McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Zombies?

(1/5) > >>

Stuart1512:
Hey all, i'm starting my Zombie novel soon called The Purge, about a group of kids trapped in a school with a bunch of the living dead just outside. Basically there are two groups of teenagers, Group A who is the main characters group which the story will focus more on and Group B who is lead by another teenager who's followers see him as a Mesiah type person.
I just got one question? how do i go about introducing the zombies etc do i introduce the characters first where they were when the disease spread or hop right into the story?

blgarver:
That's a big question.  Off the top of my head, being a "right into the story" type of fella, I'd like to see the characters first, in the situation, but not necessarily communicating what exactly is happening.  I wouldn't want to see the zombies, or even have any of the characters mention them directly, until the end of the first chapter. 

For instance, if the characters are talking about the disease or whatever, just refer to it simply as "it" or "the illness" or something vague.  If they all know what is happening, they wouldn't be regurgitating the history to each other.  And when refering to the zombies, they should just say "them."  Not even label them as "infected" or "afflicted" or anything like that.  Not right away, anyhow.

That's just my opinion, as a reader and a writer.  Hope it helps.

BLG

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Stuart1512 on September 19, 2007, 05:41:50 PM ---Hey all, i'm starting my Zombie novel soon called The Purge, about a group of kids trapped in a school with a bunch of the living dead just outside. Basically there are two groups of teenagers, Group A who is the main characters group which the story will focus more on and Group B who is lead by another teenager who's followers see him as a Mesiah type person.
I just got one question? how do i go about introducing the zombies etc do i introduce the characters first where they were when the disease spread or hop right into the story?

--- End quote ---

Either could be made work; it depends on the style and focus of the story.

Whose point-of-view is it from, and how close ?  If you want to be tightly inside someone's head, introduce the zombies as that person finds out about them; if you want to do something more camera-eye then you could give that information to the reader in a different way.

My own preference would be for the tight-third, because I think it's easier to make work.

Stuart1512:
Group A is the main focus, thanks for the help, i'll probably have the first chapter done soon. I've got so many drafts running through my head, should i start with the infection killing off people then bringing them back etc or should i start with one of the kids wondering through the corpse littered street and finding salvation at the school?

blgarver:
I vote the corpse littered street.  You can explain what happened with the virus during the course of the story.

A rule of thumb for screenwriting that can work for novels too: Start the plot at the latest possible moment in the story. 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page