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mischief posted:Just chipping in from TFR, holy poo poo. I'm not former military by far but even just the first few pages you posted are breathtaking. Same. Looking forward to reading more.
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May 16, 2022 21:27
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Thank you very much for sharing all this!
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May 16, 2022 23:02
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These are all very good.
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May 17, 2022 00:47
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Wasabi the J posted:Yeah but I have ADHD pattern anxiety so I had to drop the idealistic poo poo, otherwise nothing I do would be "perfect". Reads? Like my current reading list, favorite books, ?? I want to answer but I don't know how. Lol
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May 17, 2022 01:26
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It's really good stuff, very evocative and moving. Also, you have great handwriting. I was tempted to transcribe some of it, but I honestly think that the calligraphy of the poems adds something to them that would be taken away by converting it into whatever font the forums use.
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May 17, 2022 01:45
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Khizan posted:It's really good stuff, very evocative and moving. The part with "You do not ask a trooper if they've killed" says something that isn't written on that page.
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May 17, 2022 02:19
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Thank you.
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May 17, 2022 02:47
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Dude, this is incredible. Thank you for sharing.
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May 17, 2022 02:47
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Let me start with no, thank YOU. It's your project- you guys spawned this from my spicy nostalgia posts, and I'm incredibly thankful you guys have been this open and supportive. I fear that writing will be a high point, but whatever. It's still out there, and maybe someone will find all this nonsense useful. Because by and large, it ain't useful to me. Penmanship- Flattery will get you everywhere. It's nice, because my penmanship has gone downhill a bit due to complications from collecting concussions. And it's mostly the pens. I use mostly fountain pens because the tactile feedback is pleasant to me, and I feel fancy. Which is cool. I promise not everything will be a downer- I have some half started stuff from a notebook, and a ton of good/fun memories. This isn't one. More will come from this incident, but I wanted to get this out because it still bites after 20 years. I carry no blame in her death, but I do carry the obligation to make sure this unnamed little girl isn't just a nightmare. This came spilling out after a brutish therapy session.  This one is about coming off combat high, and my poor truck, D-52  A classic paratrooper tale of demo and deception.     
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May 17, 2022 03:38
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For what it's worth, I found writing about my experiences with alcohol both a release and deeply introspective. I hope this gives you something similar.
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May 17, 2022 03:43
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:For what it's worth, I found writing about my experiences with alcohol both a release and deeply introspective. I hope this gives you something similar. My wife asked me about that. Rarely do I feel relief at getting things out. It's less a release, and more like I hope someone else finds something from it. I was alone most of my childhood. I didn't have a lot of social opportunities in HS, because I was just trying to get by. Loneliness breeds introspection, and introspection isn't far off from criticism, and I can do that.
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May 17, 2022 03:54
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That bridge story is amazing.
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May 17, 2022 04:00
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bulletsponge13 posted:Penmanship- Flattery will get you everywhere. It's nice, because my penmanship has gone downhill a bit due to complications from collecting concussions. And it's mostly the pens. I use mostly fountain pens because the tactile feedback is pleasant to me, and I feel fancy. Which is cool. I have to laugh at this because my handwriting looks like someone trained a cocker spaniel how to drag a pen across some paper and I don’t even have the excuse of TBI. Please keep writing and posting!
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May 17, 2022 04:06
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Your writing is from the same period I was active and I'm getting this weird nostalgia from your stories, reminding me of the guys I served with that hit my unit in Bragg 6-12 months before I did and went on the deployment I missed, telling me their good and bad stories over beers in the barracks and long day's in the motorpool. I haven't talked to any of those dudes in well over a decade and I don't think I ever will again, so in a way your stories are reminding me of the friends I've lost due to time and distance. Thanks, man.
