In the Spouse world of Military.com, we think that the best ideas about military life come from the people who are living the life.
So we want to hear from you! That’s right—YOU, Writer Girl, who resolved to write more this year. We mean YOU, Writer Guy, who fumes every time the spouse story seems to be covered in pink and starts with “Hey, ladies.”
Are you Army? Navy? Air Force? Marine Corps? Coast Guard? Reservist? National Guard? Fabulous. Every service is different and works in a slightly different way. Tell us about the differences.
Are you feeling excited about military life? Sad? Confused? Irritated? Satisfied? Depressed? Energized? Angry? Tender? Join the crowd. We believe people feel what they feel—and it is all part of the journey. Share your emotions and reactions with us.
We welcome blog posts from military boyfriends and girlfriends, partners, young spouses, mid-career spouses, seasoned spouses, former spouses and retired spouses.
If you have been thinking of writing a post for us, here is how:
Read recent posts. Scroll through the posts we have published recently on. We publish a lot of things on a variety of topics. What topic do you see that is missing? Write about that!
Expand the conversation. There’s only so many times you can write about a military spouse topic, right? Wrong! Find that unique angle and get writing.
If you see a post on the topic you are considering (like PCS), think about what you could add to the topic. Better to write about one aspect of a topic (when to tell kids you are moving, whether or not to buy donuts for movers, how you got your spouse to organize his gear before movers arrived) than to try to cover the whole topic at once.
We also like to hear about new things spouses are doing. If you know of someone doing something cool, write about that!
Write 600 – 800 words. Most posts on our site are short (about 650 words) but not too short (400 words or less). Six hundred words give you enough time to develop an idea but not enough time to write the definitive work on any topic in five volumes.
Nugget the reader. Some of my favorite posts are the ones that tell a story. I loved Sarah Chen’s post about her toddler encountering Daddy Lookalikes. And this post about the way we feel protective and proud of our military kids. While both stories were personal, there was a nugget for the reader—something in it for them.
Send us what you’ve got. Finished things get published and move all of us forward. Things that are waiting to be perfect before they are in the world suck all the air out of your goals. So finish. One relentless finish is better than a million well-intentioned starts.
Email it to us! Make sure you put Submission: Title in the subject line. We will let you know that your contribution was received. (Give us about a week as we get a lot of emails.) And we’ll contact you with edits, suggestions and a final decision.
We love how the story of military families can be told through similar experiences — separations, moves, change. Things coming together. Things falling apart. But the story is always evolving—which is endlessly fascinating to all of us who are paying attention.
