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The Warrior Writers Project brings together recent veterans and current service members to be in creative community and utilize art-making processes to express themselves. There is a deep necessity for veterans to create when so much has been shattered and stolen. A profound sense of hope comes from the ability to rebuild and transform. Our workshops and events utilize (but are not limited to) writing, drawing, photography, papermaking and music.
I think this brings up a good point- when I wrote my first work and published it, it was almost totally therauputic and autobiographical. But now I'm trying to write about things I might not have exactly experienced, in combat. Which feels more than a little awkward, as a veteran, because you dont want to be disrespectful to someone elses actual experience.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, there was that Rambo movie where he fires the rocket from the cockpit of the helicopter, and doesnt fry the guys behind him in the backblast.
Tim O Brien really does a good job covering this is "How to write a true war story". Another thing I look to, is one of my favorite books on WW2 is the Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer, and he was a cook that didnt see combat. What I would personally wish to do, is fuse the literary qualities of something like the works of David Foster Wallace with the experience of our 21st century wars. Such a work would be powerful indeed.