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PRAISE FOR JACKSON DEAN CHASE
— USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR —
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BUZZFEED AND THE HUFFINGTON POST
“[Jackson Dean Chase is] a fresh and powerful new voice.”
— Terry Trueman, Printz Honor author of Stuck in Neutral
“[Chase] grabs readers from page one.”
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WRITING GUIDES BY JACKSON DEAN CHASE
FAST, FUN ADVICE FOR TODAY’S BUSY AUTHOR
NONFICTION
ULTIMATE AUTHOR’S GUIDE SERIES
#1 Writing Dynamite Story Hooks
#2 Writing Heroes & Villains
#3 Writing Monsters & Maniacs
#4 Writing Apocalypse & Survival
WRITERS’ PHRASE BOOKS SERIES
#1 Horror Writers’ Phrase Book
#2 Post-Apocalypse Writers’ Phrase Book
#3 Action Writers’ Phrase Book
#4 Fantasy Writers’ Phrase Book
#5 Fiction Writers’ Phrase Book (Series Sampler)
#6 Science Fiction Writers’ Phrase Book
#7 Romance, Emotion, and Erotica Writers’ Phrase Book
WRITING APOCALYPSE AND SURVIVAL
A MASTERCLASS IN POST-APOCALYPTIC SCIENCE FICTION AND ZOMBIE HORROR
JACKSON DEAN CHASE
WWW.JACKSONDEANCHASE.COM
For the end,
which is closer than you think.
“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”
— DAWN OF THE DEAD
CONTENTS
Introduction
1.
3 Stages of the Apocalypse
2.
Surviving the End
3.
Human Villains
4.
Killer Machines
5.
Mutants and Animals
6.
Zombie Animals
7.
Infected Characters
8.
Zombie Characters
9.
Types of Zombies
10.
Custom Zombie Builder
11.
Disaster Plot Templates
12.
Post-Apocalyptic Plot Templates
13.
Survival Horror
14.
Starting Your Story
15.
Zombie Story Case Study
16.
How to Write Descriptions of Zombies
What’s Next?
Post-Apocalyptic Reading and Watch List
Zombie Reading and Watch List
Author Resources
Special FREE BOOK Offer
Writing Dynamite Story Hooks
Writing Heroes & Villains
About Jackson Dean Chase
INTRODUCTION
DEATH HAS ALWAYS FRIGHTENED US, but it's normally on a personal level: losing family, friends, pets. When death looms larger than that―in war, for example―it becomes even more horrible. But still, we know life must go on. That is, until the nukes come out, or the bioweapons, the pandemics, the asteroids, even aliens or robots scorching the planet clean. Then we're not just talking about the death of millions. We're talking planet-wide extinction. The end of man.
Nothing personifies the end better than zombies. They give us time to reflect, to see death coming for us. They let us see what we become, and in some ways, what we have always been: parasitic organisms programmed to feed off death and off each other.
To quote my favorite line from Dawn of the Dead (1978):
“Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people it kills get up and kill!”
Zombies don't leave us any choice. They won't stop, so we can't. We have to keep fighting―and writing.
This book gives you the tools to destroy the world any way you want: from a mushroom cloud of revenge to ripped apart by undead savages. Any way you slice it, the Earth dies screaming.
— JACKSON DEAN CHASE
Get a free book at
www.JacksonDeanChase.com
P.S.: Although there’s plenty of advice about zombies inside, most of the information applies to writing any kind of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction–even regular disasters that don’t end the world, like earthquakes or hurricanes. So if you're writing something like The Road, The Day After Tomorrow, or Mad Max, you'll still get a ton of value. You can easily swap out the word “zombies” and insert aliens, cannibals, mutants, robots, vampires, or hostile animals or humans. You may need to do a little tweaking, but it's not hard.
To make things easier, this “ultimate” edition adds chapters and advice on writing killer machines, mutants, and animals. For other enemies, refer to my best selling book, Writing Monsters and Maniacs.
In particular, I want to assure you that all my Plot Templates work regardless of whether you're writing zombies or not.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This book was previously published as How to Write Realistic Zombies and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. This “ultimate” edition has been newly revised and expanded with over 50 pages of exciting new content, including mutants and animals, killer machines, disasters, and two new apocalypse plot templates!
Some of the material in this book was previously published in Gore Girls, How to Write Realistic Monsters, Aliens, and Fantastic Creatures (now out of print), Lost Girls, Post-Apocalypse Writers' Phrase Book, Writing Dynamite Story Hooks, and Writing Monsters & Maniacs (all by Jackson Dean Chase). Some of this material has been revised for its appearance here.
1
3 STAGES OF THE APOCALYPSE
SOCIETAL COLLAPSE COMES IN STAGES. This chapter assumes your setting is a contemporary one. If your apocalypse takes place in the Wild West, the Middle Ages, or a Martian colony, you'll have to make some adjustments.
