Season 2 - Episode 18: Patient Zero - Starting Zombie Apocalypse Stories

You just gotta be quicker than the other guy when running from zombies. Come join us today as we talk about what you need to know to start a good zombie apocalypse story!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music

(00:06):
Brains. Lots and lots of brains.
My name is Ken Mears.
And I'm Melissa Fales.
And welcome to Writer's World.
Music
Music

(00:30):
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As we start this episode, I first wanted to talk about our personal favorite apocalypse we think is most likely to happen.
Mine are zombie apocalypse, second werewolves, and third virus apocalypse, which might happen.

(00:52):
Ken, what are your top three favorite ways you think the world will go into apocalypse?
As far as actual likely options, I would imagine some sort of disease outbreak, which may have so-called
zombifying effects that could include a craving for human flesh, increased anger, that sort of thing, which according to my studies are things that happen with certain diseases throughout history.

(01:17):
So...
That's so comforting. So comforting.
For sure.
The second likely or favorite apocalypse I would picture is perhaps some sort of global climate shift, either like an overheating or a freezing ice age.
And then the last would be some sort of nuclear apocalypse, where we basically all nuke each other,

(01:41):
eliminating most of humanity and leaving the survivors in a very harsh radioactive world.
Well, on that happy note, Ken, why did you decide you wanted to write an episode on the zombie apocalypse?
This podcast episode was Ken's idea and I just kind of wanted to know why.
Because frankly, I find the topic fascinating, because I'll be real with you guys, zombies are a real thing, just not in a very classic movie way.

(02:07):
There are plenty of examples of bugs, quote unquote, zombifying other bugs, or even fungus controlling ants, which is some pretty freaky stuff.
I also thought this subject would be kind of timely because at least at the time of this recording, the world is in utter terror over the COVID-19 virus.
Yes, now that we have gotten that out of the way, it is time to move on to happier stuff, such as Zombie Basics 101.

(02:34):
According to Terrible Writing Advice in their Zombie Apocalypse YouTube video, quote,
the first place to start in starting your zombie apocalypse story is deciding if your zombies are fast or slow, end quote.
And this seemed like a good place to start to me, and a question that you will have to address eventually anyways.

(02:57):
We talk about this next idea, and this next suggestion I have quite a lot in the next upcoming episode,
but I would recommend eventually having an origin story to tell everyone how the zombies got there in the first place.
I say that as one of my tips because if you have a zombie apocalypse origin story, your reader can go, well, that could have happened, and continue on to enjoy your story without major hookups.

(03:24):
Also, remember that what makes The Walking Dead so popular is because A. Zombies.
B. The show has an overarching plot line with zombies being a problem, but not the only problem.
Examples? Some overarching missions could be to find the antidote, struggle for resources, or stopping the person who makes the zombies, et cetera.

(03:48):
Ken, what are your how-to Zombie Basics 101 thoughts?
I think you definitely want to start at the beginning figuring out some plausible reason for zombies existing.
Some Writing and Science experts at a panel I attended talked about several sources for zombies.
These included pharmacologically, also known as potions or drugs, fungus, bacteria, or something we don't understand like aliens of a sort.

(04:16):
I would also consider how zombified the zombies really are, how fast and slow they are, how much of a mind of their own they have, how aggressive they are, how smart, clever they are, et cetera.
Oh, good points. Ken, with the zombie apocalypse story, do you think that you plan it out for first or you just start writing?

(04:37):
Well, as far as planning out what will happen more or less with the people, yes, plan it out.
It's just like any other story. You can have cool monsters if you want, but the focus of any story is the people.
So maybe focus on planning out what happens with relationships and major events and sprinkle the zombie encounters here and there as you write with the occasional major plot point with the zombies.

(05:01):
If you are struggling with ideas about having a zombie story, here are four writing prompts taken from Hobbylark to start your zombie story.
And I thought these were pretty entertaining.
Number one, you open the back door to let in your beloved dog only to find out that it is a zombie and wants to eat you right through your emotions as you determine how to take care of the business at hand.

(05:27):
Number two, in front of you are five zombies behind you, a body of water. You do not know how to swim.
You have three options before you reach for a weapon, a fan, rake, a screwdriver and a frying pan.
You can only reach one of them before being attacked. Make your choice.
I'm sorry. These are good.

(05:51):
Number three, the zombie apocalypse has been raging on for two years.
Food is scarce. You happen upon an old and empty farmhouse with a cold room that has had that still has stores in it, including one jar of jam, three potatoes, one can of beef and one can of beef stew.
You get a short scene or long scene about finding these items with the focus being on how you will open the cans since you do not have a can opener.

(06:18):
Number four, Jonathan and Meg have been married one year.
As an anniversary gift, he accidentally turns her into a zombie with something his boss gave him at work.
These are just some ideas and I mean with zombie stories you can get very, very creative. It's just fun to read them, to experiment and now that we have our brains turning, we are going to be addressing the question, how do I start writing a zombie novel?