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May 17, 2022 04:07
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Carteret posted:Your writing is from the same period I was active and I'm getting this weird nostalgia from your stories, reminding me of the guys I served with that hit my unit in Bragg 6-12 months before I did and went on the deployment I missed, telling me their good and bad stories over beers in the barracks and long day's in the motorpool. Ha! Not sure who/where you were at Bragg, but I spent my time with D 3/325
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May 17, 2022 04:10
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I don't know how much you've written and scanned but honestly, there's a boatload of books published successfully on the topic that are objectively worse than what you have shared. Look at publishing, seriously.
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May 17, 2022 04:12
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bulletsponge13 posted:Ha! I wasn't in Division, I was with 101st Chem under XVIII ABC. They went with 1st MEU and had just finished demobing when I in-processed in Jan 04. I got orders to Korea right before they stop-lossed for round 2 in 05. Is there a term for that "I didn't deploy" guilt I've had for almost 20 years? edit: weird derail, sorry
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May 17, 2022 04:19
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mischief posted:I don't know how much you've written and scanned but honestly, there's a boatload of books published successfully on the topic that are objectively worse than what you have shared. Look at publishing, seriously. I've written a decent amount in fits and shits, but nothing as solid as this stuff. You've seen all the poo poo I've scanned so far. I also have some other art type stuff scattered around- one I only have a crappy pic of, because I gifted it to a friend who asked for it. I'm not sure if this is the right place to share the more visual stuff, but it's my thread until the mods say otherwise, so 
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May 17, 2022 04:23
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Carteret posted:I wasn't in Division, I was with 101st Chem under XVIII ABC. They went with 1st MEU and had just finished demobing when I in-processed in Jan 04. I get the drive and desire, but you didn't miss out on anything worthwhile other than hazard pay. Really. I don't get extra benefits because I nearly got killed a bunch of times. My GI Bill is the same as yours. One of my best friends enlisted a couple months after me. Intel dude spent 3 years in England. He spent his off time seeing Paris and Prague. Doing road trips to Barcelona. Don't get me wrong, I wasted a lot of possible travel opportunities for a variety of reasons, but half my enlistment was deployed. While he was getting a free hand job in Amsterdam, I was getting blown up. The lasting gifts I got from deployment, empathy and exhaustion, I could have gotten cheaper somewhere else. Deployment- even getting one- is luck. Your experience down range, luck. And even the luckiest I know had some bad loving luck.
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May 17, 2022 04:38
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bulletsponge13 posted:
I don't care if that was the actual high point. It was one hell of a high point looking down on Mount Everest. I read a lot of stuff, on the internet and in book form. Most of it is immersing to a point, but my afantasia means I still don't get any mental images of the scenes. The bridge story though? I could loving FEEL the puppy eyes, FEEL the amused smirk of the guy calling in your every request. I could even feel the setting and the game of "I spy with my little eye, something that needs to blow up" while driving do a road of questionable safety. Keep this up, get this published and yes, yes you will end up helping another veteran express their own traumas. I guarantee it.
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May 17, 2022 05:19
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I started out my military career in Bravo 4/325 back in the Reagan 80s. I can make up for any 'never deployed guilt' by being deployed all the loving time. Seriously, don't feel guilty. Feel blessed.
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May 17, 2022 05:30
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The successful part of any war story, real or fictional, is that you can recognize the characters in archetype. I know those guys in those trucks. They wore different uniforms and were in boats, but that's them.
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May 17, 2022 17:34
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I'll clean off my desk tomorrow so I have a dedicated spot, and my handwriting will improve.    E- I know I have a problem with changing tenses. Sorry. These are all very drafty. bulletsponge13 fucked around with this message at 03:17 on May 18, 2022 |
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May 18, 2022 02:44
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That was a fantastic story man. I just love all the observations of the small things going on among a good day ruined. I also think the bridge story would make a great short film or even be expanded to a movie. I just love the humor and absurdity of it. Also with the way you told it, you could probably get the most non violent person to feel bad about that C4 wasn’t used. Real I just can’t get over how good it is. Also the penmanship kind of reminds of Hunter S. Thompson so that’s cool as poo poo too.
