Story Idea: Suggestions?

[mcarney1173]

I've always wanted to write a story and could fill at least 1000 pages with my failure novels. I've been brainstorming ideas recently and decided to write a combination (zombie/end of world) novel. Even though this is just an early idea, I still need some ideas. The main thing I need to know is whether or not I should write it as a personal narrative. Example: "I trudged on through the empty streets as I saw hundreds of zombies ready to attack." (A crappy sentence!) Or as just a third person. Example: "He didn't have much water left until he and his group found a supermarket." (Again, a crap sentence.) Also, my main question is : What would you do during an apocalypse. I need some ideas as to where you would stay, how you would fight off zombies and what you would first do when the world ends. Thanks.

[L2K]

what i do while writing scifi is sooo simple...

i put my characters into the worst scenario ever, and i watch them escaping death.
also, im an adept of the diabolicus ex machina
(the pure opposite of the deus ex machina)
typical example : the hero find a new gun super hi tech with desintegration mode and antimater particule emission. deadly ennemies ariving from everywhere and a bag end. no escape. just enough power for one big shot taht would kill half the enemies at once. but just half. while brainstorming to find a solution, the big gun goes off.

[Hellsgate]

I'd stray away from focusing on an "end of the world" scenario, so much as "a day in the life of (character)" and just go with it from there. The zombie thing has been done to death. Try some other angle such as "The Rapture" or a near future nightmare reality.

Everyone you knew & loved has been "taken" & you're (as far as you're aware,) on-your-own & S.O.L.

But, the genuine reason for an empty city neighborhood was the result of a proton weapon that would leave buildings and infrastructure intact but eliminate resistance, via human general infantry / civilians.

Humanity has survived, (without succumbing to becoming zombie mutants,) but there are always armed opportunists willing to seize power / control whenever possible. You wake-up one morning, your head splitting with pain from a birthday bash the night before, involving tequila. So, you don't notice anything's amiss until the hangover subsides. You've been living in a converted surplus U.S. Armed Forces bomb shelter in the midwest, which is now a deluxe (underground) condominium as of a few years ago. This is the one and ~only~ reason you were spared from being litterrally vaporized upon impact of the enemy's ICBM's and a reasonable but not completely impervious shelter from EMP weapons. You shower and dress, head upstairs and get in the car which doesn't start. You bike to work and the whole town is deserted. A litteral "Ghost Town".

[drunkclam]

You could try combining them. One chapter you have the 1st person narrative, next chapter do like news reports, or scientific experiment files.

[drunkclam]

ohhh, do one about military experiments on zombies.

[amaysingstories]

Can't say what's best. I'm a writer, too, but a central idea is only the beginning.

You need a Big Idea (and there is no such thing as an idea that's been done to death. Every idea has been done to death - there are no truly original concepts. What matters is how you do it and if it enthralls the reader or not. Concept fatigue is a factor, but if you right the best dang zombie story ever, who cares if thirty lesser tales are out there as well?)

Once you have your original take on the Big Idea, you need a plot. A whole plot. That'll get you through to the end. If you don't know how the story is going to end, this will just be another attempt, and you'll never finish.

Then you need to populate it. Stories that have a great plot, but no compelling, rounded, complex characters are doomed to remain in the slush pile. Knowing the next event is nice, but write about the characters, not the events. That's the key. How is all this affecting the people.

And the last advice: Stay away from First Person. Stick with Third Person. If your viewpoint character is not compelling, or is unpleasant, or just you voicing your own angst, you're going to be falling into a trap that drags down many a writer. Keeping with third person (and a consistent viewpoint character - don't jump from viewpoint to viewpoint) limits you, and makes you describe things better. You may see a lot of novels and stories published in first person, but what you don't see is all the bad first person that never makes it out of the slushpile. Third person is more forgiving, publishers say. Stick with that until you're darn good, and a publisher would buy your toilet paper as long as you had touched it.

[Adamastor]

I doubt it would make a compeling read, but what i would do if traped in a zombie apocalipse is try to outlast them. i dont recall the exact numeber but iirc about 70 something representatives can repopulate a whole species. so you find a nice big apartment block, get a whole hydroponic, solarpanel, and baracade setup and wait for the zombies to starve or kill each other
as for ideas, i think that the only way of making a zombie story interesting would be to add a significant twist to the very base of you plot. avoiding the "zombie virus" thing would be a good place to start. see what has been done, what twists have been done and what is taken for granted in the genre, then find an interesting way to go against the grain on some points. a couple cool things ive seen:
the Last blood comic has zombies be the product of blood starved vampires (i think those guys actually got a movie deal or something).
in 28 days later the "zombies" are not undead, they are just seriously pissed off people, every bit as mortal as everyone else.
Black sheep movie has zombie sheep (excelent movie, real good laugh)
In the Dr. Mcninja comic, the zombie combat plan involves wearing biteproof suits (no bite no zombies ) and waiting for the good doctor to wipe them out.

i never understood why zombies, being the mindless killers that only want to eat, have such an increadible sense of loyalty towards each other that they wont eat their felow zombie but prefer to seek out the hidden armed guy behind a baricade..

[RobAB]

Originally Posted by Hellsgate

I'd stray away from focusing on an "end of the world" scenario, so much as "a day in the life of (character)" and just go with it from there. The zombie thing has been done to death. Try some other angle such as "The Rapture" or a near future nightmare reality.

Everyone you knew & loved has been "taken" & you're (as far as you're aware,) on-your-own & S.O.L.

But, the genuine reason for an empty city neighborhood was the result of a proton weapon that would leave buildings and infrastructure intact but eliminate resistance, via human general infantry / civilians.

Humanity has survived, (without succumbing to becoming zombie mutants,) but there are always armed opportunists willing to seize power / control whenever possible. You wake-up one morning, your head splitting with pain from a birthday bash the night before, involving tequila. So, you don't notice anything's amiss until the hangover subsides. You've been living in a converted surplus U.S. Armed Forces bomb shelter in the midwest, which is now a deluxe (underground) condominium as of a few years ago. This is the one and ~only~ reason you were spared from being litterrally vaporized upon impact of the enemy's ICBM's and a reasonable but not completely impervious shelter from EMP weapons. You shower and dress, head upstairs and get in the car which doesn't start. You bike to work and the whole town is deserted. A litteral "Ghost Town".

NO NO I'm working on something that covers the rapture, aliens, near earth collisions, and much much more all tied into 2012..

[juanxer]

I am reading a couple of interesting zombie variations comics:

-Warren Ellis' BlackGas: some sort of volcanic gas triggers a loss of certain inhibitions, people get violent and aggresive, while being conscious of what's happening to them and what they are doing to each other.

-Garth Ennis' Crossed: an infection turns people into hordes of psychopaths that enjoy torturing and killing even if dying in the proccess (say, crashing the plane they are in or keeping someone from escaping a burning vehicle, from the inside).

It is difficult to come up with interesting new ideas, zombie-wise. Zombie horror primarily relies in fear of being eaten alive, and fear of becoming infected: the easier, the scarier. I think 28 Days Later was at the top of that game. Ennis' comic book adds to that another fear: of being viciously raped and/or tortured to death.



Rapture-wise: what about Rapture happening and then it isn't rapture at all but something else entirely, and utterly terrifying? And, by the way, all those people being elevated to Heaven choke and freeze to death while transversing the atmosphere and their corpses are left orbiting Earth.

[juanxer]

Night Shyamalan's The Happening had some Zombie-like elements one could use.