(06:49):
This idea comes from craigdialogue.com.
Somebody once asked horror author David Moody on Facebook for some advice on writing a zombie novel. Moody advised him to go to a crowded public place, picture something terrible happening and then imagine how everyone else would react.
And I think this is a good representation of the answer to the question, how do I start writing a zombie novel, is to just start.

(07:12):
Now, I realize that Ken and I might have different thoughts on this and I do recognize that this is the planster in me, but here are some questions you may want to address as you are writing your zombie novel or you can use these questions just for inspiration.
And Ken covered some earlier ones which were really helpful.
How are the zombies made? Do the zombies smell? Where are the children? Where are the pets? How do people get food?

(07:38):
Also, there is a book called Zombie Novel Writing 101, How to Write a Zombie Apocalypse Novel, which covers this in better detail from zombie world building to quote larger than life characters, quote, which seems as good of a place as any to start and can be found on Amazon.
Before I ask Ken his thoughts, my biggest thought to whomever may need to hear it is to remember that this is still a story where everything that makes a good book still applies. Ken, how does one start writing a zombie novel?

(08:13):
You start with the people. As I said earlier, every story is about the people, not the cool monster or in this case zombies.
Yes, they can be a major element, but the focus is people. When it comes down to it, the first thing you should consider is how people in your story are handling the zombies.
Do they try to blend in with the zombies? Do they attack every zombie they see? Do they hole up in fortified strongholds?

(08:38):
Then I would look at how the zombies have affected people psychologically. Do people distance themselves from others for fear of being hurt when others die?
Do people become like warmongers to be stronger than the zombies? Once you've determined these effects, you can run from there and figure out what your main conflict in the zombie story is.
That's a really good point. According to a Goods Reads discussion I found online, here's something that everyone agreed made a good zombie novel, quote, well developed characters that I actually care about.

(09:12):
There was a lot of debate over how big or small information dumps should be at a time and a huge debate over fast or slow zombies and how many zombies there should be.
But they all cared about the well developed characters that they actually care about and that's the key part of the story is having those characters who you're interested to see where they go.

(09:38):
Ken, what do you think makes a good zombie book or movie? Do you agree with the Goods Reads participants?
I think they're quite right. Characters make a zombie story because zombie hordes may be hard to write, regardless of how fast or slow they are, but they are no excuse for crappy writing.
Having real grounded characters that people care about is not just the key to a good zombie story, but any good story.

(10:02):
And there are a lot of stories about zombies out there and you can write one too. Here are some popular zombie apocalypse worlds reality media.
Of course, The Walking Dead, the quote series features a large assembly cast as survivors of the zombie apocalypse try to stay alive under near constant threat of attacks from the mindless zombies known as walkers.

(10:27):
However, with the fall of humanity, these survivors also face conflicts from other living survivors who have formed groups and communities with their own sets of laws and laws, often leading to hostile conflicts between the human communities and quote.
I mean, just there you see how like, yeah, it is a zombie story, but there's other plot points. Another one, pride and prejudice and zombies.

(10:48):
In the words of my good friends quote, it is as someone had literally said, I wonder if zombies were in pride and prejudice and then did it quote.
Also, Frankenstein could be argued a story about a smart zombie.
And finally, World War Z. When former you and investigator Gary Lane and his family get stuck in urban Greenlock, he senses that it's no ordinary traffic jam.

(11:12):
His suspicions are confirmed when suddenly the city rubs in chaos. A lethal virus spread through a single bite is turning healthy people into something vicious.
As that pandemic threatens to consume humanity, Gary leads a worldwide search to find the source of the infection, and with luck, a way to halt its spread.
And I got all these descriptions, I quote from simply Googling the title. Ken, do you have any favorite zombie stories or recommendations?

(11:37):
I personally don't consume a ton of zombie media, but one that I quite enjoyed, albeit through lots of language filters, was Zombie Land.
It's a bit of an old zombie movie, having come out around 10 years ago, but I think it does a decent job of combining zombies, humor and real people relationships.
The characters have interpersonal conflict, not just zombie related conflict.

(12:00):
They realistically try to distance themselves by being called by the name of their hometown instead of their real names.
I will note though, don't watch Zombie Land without intense filters unless you like tons of swearing and blood.
But that's the zombie story I recommend, albeit not for younger audiences.
Yeah, with most zombie movies that applies.

(12:21):
But my final thought comes from the Goodreads discussion.
Quote, Mr. Romier said that in a good story, it's never about the zombies per se, it's about the people.
End quote. And I thought that was a good place for me to end. Ken, any final thoughts?
Only that I would like to touch on this topic again down the line, perhaps a little closer to Halloween.

(12:47):
There is so much more we could talk about between building conflict outside of things like zombies and the sources of possible zombies, that sort of thing.
But unfortunately, we're out of time, so we'll have to leave it at that.
We hope today's episode was helpful. If you like our podcast, please share it with your friends and family.
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And our Patreon is patreon.com slash writersworldpodcast.

(13:11):
And if you want your questions answered, our email is writersworldpodcast at gmail.com.
Until next time, I've been Melissa Fales with Writers World.
And keep on writing. And keep on writing.