McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Zombies?

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Ms Duck:
Just a suggestion, not a critiscism, ok?

Can we have something othe r then zombis?

As much as I love my zombi filet o fish familliar (aka fred) Even I admit they are overdone..

How about a variation on the dancing plauge that hit europe in the dark ages? Im trying to find the technichal term on wiki, but hey, im no doctor.

symptoms were brain damage, walking , and random spastic shaking. it wouldn't be hard to imagine a version that causes violent behavior or dementia.

and it thros in the whole 'it's my little sister..do I try to capture her so she can be cured' drama angle. ;D

fivestyle:
I think it depends on what you want the viewer to get out of the story.

You could start with introducing the characters before the zombiepocolypse and have a few days go by so the reader gets involved in the characters and then gets to see how they change mentally when the crisis hits.

or

You can go like Romero did and just say here is the main character and boom zombies are attacking. Then introduce the characters and their personality over the course of the story.


The big thing I find is that zombie stories fail when the author/director tries to explain why the zombies are there or why thier doing what they do. Zombies become the most frightning when you don't know whats going on, because you don't know how to stop them and it makes it seem like survival is bleak because there is no where you can go to get away.

So unless your going for the Stephen King where the zombies are directly related to some evil in the town or the students acts I say don't explain them at all. Just have them show up. Use Shaun of the Dead as an example. The beginig of that movie has a lot of scarry jump scenes and it's not because something scary happens, it's because you know it's a zombie movie and you keep expecting the normal cliches even when they aren't there and then when they don't present themselves you get the feeling of suspense like you don't know when it's going to happen.

Yeratel:
Sheesh, nobody is writing anything but "George Romero zombies" anymore. It was creative when Romero did it originally, but now it's just derivative. I'm getting really bored with all the zombie armies raised by cosmic rays, or hazardous waste, or germs, and going on a rampage for brains, turning anyone they bite into another zombie.  Jim Butcher was a lot closer to the original zombie lore with the dead being raised by necromantic sorcery, and under control of the one who raised them. For a change, I'd like to see the old traditional zombies, being raised by a bokor using invocations to Damballah. They didn't eat brains, either. In fact, traditionally, if they ate meat or salt it would break the bokor's hold on them. In Haiti, where they were supposedly used as field slaves, they were alive enough to need to be fed, and given a diet of unsalted cornmeal gruel.

The Corvidian:

--- Quote from: Yeratel on September 28, 2007, 03:45:32 AM ---Sheesh, nobody is writing anything but "George Romero zombies" anymore. It was creative when Romero did it originally, but now it's just derivative. I'm getting really bored with all the zombie armies raised by cosmic rays, or hazardous waste, or germs, and going on a rampage for brains, turning anyone they bite into another zombie.  Jim Butcher was a lot closer to the original zombie lore with the dead being raised by necromantic sorcery, and under control of the one who raised them. For a change, I'd like to see the old traditional zombies, being raised by a bokor using invocations to Damballah. They didn't eat brains, either. In fact, traditionally, if they ate meat or salt it would break the bokor's hold on them. In Haiti, where they were supposedly used as field slaves, they were alive enough to need to be fed, and given a diet of unsalted cornmeal gruel.

--- End quote ---

If you gave them salt, the spell would be broken, and they would be dead again.

fivestyle:

--- Quote from: Yeratel on September 28, 2007, 03:45:32 AM ---Sheesh, nobody is writing anything but "George Romero zombies" anymore. It was creative when Romero did it originally, but now it's just derivative. I'm getting really bored with all the zombie armies raised by cosmic rays, or hazardous waste, or germs, and going on a rampage for brains, turning anyone they bite into another zombie.  Jim Butcher was a lot closer to the original zombie lore with the dead being raised by necromantic sorcery, and under control of the one who raised them. For a change, I'd like to see the old traditional zombies, being raised by a bokor using invocations to Damballah. They didn't eat brains, either. In fact, traditionally, if they ate meat or salt it would break the bokor's hold on them. In Haiti, where they were supposedly used as field slaves, they were alive enough to need to be fed, and given a diet of unsalted cornmeal gruel.

--- End quote ---

I totally get your sentiment and when I mentioned Romero it was ment only in reference to how the characters and zombies were introduced into the story.

I agree it would be cool to see zombies like you mention but I don't know if that could fit into the OP's storyline of kids trapped in a school surrounded by zombies, but then again I'm not sure of the direction of the story so maybe it could.

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