Military Strategy for Writers

Sun Tzu said, "Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

Your characters deserve your best strategic thinking. Are you ready to learn the secrets known by Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Mao, Clauswitz, and other famed strategists?

War: A source of enduring fascination to readers and the crucible that reveals character. Quality strategic thinking transforms stories from average to unforgettable and brings new depth to characters and their dilemmas. Backed by years of research into military strategy as well as examples from novels, movies, and short stories, Military Strategy for Writers offers a detailed look at how to incorporate strategic thinking into plots, characters, and structure. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of strategy, how it works (or doesn't) in reality and fiction, and how to apply it to your own narratives.

Designed as a resource for writers, gamers, and editors this book will:

• Build your strategic vocabulary ensuring your military genius characters sound like they know what they are talking about.
• Empower you to use classic strategic thought in your stories
• Dive down into the strategies of sea power to bring richness to stories set at sea
• Soar with strategies of air power and learn why experts argue if air power should be regarded as strategic or tactical
• Discuss out how military and civilian strategists use game theory to formulate nuclear strategy in the absence of historical examples
• Demonstrate how your characters can fight and win an insurgency
• Show how states fight insurgents and how that gives you a secret tool to use in your stories
• Reveal how the types of terrorism show the character of both terrorists and the states that fight it
• Take you to the stars to learn about war in the far future and strategy in space, as well as how to apply strategic thinking to fantasy campaigns

Included at the end is a list of questions to ask as you write, as well as a guide to doing quick military research that will fill you with knowledge and get you back to the keyboard fast. If you're in the mood for more information, Stein offers ten indispensable books on strategy to further your knowledge.

Clear, engaging, and written with a dry wit, Stein vividly describes major types of military strategy, their advantages, and disadvantages in various situations. Military Strategy for Writers gives you everything you need to ensure that your characters only make mistakes in their strategy when it will serve the plot and your goals as an author. Quality strategic thinking transforms stories from average to unforgettable and brings new depth to characters and their dilemmas.

Be warned! Once you know these secrets, you will see lost opportunities everywhere.

Stephen K. Stein is a Professor of History at the University of Memphis where he teaches courses on American, diplomatic, military, and maritime history, as well as the history of technology. He is also an adjunct professor of strategy for the College of Distance Education of the U.S. Naval War College for which he's taught for more than 20 years. The author of six books and numerous shorter works, his previous works include From Torpedoes to Aviation: Washington Irving Chambers and Technological Innovation in the New Navy, 1877-1913 (2007), The Sea in World History: Trade, Travel, and Exploration (2017), which was featured in an episode of "Adam Ruins Everything," Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States: Kinky People Unite (2021), which is the first comprehensive history of that community, and Teaching and Learning History Online: A Guide for College Instructors (2023, coauthored with Maureen MacLeod). His article "The Greely Relief Expedition and the New Navy," International Journal of Naval History 5 (December 2006) won the Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller Prize in Naval History.