As I was writing this chapter, I realized that conditions in the apocalypse follow the famous Kübler-Ross grief cycle: Denial (Pre-Apocalypse), Anger and Bargaining (Apocalypse), Depression and Acceptance (Post-Apocalypse). When in doubt, the grief cycle can serve as a guideline to how your characters should be reacting to each stage. Of course, not all characters will be on the same grief cycle at the same time; some will process slower or faster than others.
With this chapter, I'm looking to strike the right balance between what makes a great fictional apocalypse and what happens in a real one. I may make certain assumptions you disagree with, and that's fine. It's your story, change what you want.
✓ PRE-APOCALYPSE CONDITIONS
The pre-apocalypse stage is defined as from the time the first known warning of the apocalypse appears. A few disturbing news reports begin to trickle in, but these are ignored or downplayed by traditional media outlets, who either fail to see the threat or actively try to suppress civilian knowledge by colluding with the government. They instead cover the latest celebrity breakup o
r political scandal as if those are more important than the potential end of humanity.
The warning begins to catch fire among “fringe” talk shows (radio, podcasts, etc.) and on social media. In a pandemic or zombie situation, videos of “sick people” will be shared, spreading fear. These videos will be downplayed or dismissed as hoaxes or drugged-out psychos like the infamous “Causeway Cannibal” who bit off a homeless man's face while allegedly high on bath salts. In your story, someone like this could be an escaped zombie from a secret government lab, or simply “Patient Zero,” the first known case of the zombie virus.
While the top levels of government and military are informed of the potential threat to humanity, the general population is not. At first, everything is available at normal prices. The odds of you running into zombies or armed looters is almost non-existent.
As more wild rumors and reports begin to circulate, the mainstream media will begin to pay more attention to the crisis, legitimizing it. The 24/7 cable news cycle will feed the fear to rake in ratings profits; they will pass on government disinformation, out of date information, and anything that keeps eyeballs glued to screens. An endless live-stream of talking heads, self-proclaimed “experts” and “analysts” will spout platitudes, lies, conspiracy theories, and hate. They will focus on the wrong things and argue about them ferociously.
Facts are meaningless in a post-fact world; the only thing the majority of the public responds to are the calculated emotional pleas of dangerous demagogues; men who promise heaven and deliver hell. One or more of these con-men and future tyrants will spring up in every state, each with their own rabid band of followers. Some will be religious, some secular, but all will demand absolute obedience and group-think: “The leader knows best. Only he can save us.”
In an effort to look more all-knowing and wise, the demagogues will blame others for the crisis and oncoming societal collapse: the blacks, the gays, Muslims, the Chinese, the Russians. They'll blame it on illegal immigrants sneaking disease, crime, and unrest past our borders. They'll blame it on sinners and atheists and anyone but themselves. Not them; their group is special. They've been chosen to survive and woe to anyone who gets in their way!
Survival supplies and trade goods will begin to sell out even as prices rise. There will be a run on the banks. Wall Street and world markets react accordingly. Riots flare up in urban areas; these may be brutally repressed or quarantined and left to “burn themselves out.” Unless you’re in a riot zone, the odds of running into zombies, infected, or armed looters rises, but is still relatively low.
Chatter among anarchists, separatists, survivalists, and paramilitary groups will increase as they sense the end is near. Having prepared for an extinction-level event like this for years, they will quickly and quietly retreat off the grid to their well-stocked “bug out” locations, taking whatever extra supplies they can beg, buy, borrow, or steal. These bug out locations could be an armed wilderness compound, a remote cabin, a bomb shelter, or anywhere defensible that isolates them from the rest of society. There they will continue to monitor the situation from a position of relative safety.
Once the government makes an announcement confirming the apocalyptic threat is unavoidable and/or declares martial law, the pre-apocalypse stage ends. The government will almost certainly lie about being close to finding a solution, hoping to trick civilians into remaining obedient long enough for the government to get a handle on things. They will not disclose the true or complete nature and severity of the threat until it is too late, if at all.
In the face of an increasingly oppressive regime, eventually, everyone rebels. Mass panic and civil unrest explode, and while some riots will be stamped out, many won't.
The apocalypse begins!
✓ APOCALYPSE CONDITIONS
The apocalypse hits cities first and hardest, as too many people with too few survival skills all make similar bad decisions at the same time. Infected or rioting neighborhoods will be cordoned off by police, national guard, and/or the military. Hospitals will be jammed and become deathtraps, as will freeways. It will be almost impossible to escape the cities unless you can access boats or helicopters.
