sit down and start freewriting and churn out a novel in a week or so, most of mine take a year to rough draft, probably a month to fine tune on my part, another month for my pre-readers and fact checkers to search out all the stuff I missed, (which is why I write Fantasy, you can make up all sorts of stuff) about that time you are saying to yourself "Why the heck do I do this?!?!?!"

[sipowicz]

Originally Posted by writerinmo

You need to come up with the ending first... otherwise your story will have a tendency to wander around.

Actually, even before an ending you need a story. There is no story here, only extremely broad elements. But it has potential.

I can see Hollywood making it into a movie...of course, they will need to 'tweek' it a bit...in the end, it will most likely be the story of an Orthodox Rabbi who becomes an atheist and kills his wife before denouncing America and moving to Pakistan to join the Taliban.

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

Originally Posted by sipowicz

I can see Hollywood making it into a movie...of course, they will need to 'tweek' it a bit...in the end, it will most likely be the story of an Orthodox Rabbi who becomes an atheist and kills his wife before denouncing America and moving to Pakistan to join the Taliban.

Be careful - I think that you are actually starting to understand those people.

[ChattanoogaPhil]

How is your detective story going?

[David LaPell]

I have the title.

A Seal and His Trainer (he's married right?)

[Armyphotog]

Haven't they already made that into a movie called "Wanda" or something.

[27145]

Cuckoo Cukoo Cukoo

[anglaispierre]

Originally Posted by David LaPell

I have the title.

A Seal and His Trainer (he's married right?)

I remember some years ago it was common to write initial letters on the outside of an envelope.

OK, some of you will be there already ....... S.W.A.L.K.

Sealed with a loving Kiss.

I think I'm going to puke ...................

[MaricopaKid]

Next week, if I find the time, I'm going to build a nuclear reactor.

[anglaispierre]

Originally Posted by MaricopaKid

Next week, if I find the time, I'm going to build a nuclear reactor.

I built one this morning, then did some complicated brain surgery during the afternoon, before settling down to try to find out what went wrong with that hypersonic plane. Don't have time to write novels these days.

[Engineer1911]

I got 3,000 rounds of 45 acp loaded yesterday and today. Tomorrow I'll do the novel.

You've seen the sign "Free Beer Tomorrow" .

[sipowicz]

A famous writer was once asked: What kind of writing pays the best?

His answer was: Ransom notes.

[Onomea]

Okay, fellas, We can do this. I got the first four lines right here. I figure with us all contributing we can finish the novel in about a week:

John, a Navy SEAL of 33 and a lifelong Christian, got up from his morning prayers, and hugged Kathy, 29, his everloving wife. He took a deep breath. Showtime! It was time to kick some serious butt for the US of A!

Okay? Next!

[DeathGrip]

Kathy then said "Hold on there big guy,You aren't going anywhere until.....................










You take the dog out".

[old bear]

When a very Self-satisfied John finally said good by to Kathy, he started his American made Toyota van, and on the way to the base he suddenly remember he had forgotten to ...

Ok someone take it from here.

[Onomea]

Take his Swahili lessons. As a member of SEAL Team Six, he was required to be proficient in 37 languages, the test was tomorrow, and Swahili, my frends, was bad mojo for the JuJu Man!

[old bear]

To counter act the effects of bad juju, John remembered his gift from the old shaman; who’s life he saved years ago. John reached into his ever present bug out bag and removed…..

Ok I'm running out of ideas here, help me out. Someone!

[Onomea]

A jar of Vicks Vapor Rub. Ahakanawili, the old shaman, had told John after the mortal battle with the she wolf Bitcheroodoo, that the Vapor Rub was an effective deterrent for evil spirits, coughs, and teenage loose women. John rubbed a bit on his chest and, nostrils flaring, slammed the Swahili language tape into the dashboard cassette player and thought of his beloved Kathy. “Mtoto,” he murmured softly. Still, he remained a trifle perplexed by the strange pair of size 14 cowboy boots he had noted under the bed last night. Kathy had explained that she was having some difficulties with her bunions so had moved up a size or two, but those boots had been awfully worn and dusty for a recent acquisition…

[Marshwheeling]

As a onetime member of the Robert Street Verbalist Society, we used to do this all the time. It is called "communal fiction". Before taking part in such an exercise, you might want to give some thought as to whether this is the kind of thing you want to become involved in.

[DeathGrip]

Originally Posted by Marshwheeling

As a onetime member of the Robert Street Verbalist Society, we used to do this all the time. It is called "communal fiction". Before taking part in such an exercise, you might want to give some thought as to whether this is the kind of thing you want to become involved in.

Care to explain the problems that could happen?I can't see it for much more than us having a little fun.

[old bear]

Imagine Johns’ surprise when he realized he had forgotten to exchange the family jar of Vaseline with his magic Vapor Rub, and Kathy was currently messaging Vapor Rub on her size 14 bunions. A wry smile crossed John’s lips.

[old bear]

As a onetime member of the Robert Street Verbalist Society, we used to do this all the time. It is called "communal fiction". Before taking part in such an exercise, you might want to give some thought as to whether this is the kind of thing you want to become involved in.

