Elsa's Tips on Becoming a Better Author

Avoiding the Cliche - Zombie Apocalypse

Avoding the Cliche - Zombie Apocalypse

Oooooh boy, there are millions of them. Book clones, taking over this website like a plague...A ZOMBIE PLAGUE *inception music*

No, but seriously people, can you think of anything original? STOP COPYING THE WALKING DEAD. PLEASE. Yes, I understand a lot of you don't know exactly how to write a zombie book without copying at least one of the plots of The Walking Dead, so I'm here to help you brainstorm. Don't worry children, the fantabulous Elsa is here to help.

The Similarities:

It's not only the plots that are similer to zombie TV shows and movies such as The Walking Dead, but the zombies, characters, and setting as well. Zombies don't have to all be the same. Who says you have to kill a zombie by destroying the brain? Maybe the zombie disease is in the blood, so the zombie has to bleed out before dying--again. That could potentially lead to a lot of difficulties for the characters...just a gun won't do the job, a sword may be the ideal weapon. Or maybe the zombies die like regular humans, it doesn't matter if you shoot it in the brain or the heart.

There is a bunch of things to make your zombies original. Are they slow or fast? Do they travel in groups or just singularly? Do they eat eachother or just humans? How does the disease spread, through a bite, a scratch, neither, both? Is it like a cold, do you get the 'zombie' just by being around zombies? There is quite a lot to make your own.

Speaking of which, making a 'The Walking Dead' fanfiction is NOT AN ORIGINAL BOOK. I don't care if you have your own characters, if you put them through the same exact freaking situation as the characters in a zombie TV show or movie and 'make it your own', everyone reading is going to go; "Oh, they took that from *insert popular zombie related thing here*." and move on. Think of your own ideas! And while your writing STAY AWAY FROM ZOMBIE MOVIES AND TV SHOWS, don't let them influence you in ANY WAY!

Okay, moving on to setting. News flash: CITIES AREN'T THE ONLY PLACES PEOPLE LIVE. What about small towns? The country? The suburbs? I won't even go into detail on this one, but research, find the ideal place for your story to take place and there you go.

An Abundance of Bull Crap:

Hey, guess what? Twelve year olds probably wouldn't survive a day in the apocalypse without an adult. Who happens to be a cop. And a mother, who is cheating said cop husband with said cop husbands best friend who wants to protect said twelve year old and said cop husband's wife. And guns. A lotta guns. 

Just kidding, but seriously, if you are going to throw a twelve year old in the zombie apocalypse all alone, or with fellow twelve year old friends and have them survive, THAT'S FREAKING BULL CRAP AND YOU KNOW IT. Give them an adult superviser, and if not an adult, at least and older teenager, like seriously people, let's be realistic.

Also, if you are adding children (18 and under) in your book, DO NOT SKIM OVER THE EMOTIONAL SCARRING THESE CHILDREN ARE GETTING FROM THIS SITUATION. It should be on their minds every day, constantly haunting them...you don't have to write about it all the time, but just remember that it's there.

Oh, and where the heck do kids get a hold of weapons? AND HOW DO THEY KNOW HOW TO USE THEM? Honestly, in real life, it's not like any of their friends or family is gonna have a huge closet full of weapons and shiz. I mean, I guess it's conveniant, and I'm not saying that it could never happen, but it's more interesting for the characters to go looking for the weapons, and learn how to use them. It could take a couple of serious injuries for your characters to get the hang of it, which really helps when pacing your story.

Do You Really Have a Goal?

Some zombie stories that I read are just...pointless. Cool, they are fighting zombies. Cool, they have to go to this place. Cool, so and so died. Cool. Wait, what are they doing? What do they want? What's the point of their survival? What is the long term goal? For many books, it's just to survive...which is kind of general. What do they want to survive for? What more is there? Think about this as you are writing your novel.

Authors Note:

So I tried a new format this time...what do you think?? I hope this helped, I spent a long time doing research and stuff like that for this chapter to make it as accurate as possible. If you still have any more questions about avoiding the cliche in zombie apocolypse novels, just comment and I'll make a part two. What do you want me to do next? I can do another 'Avoiding the cliche' for another topic if you guys like. Seriously just comment. This probably made no sense because I'm really tired. Sorry. Bye. Unicorns. Wait what?

LOL (lots of love)

Elsa