This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © Ian Hall. Hallanish Publishing. Smashwords Edition
Published by Ian Hall at Smashwords
ISBN: 978-1-4659-6430-4
All rights reserved, and the author reserves the right to re-produce this book, or parts thereof, in any way whatsoever.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
How to Write Your Own Zombie Novel.
By Ian Hall
Introduction.
After some writing success, my daughter told me; “Dad, you should write a zombie novel.”
Straight to the point, my daughter.
Well, I had a couple of stabs at it, but kept falling into ‘rabbit holes’, which made the story stumble. Something wasn’t right.
So I worked at it, sorting out my mistakes, and finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t my writing ability that was cramping me. It wasn’t my style, and it wasn’t the material. (Not at all the cocky one, you understand.)
I realized that I’d just breezed into the genre without really thinking about it, confident that my talent/ability would sort out the loose ends. It didn’t.
I did some reading, watched some television, and returned to the task a month later, determined to write a better story.
I would write my own self-help “write your own zombie book”.
Perfect. And it did help me focus the various important points in the genre.
So…
Here is my “Self-Help” book to you.
Go write your own zombie novel, and don’t get bogged down in the same sticky stuff that I was in.
Yours
Ian Hall
How to Write Your Own Zombie Novel.
By Ian Hall
Table of Contents.
1/ Writing Style.
The Writing Basics. Paper or Computer? Why are you writing? First/second/third person. Who am I aiming this at? Humor?
2/ Plots and Challenges.
Do you have one? The Perfectionist.
3/ Before you start to write;
Where in the timeline of Zombie-ism do you start? Pre-mid-post apocalypse? Characters names.
4/ The Zombie Basics.
Where is your novel set? It matters.
Characters; beginning characteristics. (Do they know all the answers? Or do they have to learn?)
How bad goes the gore?
Choice of Weapons (and how to get them)
Driving after the apocalypse.
Sex rears its ugly head.
5/ What kind of ending?
Definite? Enigmatic? A non-ending?
6/ Reference Sites.
Read other Zombie novels.
How to Write Your Own Zombie Novel.
1/ Writing Style.
Writing Basics.
Firstly, if you can think straight, you can write. Actually, even if you can’t think straight, you can still write, but your disability often gets in the way, and it’s more difficult to overcome the handicap. Some of the most mad-cap of books have come from the partially insane. And still sold millions.
Anyway.
You’ve got a blank screen or a blank page in front of you, and you’ve decided that you’re going to write a zombie novel. And that brings us to the first question.
Paper or Computer?
Writing on paper has its advantages;
It can’t be deleted by mistake by the touch of the wrong button.
It can’t be deleted by a power surge.
It kinda feels good doing it.
BUT; writing on PC has a hundred advantages;
You can spellcheck.
You can print a copy.
You can send it to a friend to read in milliseconds.
You can correct/change/delete a letter, word, paragraph, chapter in seconds.
And ninety-six others (available by email only).
So, whatever you choose, you come down firmly and choose your writing medium.
And before you put one word on the manuscript, you have to decide the next question, because it decides how you proceed.
Why Are You Writing?
It matters right now, why you’re doing it.
I mean, it might be to prove a point to yourself or others, it might be to surmount a challenge, it might just be for a bit of a laugh.
Doesn’t matter why you’re doing it, but you have to decide now; why?
The reason for writing decides on the attitude that you write with.
I’ve never met a successful writer that started his book out as a “bit of a laugh”.
Most first-time writers are out to prove a point. And that makes them serious about it. They sit at their manuscript with a snarl, and say; “I’m going to write something good today”.
TIP; When I get writers block, I’ll sit at the screen, just making small adjustments, and soon the small ones get bigger, then I’m off and writing. Works every time.
I try and write a thousand words a day, but I know of several full-time famous writers who just do a hundred or so, then go out to the beach or play golf or something.