What do you want in a zombie novel

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Permalink Reply by Alter_Ego on April 5, 2009 at 3:44pm

As an aspiring writer, myself, I'd like to suggest that you NOT write your book based on what other people want from it. If you write based on what your audience/publisher/whatever tells you to write, then you aren't writing for the sake of the craft, and the quality of your work will suffer. It's your story, you should control what happens. As long as you keep your spelling and grammar up to par while avoiding things like purple prose and Mary Sue characters (see Twilight and Eragon for examples of both), you should write whatever you want and not care what other people think.

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Permalink Reply by Alter_Ego on April 27, 2009 at 2:32am

That being said, here's something I DON'T want to see in a zombie book: zombie romance. Shit.

Zombies are the only monsters the fucking romance genre hasn't stolen and turned into a bunch of pussified, pussy-whipped, pussy-licking, pussy-ass boy toys for teenage girls' bad boy fantasies.

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Permalink Reply by juice box on April 6, 2009 at 11:11am

I think that Max Brooks did some really interesting work with his World War Z

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Permalink Reply by John Lennon & Yoko Ono on April 23, 2009 at 10:18am

JOHN & YOKO - If we come up with some ideas will we get a share in the profits from the sale of the book???

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Permalink Reply by nomad on April 24, 2009 at 12:11am

Max Brooks's "World War Z" and the zombie attack survival book were interesting because they really explored some interesting consequences of a typical zombie invasion. In most zombie movies, there is some kind of abrupt end, either to the survivors (they all die) or the zombie threat (they are all killed/cured). In Brooks's books, he talks about hordes of them ending up at the bottom of bodies of water and how a zombie can die naturally since their muscles and tissue do not regenerate. You might want to be inventive with the effects of zombies in natural society instead of pulling a 28 Days Later and having your zombies be totally different than traditional zombies.

Do you have a title yet?

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Permalink Reply by PFreaky PFister on April 24, 2009 at 6:21pm

I'm actually going to wait until I've fully finished writing the entire novel to make up the title
when I finish writing I'll make sure to tell you the title

but just so you know, I have been trying my best to make up a unique ending and the one I'm cooking up will hopefully be viewed as very different from any endings that have been done before (sorry if i sound overly smug)

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Permalink Reply by PoopaPapaSanta on April 27, 2009 at 2:14am

I want to see someone who's half undead and half living living in a world post-zombie apocalypse. People survive and revamp society again after the huge debacle and a small handful of half undead/living people are trying to gain acceptance in a world that won't forget. It's hard for them to try to get jobs or a cab because they are discriminated against, they're in a coffee shop or some restaurant and denied services because 'brains' or 'human flesh' isn't on the menu...Things like that. And one day, after a lucky half-zombie endures the shittiest day in his unlife at his job, he bites someone and the book ends on that note.

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Permalink Reply by nomad on April 28, 2009 at 10:04pm

You kind of described the set-up for Otto: Or, Up With Dead People. It's set in the near-future and zombies kind of exist among other people, but are discriminated against.

It got really weird after that, including some zombie gay porn and shit. Really weird. I went to it at Sundance without realizing what I was getting into...

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Permalink Reply by PoopaPapaSanta on April 29, 2009 at 2:04am

Damn! And here I thought I was being original!

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Permalink Reply by Timmy Cupcakes on June 9, 2009 at 1:25pm

Actually that sounds just like the premise of Breathers. Haven't read it yet, but the synopsis is exactly what you are saying.

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Permalink Reply by PoopaPapaSanta on June 10, 2009 at 8:11pm

Damn! And here I thought I was being original!

...W-w-waitaminute!!

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Permalink Reply by wormer on June 10, 2009 at 9:04pm

This idea was also in "Land of the Dead" movie...

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