As promised, here are some motivational SEAL / Military quotes to get us through our first official NaNo weekend. Remember, unless you want to be the one who wins the MRE from Larissa’s contest, you’d better get writing. (Did I mention she sent me the veggie burger MRE? I think I need to spend some time doing a full blog pictorial this weekend of the husband eating it. Because I’m certainly not…)

“The only easy day was yesterday.” - Navy SEAL Motto (especially if you screwed around and didn’t make your page count)

“Pain is weakness leaving the body.” - Various Special Ops Instructors (remember this when the carpal tunnel kicks in)

“Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.” - From sign in SEAL training facility (Sir Winston Churchill) (chocolate helps too, as do Margaritas…)

“We ain’t making no goddamn cornflakes here.” - Col. Charlie Beckwith, founder of Delta Force (I think this is what I’m going to start telling non-writing people who ask me what I do on the computer all day long)

“Anybody who doesn’t have fear is an idiot. It’s just that you must make the fear work for you. Hell, when somebody shot at me, it made me madder than hell, and all I wanted to do was shoot back.” – General Robin Olds, USAF. (I can apply this to writing, can’t I?)

“Know and use all the capabilities in your airplane. If you don’t, sooner or later, some guy who does use them all will kick your ass.”– Dave ‘Preacher’ Pace (Just replace airplane with the word imagination)

“We want to be in a situation under maximum pressure, maximum intensity, and maximum danger. When it’s shared with others, it provides a bond which is stronger than any tie that can exist.” - SEAL Team Six Officer (kind of like all of us in NaNo together. Sort of…)

“If you’re not gonna pull the trigger, don’t point the gun.” - James Baker (this totally relates to writing…)

“Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.” –Ferdinand Foch– at the Battle of the Marne (sounds like me when I’m pressed hard enough to open Word and start writing)

“Live for something rather than die for nothing.”- George Patton (enough said)

“Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching.” - Mark Twain (I had to include a writer’s quote, and I just love this one)

And, in honor of Jarhead:

How To Tell if You’re Too ‘Hoorah’

1. Your wife’s two favorite shades of lipstick are light green and loam.

2. You go to a barbecue and insist that your family feed in a tactical chow line at five meter intervals.

3. Before you hit the road on vacation you conduct rehearsals, backbriefs, PCI, and cover your convoy checklist.

4. Your children clear their hand receipt and housing before they go to college.

5. Your wife has more jumps than most LTs in the company.

6. Your kids call the yard their MWR area.

7. Your kids call their mother “Household 6.”

8. Your doorbell sounds off with the current challenge and password.

9. You give the command “Fix Bayonets” at Thanksgiving Dinner.

10. Your kids show their meal cards at the kitchen door, except the oldest, who is on separate rations.

11. You make your daughter sign out on pass on Prom Night.

12. You do your “back to school” shopping at the U.S. Cavalry store.

13. Your kids call the tooth fairy “Slicky Boy.”

14. Your son fails the third grade but tells everyone he was a “phase three recycle.”

15. Your wife’s “high-n-tight” is more squared away than your commander’s

Now, go write. :shoot::smoke::cool:

Steph T.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2005 at 4:00 am and is filed under Contests, Writing Process, Jake & Co.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.