All Right we gotta a ringer in the game. For gosh sakes man jump in and save us from ourselves.. But remember that boys will be boys.

[Onomea]

Chapter 2

The Juju man crouched in the bushes, his size 14 bare feet aflame with Vicks Vapor Rub as the rain dripped down his neck. The pain was good. He was alive. He thought again of Kathy, drawing out again his rosary beads, fingering through them. His mission, self-assigned, was to kill John. John, whom everyone believed to be a hero, was in fact a gol durned tallywhacker. Killing people did not bother the Juju man. What bugged him was Kathy's bunions. Her suffering moved him in ways he could not describe to civilians. She was too fine a woman, too good a friend, to leave to the clutches of the nefarious tallywhacker imposter SEAL John. So called. The JuJu man knew the truth. Even if no one else, including Kathy, would believe him. He lit a Marlboro, carefully in the cup of his hand, took a deep drag, and waited. The rain continued...

[dcxplant]

Originally Posted by mg357

dear s&w forum, i am an amateur writer and i have this idea for a small writing project. It's a romance story about a Navy Seal and his wife. But i can't do darn thing with this idea. So if there are any writers here on this forum who like my idea and can use it please do so. sincerely and respectfully mg357 a proud member of the sw forum. p.s. the Navy seal character is a young guy age 33 almost 34 he is a christian man and he loves his wife very much in fact the top 4 things that he loves go in this order. his wife is some what younger she is 29 almost 30 also a christian and she loves her husband very much also.
1. god
2. wife
3. usa
4. the navy

Where's the tension? Drama? Conflict? What you have right here is a happy ending, not the makings of a story.

Take the reader on an emotional journey. Highs, lows, conflicts and resolutions.

You have a lot of great raw material. Combat scenes, a lonely and stressed wife. Moral conflict, mortal conflict, it's all there for the using.

Have fun!

[sipowicz]

Fun?

There's an old saying about writing...


Everyone hates writing but loves haven written. As someone who's been doing it for 25 years, I would have to agree.

[Engineer1911]

I used up all my good ideas in my last memo to Management.

[anglaispierre]

Before even considering writing a novel there is something more fundamental to learn. The basic rules of grammar. When to start a new sentence or, more importantly, when to end the present one. How to compose a sentence, and how and when to sub-divide it into phrases using commas or other punctuation. Would it be better split into two separate sentences? When to use or not use capitals eg beginning of a sentence, abbreviations. The original posting has 5 mistakes in the first sentence.

One could do worse than read “Where to Put the F in Comma” by F.J. Bergmann.

When, and only when one can write correct and meaningful sentences, and expand them into paragraphs and chapters should one consider progressing to writing stories.

But for a story to be credible it must be realistic and/or believable (unless it really is a fantasy). It must be well researched (eg average age of a navy SEAL as mentioned by Gator). A romantic novel may ignore the high divorce rate. After all, it is a work of fiction and fantasy. But the factual content must be 100% accurate. It should have a plot with a beginning and an end. In between the two there should be drama, tension and narrative which is pleasing to read, and creates a desire to turn the next page. Any emphasis on extraneous material will destroy the story rather than enhance it. In particular politics/patriotism and religion should only be introduced if they are essential to the main plot. If not they are best left out.

For many of us, if, at the end of a day, we still have a blank page, it is probably the best thing we have ever written.

[Qball]

Originally Posted by MaricopaKid

Next week, if I find the time, I'm going to build a nuclear reactor.

Might want to check with local laws first,

This is what hapened to a guy in Sweden when he tried that.
Swedish Man Arrested For Trying To Build Nuclear Reactor In His Kitchen : The Two-Way : NPR

[Faulkner]

I always thought if a Navy Seal was supposed to have a wife and family the Navy would issue him one.

[Onomea]

John, Kathy, and the JuJu Man were seriously annoyed. Poised for romance and adventure, the narrative of their lives was held hostage by extraneous critiques of third party grammar.

Bunions smarting, bootless, and linguistically challenged, the fictional three were determined, nevertheless, that come what may, they would survive the pedants who sought to destroy their destinies through irrelevant forays into pseudo intellectual claptrap! (Would-be writers were death incarnate to figments of the imagination.)

The vortex of the internet, pausing ever-so-briefly to note the niche of the S&W Forum, blinked.

Ker-blammy! It was a 640-1, 357, and it came out of nowhere!!!

[anglaispierre]

Kathy was lost for words. Someone had taken her dictionary while she was pre-occupied. Suddenly she got a flash of inspiration. Reaching for her telephone, she dialled a number that was printed on her mind. Strange place to have a tattoo!

A frail voice answered. It was Kathy's mother's mother.

"Grammar," Kathy said, "I need your help."

She explained her predicament. Grammar told her: "When I was a young girl my Daddy told me: 'Thank God that here in the USA my wife was not allowed to go into the navy.' I never did understand what he was talking about."

She hesitated briefly to give her an opportunity to insert a comma, albeit an extraneous one, before continuing.