Zombies! discussion

Hey guys. I was needing some advice on a new book I'm gonna start writing soon. My book is going to be about zombies obviously, but I have enough ideas to make this a big thing like making this a 4, 5, or 6 novel series. Most books and movies revolving around zombies are mostly the same. The Walking Dead seems to be the only zombie epic to give people what they always wanted. I wanna do the same only with books. Can anybody give me some ideas as to how I could approach this? I plan on making the zombies slow like they should be, characterization is what I also plan to use because I want readers to care about the characters. I don't know if I should explain in the books how the virus starts or how it spread and so forth. I notice that most zombie fans wanna see what happens years later and how people are adjusting to their new world. I plan on doing something like that but I won't go to far into the future. Maybe 3-5 years later, something like that. Would putting myself in the books as the lead/main character be too stupid or something?? Also I am struggling to come up with a title. Outbreak was my original title but it sounds too much like 28 weeks later. I'm open to everyone's ideas. I would really like to hear what you all have to say about it. Thanks

You may want to take a look at this discussion for some ideas:


http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

You mention "the virus."

Keep in mind that in both TWD and the Romero world, there appears to be two issues -- a bite kills, and the dead reanimate. They aren't necessarily one and the same cause and effect. Because dead can reanimate without being bitten. So the bite doesn't spread the reanimation effect. Just a virus that kills. Then something else reanimates the corpse.

If a bite (or something similar) were the only way to transmit reanimation, then there would be no way the outbreak would occur all over the world simultaneously. It would spread from a patient zero instead. Unless you have some human agent releasing it simultaneously.

And, if it does spread, you'd have to worry about incubation periods, since that determines how much it can spread before it is noticed.

With zombies, there are no rules and no, you don't have to spell out how it happened. Some times that is the best approach. Gives you more flexibility.

I also agree with the idea of building characters. That makes the read deeper and better in my opinion.

I also prefer the slow shuffling zombies.

The biggest advice I can give you is make a flow map of where you want the story to go. You don't have to follow it to a "T" but just start writing. I do most of my best stuff when I am just hammering out chapters.

Good Luck and never hesitate to ask for help.

Undead literature is a growing field but at least for me, having written a few novels on this subject, it's more complicated than some people may think. Unless you're only interested in having simple characters who all are exmilitary and are all highly proficient in battle, you should try and think 'outside' the box. Relatable characters facing the undead, who are just typical people, are much more interesting. Plus, the zombies should never be the MAIN thing in a story about them. It's how the characters react and interact to them where most of the drama/action resides. Personally, I like letting the readers know the origin or reason why the undead are coming back. It's not necessary, but I like at least giving hints why or how it happened. Should you (the author) write him/herself in as a charcter? I have no idea. That depends on if the author makes an interesting character, I would imagine. It could be done as a diary approach and would work well from telling the stories from that angle. Good luck with the writing.
-Bill

As an avid Zombie reader I want to know at least a bit of back story and theories at the very least on what caused the dead to rise. Even when a book picks up years after a ZA broke out, I still want to have at least a chapter getting me up to speed on the why.

While I love the human stories, I don't want it to be all about them. If you're gonna write about Zombies you better plan to use them. That means accepting that characters, even the ones you love need to die. Not everyone mind you but their should be a significant body count.

Killing off characters, especially beloved ones as in a series, is always a tricky move. If it makes sense from a story standpoint I don't have a problem. But to kill them off just for the sake of doing so seems... unnecessary. I killed off one in my first novel and got a great bit of email from readers asking why the good guy died, and yet a truly reprehensible guy managed to live. I think I usually answered those people with "Sometimes bad guys live, and heroes die."
I'm sure Stephen King gets alot of people pissed off when he kills off principal characters, but that hasn't stopped them from buying his books.

It shows when you don't know what your writing about so stick with what you know. - Good advice I was given.

I always love the moment of the outbreak, but it is rarely well described.

I always picture a zombie outbreak to happen in bad moments like:
- when your taking a dump in your schools restroom,
- while your in the middle of class,
- watching a movie in the theater without noticing the world goes to hell outside until people who left during the break do not return and the movie does not continue or the movie ends.
- when you are inside the train who's next stop is right in the middle of the outbreak.
- when your at work filling or unpacking boxes in the back


Do this in new places like europe, asia or oceania.
Do this to people who understand that SHTF when they see a zombie shuffeling to them.

And then proceed to lay down their stories of survival.

The moment of the outbreak is the coolest moment of a zombie book. after that you just get pissed off by the usual routine of large bands of bikers/cannibalistic humans/prisoners/religious nutters.

Write a book with a person who has a plan not to survive, but to kill as many of the evil bastards as can be and live to talk about it.

I love this thread :)