I’be always wanted to try and write a novel on the order of Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising”, but since I have not been in the military, nor know anyone there I feel I would fail (the whole write what you know thing).
Could I do it just using wikipedia/non-fiction books/the straight dope, and so on?
Or would it very obvious that I would be writing about things I dont really know about?
Sure.
It doesn’t matter as long as you tell a good story and avoid any obvious howlers.
It is very easy to fake knowledge when writing a novel. People thought that Frank Norris spent hours studying dentistry in order to write McTeague, but it turns out he mere picked something out of a book on dentistry and paraphrased it. The same with anything else: you only have to convince the layman; experts in the field don’t matter, since they’re likely to be only a small part of the audience.
The important thing is verisimilitude, not realism.
I’d suggest you get some bud who has had a military background to check it- not for technical details on the M1920 “Death Ray”, but for little things. Like the fact that revolvers (by and large) don’t have safeties.:rolleyes: Or in one Service Sgts are call “sir” and in another Service you most certainly don’t.
“Dive! Dive!” yelled the Captain through the thing! So the man who makes it dive pressed a button, or a something, and it dove.
That’s what Ifear :), I would hope those details can easily be remedied by reading some (for example) non-fiction about submarines.
What would be harder would be the cultural things, perhaps if I ever get the “huevos” to write it I’ll need to have it reviewed by the SDMB ex/current military posters :).
“Dive! Dive!” yelled the Captain. It would be a close thing; if they didn’t move fast enough, the sub – and maybe the entire war effort – was doomed. They had said he’d fuck it all up, and he’d be damned if he’d give them the satisfaction of laughing over his grave. “Dive!” he said.
With agonizing slowness, the sub dove into the protection of the sea. But was it soon enough?
<No technical talk whatsoever – but I’ll bet you want to read more.>
As you mentioned Tom Clancy, note that he never served in the military but yet his books were extremely popular among the military and in fact the Naval Institute Press published his first novel. (So presumably they felt that he did a good job of capturing verisimilitude.) So what you’re proposing is certainly possible.
Hey, I want to read more!, :), did it work?
In fact, Tom Clancy was an insurance salesman before he started writing. And this was in the pre-internet era. So I’d say go for it. There’s lots of military websites and forums out there to get info from.
Thanks everybody for the encouragement!.
Now, the other painful question, do I write it in English or Spanish?
Well, how often do you hear about the derring-do of the Spanish military?
I am from Argentina, but I would write about the US (And other first world) Militaries if i wrote.
The Argentine military has a better record against Argentinians than against foreigners sadly 
The advantage of writing in Spanish is because you’re more familiar with it. But your English doesn’t seem to bad in your posts, so it’s possible – and, of course, it could be published in the US without needing translation.
Thats the point.
I’ve been reading books in English constantly for the last ten years or so, so I think I could do it in English, do you really think my english is up to it?.
A lot of the research for the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon (Tom Clancy videogames) came from this one site: http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/index.html
Try it and see. Seriously, what better method do you have for testing whether you can write than just writing, and showing it to critics?
Write a short story, or a scene from a longer work, and post it here. (Or another online venue, or e-mail it to a select list of buddies). Ask if it works as a story, ask if the English is odd or offputting, ask for feedback in general.
And then you’ll have a better idea. I’m not sure if you hadn’t asked the question that I would have realized based on your posts to this thread that English isn’t your first language, but that proves little–too small a sample.
You could write a novel about the heroic reconquest of the Islas Malvinas by a resurgent Argentine military, led by a handsome, charismatic Colonel who has a personal vendetta against Britain for their strong-arm tactics…
" ‘Make this boat go faster,’ hissed the Captain. So I cracked a whip and made the goats on treadmills run faster. Later, we fed the goats perch as a reward."
I’m pretty sure goats will eat perch…
Why would I want the Argentinians to be the bad guys?, the Islanders want to be British, so that’s all she wrote.
Something I always wanted to write would be some kind of alternate history where one the multiple military coups in Argentina meets resistance from within the military or something like that.
If Tom Clancy can convince the head of the KGB to defect, then it should be child’s play to overcome the insidious brain-washing propaganda of perfidious Albion. The islanders only believe they want to be British because the Queen is preventing them from learning the truth about their history and the benefits of being Argentine…
(I found out about five years ago that I have cousins in Argentina. My grandfather’s brother did not jump ship in Philadelphia, but continued down to Buenos Aires.)