Hello everyone, just a quick introduction. First of all I just want to commend all of you here for making such a professional and helpful site feel so community based. It really is refreshing to be integrated like minded people. Writing is something that has always been a hobby of sorts to me, I wish to improve on this but will not jump in with both feet. I am looking forward to reading and learning from many of the members here. As a side note, I am serving medic within the Royal Army Medical Corps in the British Army. I have very recent operational experience from serving in Afghanistan, and am offering my knowledge to anyone that requires authentic information during their research stage. As a big reader of thrillers that have a military spin on it, there is nothing worse than a good story being ruined by shoddy research. So I am happy to help, just PM me. M_M.
Hello M_M, I'm new too. I am a great believer in research, and your offer of help regarding your service in Afghanistan will be a tremendous help to many writers here, I'm sure. Nice to meet you...
Welcome to Writing Forums, M_M! I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing. This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work. However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirments. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing. Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills. If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself and Cogito) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here. Banzai
Cool, I might be in need of your services, though the military characters in my story are American, particularly Marines.
Hi Amiighan, I worked alongside USMC so I have a decent working knowledge of US marines on deployment.
Welcome aboard, and if I get time, I might ask for advice on military related things... it's not any area I'm strong at. Anyway welcome.
No problem at all Magnan. I am a serving medic within the Royal Army Medical Corps in the British Army and have recently returned from a six month operational deployment in Afghanistan. I was attached to a front line infantry unit and lived in austere conditions at an isolated check point. All twenty of us lived in the same small compound. The daily cycle of patrolling, cleaning weapons, trying to dry out uniforms and boots and cooking up rations occupies most of our time and there are few luxuries or distractions. In terms of patrolling we were involved in an ongoing series of Operations aimed at disrupting insurgent activity in our AO (Area of Operations). We regularly came under fire from insurgents using small arms, belt fed machine guns and UGL's (Under Slung Grenade Launchers) We returned fire using shallow trenches on the edges of ploughed fields or irrigation ditches as cover. I also treated a number of traumatic casualties. If I can help, get in touch either via PM or on the boards. I have a thread in the research section.
