RIP is Easy Compared to Your Unit

The blog a Guide to Literary Agents has a series on “How I got my agent.” Its fun to read, gives some insight, and helps me keep motivated.

Today’s author, Billy Coffey, writes about how he found his agent. He mentions that prior to looking for an agent he thought the hard part of getting published would be finishing the novel. Not so. He says the hard part is finding an agent.

This reminds me of the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP). We were told constantly how RIP is easy compared to the work we would be forced to do in our Ranger units. None of us believed it. RIP was three weeks of genuine hell. No food, no sleep, 20 mile forced marches at a sprint pace, early morning runs that left us devastated, constant, continually training, psychological games, an attrition rate above 50%, and running everywhere we went. SMOKER!

However, the Ranger Instructors (RI) were right. All the times they said “RIP is easy compared to what your unit will expect from you” were spot on. My first week in Bravo Company, I think day two or three, I found myself hanging outside a decrepit Huey, with all the gear no one else wanted to hump. My shoelaces were unlaced and I had no hope of getting down there and fixing them for at least two days, lost a good portion of my gear, my back ached from all the gear, a M203 that was a dinosaur compared to what privates use today, and my 1st gen nods, the worst in the squad, actually made the dark harder to walk through. We walked and rested (intermittently) for five days in the field. This was all training for an exercise in Louisiana that started the following week. It was a true trial by fire and by the end of it I was begging to go back to the easy days of RIP.

This is how I see the agent search going. Novel finishing is difficult, so far finding an agent hasn’t been a thrill, but each challenge is preparation for the next. Just like Basic Training, Infantry Training, Airborne and RIP were stair steps up toward a Ranger unit and going to Ranger School.

Good thing I have a history that includes success in these endeavors and now I know what to expect.