The stock market crashes and ceases trading. Banks shutter and refuse to allow withdrawals. Riots spread and are no longer restricted to urban areas. Whole neighborhoods go up in flames or are lost to violence. The odds of running into zombies, infected, or armed looters is high. Everyone is angry, everyone is scared, trying to make some kind of last minute bargain with God or anyone who will listen. Enterprising criminals take advantage of this to offer “protection” in exchange for crazy demands that seem less and less crazy as days go by and conditions worsen.
The media and internet becomes increasingly alarmist, painting a bloody picture of the end as it happens, city by city, state by state. Viewers are barraged by non-stop footage of rampaging zombie hordes devouring people in the streets, bloodthirsty looting, and the military executing civilians (the infected, the criminal, the curfew breakers). The Emergency Broadcast System interrupts the news with out-of-date lists of civil defense shelters and with warnings to stay in your homes and trust the government.
People in small towns and rural areas band together, setting up road blocks to keep sick people, looters, and strangers out. A local militia is established and/or extra citizens deputized. The people pool resources. They hunker down and pray. The smaller the town and more remote the area, the better chances they have, but even this will not save them. Someone always gets careless, someone always tries to cheat. And people die. Only in the case of a zombie apocalypse, they don't stay dead, so any fight, any wound or disease, even old age is another chance for the zombie virus to pop up inside supposedly safe, sealed borders.
Meanwhile, the wealthy and larger corporations will sequester themselves and their people in their remote estates or facilities. They will have the resources to stockpile supplies even at the rapidly escalating (and utterly insane)—at least until everyone realizes that paper money is going to be worthless, which happens all too soon.
At this point, the barter system is back, and only fools will trade for paper money, stocks, bonds, or other worthless securities. Their value can no longer be guaranteed. The only things that have value now are things that help you survive, or at least make surviving more pleasant.
Seats of power within local, state, and federal government will tighten security as they try to maintain order. High-ranking officials, their families, and senior staff will be hustled into secret bunkers where they will bicker amongst themselves, issuing increasingly contradictory, illegal, and inhumane orders that do more harm than good.
At their behest, a variety of (mostly) ill-timed and poorly conceived military operations will go into effect aimed at stamping out human and/or zombie resistance by creating “safe zones.” Sick people will be shot on sight or rounded up and herded like cattle to what will inevitably become death camps.
Many citizens will be forcibly evacuated to FEMA camps; those who resist are beaten, cuffed, or shot. In a plague or zombie scenario, someone is going to secretly be infected and not tell anyone, fearing what will happen. Somehow, they'll get past the medical inspection and hide their illness as long as they can. Then they infect others in the camp. Or, maybe the government is using the camps to test out experimental vaccines. These vaccines fail and turn those injected into zombies―perhaps even mutant, intelligent ones.
Prisons are another possible setting for the government to test vaccines as they did in Z Nation (TV, 2014-present).
The military will eventually abandon camps and areas deemed “non-essential” or indefensible. Some will go rogue and refuse to follow orders once they see which way the wind is blowing; these elements will hole up in their bases to “wait it out” or take over a more desirable area under pretense of martial law.
Even within loyal units, morale will waiver, schism, and crack between those who believe they can stay the course, and those who see no point in ge
tting themselves and their buddies killed in an unwinnable and apparently endless war.
Elite special ops units are more likely to remain loyal to their government and/or service branch, at least to the point when they perceive all is lost. Elite units that stick together operate much the same as rogue military, commandeering whatever they can talk or force people out of. These men are battle-hardened professional soldiers armed with the best weapons, body armor, and spy tech. That makes them power players wherever they go. Whether they choose to use that power for good, selfish, or evil ends is up to them.
While I have little faith in politicians, before I paint too grim a picture of the police and military response, it's important to note that I believe the majority of men and women serving in our armed forces and law enforcement are good people who believe in law and order, liberty, and defending our way of life. They are service-oriented and want to give back by defending our country from internal or external threats. But there's always one bad apple in every unit or department. Just like there's one in every office or classroom. And all it takes is one to mess things up.
And that's on a good day.
During the apocalypse, these bad apples will get innocent civilians killed. They'll get their squad buddies killed. They'll spread lies and half-truths and whisper dissent. They will corrupt morale and crush hope. They'll insist their ideas are right, that there's no point following orders when they could do so much better on their own. If they manage to sway a few key people to their side, that's when everything falls apart.
Maybe this is too cynical or grim, but remember, this is fiction we’re talking about, and great fiction thrives on conflict. It needs bad people doing bad things. It needs villains and cowards and fools to make your heroes stand out.
THE POWER GRID
At some point during the apocalypse, certain areas will lose power either permanently or as intermittent outages. In The Walking Dead, electricity and running water are readily available in many areas even years after the zombies take over. But with no one left to maintain the utilities, they must give out eventually. It's up to you whether you want to keep the lights and internet working after civilization falls, and for how long they remain.
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