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May 18, 2022 03:16
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I'll leave the thread alone after this but seriously, if you've got pages and pages of this stuff you should seriously be shopping publishers. Title it "He Hurt My Feelings First." and profit. That poo poo is all amazing.
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May 18, 2022 03:49
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mischief posted:I'll leave the thread alone after this but seriously, if you've got pages and pages of this stuff you should seriously be shopping publishers. Yeah, I mean these stories could make an amazing anthology. Hell, I think you could even sell two versions of the book one with regular type and the other just being a reproduction of the notes. That or just a combo edition. A bunch of the stories could probably be on their own optioned into movies because they are that good as a story. I’m telling you there is a great dark comedy movie about the bridge story.
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May 18, 2022 04:06
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Marshal Prolapse posted:
Codex C-SPAMICUS has allegedly completed printing and is in sea transit to distribution, perhaps there's a role in this project for Twoday as a calligraphic Ralph Steadman
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May 18, 2022 04:19
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bulletsponge13 posted:Reads? You sucked up to Hemingway, I figured maybe you just had some books or stories that perhaps you had drawn from. There's always something rattling around that inspires our decisions, especially with writing. And yeah publishing this stuff, for me as a gipper especially, feels important. Even if it's drafty or incomplete, the more voices we have speaking about their own feelings and experiences, the more complete picture we can leave for history. There is an entire class of writing that developed in warfare. Wasabi the J fucked around with this message at 04:28 on May 18, 2022 |
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May 18, 2022 04:22
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Wasabi the J posted:You sucked up to Hemingway, I figured maybe you just had some books or stories that perhaps you had drawn from. As a kid I read a bit of Hemmingway, Heinlein, and other pop culture type stuff. I never got super into fiction as a whole, but have always been a bit of a reader. I read a lot of poetry- Dickinson, Frost, the typical depressed teenage poo poo. 90+% of my reading is nonfiction, military history/science based. A lot of comic writer influences- Chuck Dixon (too bad he turned into a massive POS), Frank Miller (see above), Garth Ennis. James O'Barr gets a lot of credit for introducing me to a greater variety of poetry, and a special mention of Henry Rollins. E2- I completely forgot to list Kipling under poetry. I feel weird that this is so touching to everyone. I'm mot a perfectionist, but I keep re-reading it on my screen and finding things I want to say are missing. Like in the C4 bit, I did no physical descriptions of the actual place, which was beautiful and lively. Going to the bridge and seeing throngs of people smiling about their day while I'm standing next to a JDAM hole. But drafts, I guess? E- you guys are seriously way too kind. bulletsponge13 fucked around with this message at 18:49 on May 18, 2022 |
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May 18, 2022 05:01
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Should you decide to publish, maybe get in contact with Joe Kassabian of the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast for advice and maybe a connect with his agent? He’s an irreverent vet who would fit right in here and has written two books (an autobiographical account of his deployment to Afghanistan and a sci-if novel.)
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May 18, 2022 05:12
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bulletsponge13 posted:Like in the C4 bit, I did no physical descriptions of the actual place, which was beautiful and lively. At the same time, you painted a picture so evocative that I found myself transported there. The color of the tree doesn't matter in the end. The fact that you made my Afantasia inflicted brain paint the picture for me anyways tells me that you didn't need to distract us by narrowing down the details.
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May 18, 2022 06:54
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I hear you when you say you dont think what youre doing is that big a deal. When you are really good at something it feels too easy and comes naturally, and it is difficult to understand why everyone else is reacting to it like they are. At a certain point you kinda just have to take it on faith that nobody here is loving with you. When they say you write beautifully and your message resonates deeply it can feel like “naaaaah thats just some stuff i put on paper to get it out of my head”. You might think “theyre just being nice”, or worse that they have an ulterior motive and are setting you up for something. When you do that though, you are placing too much weight on your personal history and past experience and letting it color your experience of current events. Just because those fuckers back then were full of poo poo does not mean these fuckers here right now are also full of poo poo. It has taken me a lifetime to get to a point where i can just take a compliment and say thanks, and mean it. I still struggle with it. I don’t understand why anyone makes a big deal about the work i do either, i just try to accept that they are being earnest about it. Your work is compelling, and beautiful, and needs to be shared beyond GIP. If you make the investment to create it then it will be there to help people make sense of their own lives for as long as it exists.
