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Writing Thoughts; or Our Very First War
Oct. 24th, 2013 11:13 amWork on the second draft of Pamela's Ghosts continues. Since this draft is Now, New With More Aliens!(tm) I've come to a realization. For both the aliens and the humans, this is their very first war.
Now, I don't mean "first war ever" - I mean "first war that the beings fighting in have ever experienced." In short, with the exception of a few grizzled veterans on the alien side, there are no combat veterans in either military.
Now, I deliberately went into this book with the idea that the human colony was much like modern-day New Zealand. Due to New Zealand's population, geographical location and a general lack of countries on expansionistic rampages, there's not much call for a military. New Zealand's military is rather vestigial and so are the forces on my human colony.
I hadn't had to think through what the alien situation was, until I had an alien POV character. Once I did, I decided that the same logistical problems that forced a stealth invasion would mean that, for most if not all of the aliens, they wouldn't be combat veterans, even if the alien culture was continually at war. Hell - my alien POV character was born on the planet she's invading. She personally knows nothing else.
An inexperienced military will have difficulty executing its plans. This factor will quadruple with two inexperienced militaries, as they will struggle to interpret what the other is doing. In typical SF mil-fic, both forces are experienced, and errors are few. Not so in Pamelas' Ghosts.
Now, I don't mean "first war ever" - I mean "first war that the beings fighting in have ever experienced." In short, with the exception of a few grizzled veterans on the alien side, there are no combat veterans in either military.
Now, I deliberately went into this book with the idea that the human colony was much like modern-day New Zealand. Due to New Zealand's population, geographical location and a general lack of countries on expansionistic rampages, there's not much call for a military. New Zealand's military is rather vestigial and so are the forces on my human colony.
I hadn't had to think through what the alien situation was, until I had an alien POV character. Once I did, I decided that the same logistical problems that forced a stealth invasion would mean that, for most if not all of the aliens, they wouldn't be combat veterans, even if the alien culture was continually at war. Hell - my alien POV character was born on the planet she's invading. She personally knows nothing else.
An inexperienced military will have difficulty executing its plans. This factor will quadruple with two inexperienced militaries, as they will struggle to interpret what the other is doing. In typical SF mil-fic, both forces are experienced, and errors are few. Not so in Pamelas' Ghosts.
