I can't get into the Mcnallys thread at all. I can view my posts that are in threads in there but I can't change pages in the threads.

I got sort of the vibe of a Weaonesque kind of story. Comedy mixed into a little horror/drama. A little lighthearted.

Personally I would just like to have a vampire or werewolf story that doesn't read like it should have a picture of Fabio with fangs on the cover.

yup showing up perfect

I noticed that the Banner on the home page has been changed. I don't know if it's just my computer but the text for the links to the differnet parts of the site are gone. There is just a white line in each box. It could be that the box is black and the text is black I'm not sure.

Great, now we'll get a bunch of kids moping around on all fours and covering themselves in fur

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.

Just this morning I was thinking about how almost all the real famous monsters have their beginig mythos tale. For instance Vampires have Dracula and zombies/undead have Frankenstein. But Werewolves don't really have one.

So on the way to work I was contemplating how one could create a begining to the Vampire legend.
So far the best I've come up with is sort of build off of Jim's examples of werewolves in Fool Moon and more so on Norse mythology. Where the story takes place about a Viking (said to be son of odin)having a run in with Fenresiflr(sp?) and killing him. Loki distraught over his sons death curses the viking to walk the earth bearing the mark of the wolf which causes the soul of Fenresiflr to posses the vikings body at each full moon.