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May 18, 2022 13:09
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fresh_cheese posted:I hear you when you say you dont think what youre doing is that big a deal. When you are really good at something it feels too easy and comes naturally, and it is difficult to understand why everyone else is reacting to it like they are. Not empty quoting.
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May 18, 2022 13:17
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fresh_cheese posted:I hear you when you say you dont think what youre doing is that big a deal. When you are really good at something it feels too easy and comes naturally, and it is difficult to understand why everyone else is reacting to it like they are.
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May 18, 2022 14:05
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fresh_cheese posted:“naaaaah thats just some stuff i put on paper to get it out of my head”.
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May 18, 2022 14:15
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fresh_cheese posted:I hear you when you say you dont think what youre doing is that big a deal. When you are really good at something it feels too easy and comes naturally, and it is difficult to understand why everyone else is reacting to it like they are. I don't even think anything I've shared is extraordinary. I just like sharing stories; I'm the dude at the party who is the entertainment, the goofy one cracking jokes and telling self depreciating stories. I'm a big goofy kid. I'm just trying to translate some of my stories to paper. It's not that I don't believe you all- I do, and I am sincerely touched that this thread is up so many people's vibe. And I'm aware that my next statement sounds like lunacy, but I've been dicking around on these forums for awhile, and I feel like you guys 'know' me. I believe everything you say, but I'm still fighting that little voice saying "And mom called you handsome", like you guys are giving me grace because you know me. Insane, I know. Believe it or not, I'm not really a humble dude. I know what I am and who I am, and don't feel the need to feed my ego in either direction. My dismissiveness isn't meant to be rude, or to imply I don't deeply appreciate the sentiments shared, it's just one of those things where i can't see it from the other side. I'm not fishing for compliments or anything like that; I just really can't see 'viewer' side of the paper. I'm trying. And I really appreciate everyone who reads this stuff. Even if you don't comment, even if you don't like what I share, your investment in the thread is amazing, and unexpected.
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May 18, 2022 22:32
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For what it's worth: I'm not a veteran, nor a regular contributor to GiP - I just like the Idiots thread - and I don't know you from a bar of soap. What you've posted is exceptionally good. Like "shake my head in wonder, I can't believe I'm lucky enough to read this" good. It's intensely personal, sharing something some of us have never experienced, in a way that (I feel like) I understand completely what it was like. It's extremely evocative. And your turn of phrase and use of things like metaphor is beautiful. Frankly, it feels like a privilege to read. E: and I'm not sure I should have posted that, for the selfish reason that I don't want to scare you off posting more because I want to read it. Hyperlynx fucked around with this message at 23:06 on May 18, 2022 |
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May 18, 2022 22:49
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Hyperlynx posted:For what it's worth: I'm not a veteran, nor a regular contributor to GiP - I just like the Idiots thread - and I don't know you from a bar of soap. You are good- no one has said anything that will scare me off. 😊I just need to STFU and listen to others. You guys might think I'm just saying this, but it's my honor that you guys dig this. This is your thread as much as mine.
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May 18, 2022 23:24
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I'm a complete civilian (I ended up in this subforum because it is a good source of info on current events) but it occurs to me from reading your own thoughts on your writing process that maybe war stories suffer from a similar paradox to leadership. Just as the people who actively seek authority are often the sort of people who should absolutely never have any, the guys that come back with a book tour lined up maybe aren't the ones whose perspectives need to be seen. It's also worth noting that you have a genuine talent with words. You aren't the only person with stories like yours (and indeed, part of what makes them special is that they mostly aren't that special), but being able to express them so compellingly is a rare combination.
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May 19, 2022 00:16
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Voyager I posted:people who actively seek authority are often the sort of people who should absolutely never have any ❤
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May 19, 2022 00:24
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