Promotion and writing continue

I've been trying to spread awareness of this blog through a number of means, and I hope you've found your way here looking for some zombie fiction.  As the top of the site says, I'll direct you to the right hand links if you want nothing but the story.

Promoting something like this is a necessary evil, unfortunately - if you want to write a fictional blog, you might as well try to cultivate some readers.  It would be great if there were a website that already had a huge base of user-generated zombie fiction on it that I could tap into and try to use to promote myself, but so far I have not found many places that come close to that description, let alone any that fit it exactly.  I'm using a lot of resources in a variety of different spheres - looking for other blogs with similar content, other fictional blogs, using twitter, etc.  This is a lot of work, but like every blogger I hope to cultivate a readerbase eventually, and that takes work.


I'm working on chapter 2, and developing ideas of what's going to happen deeper down the story line.  I'm going to reveal more about the characters in the group and have Jeff write about an interaction with zombies for the first time.  The characters will deal with searching for sources of water and continue to try to find a place to settle down and start building a life - every zombie survivor's dream.

First entry complete, disclaimers

My first installment of my zombie blog is complete and typed out. I am taking a break from editing it to do some administrative things like mention the following:

Anything written here other than the ads is entirely my work and cannot be reproduced in any way without my express written consent. All work here is copyrighted.

Any resemblance between characters and real people is entirely coincidental, all characters are fictional.



I'm going to add a "Story" tag to each post on this blog that is actual fictional content, and I intend to try to find the easiest way possible to direct people to the Story and feature this prominently - I anticipate more interest in my fictional work than my other writing about writing.


I anticipate posting the first installment within a couple of hours, once some further editing of the webspace and story conclude.

Research and writing continues

I've been doing a lot of reading about zombies recently. To create a believable (I couldn't use the word realistic here, despite myself) zombie situation my characters are going to need to utilize some serious survival techniques to get by in a situation and climate where most haven't. To be believable, therefore, the characters will need to know their stuff, which means I need to know my stuff.

Fortunately, there's no shortage whatsoever of survival websites and specifically zombie survival websites out there. Various people are attempting to catalog the various techniques and ideas that people have come up with, with varying degrees of success. Without any permission from their owners, I would like to thank some and link some sites I've found particularly useful. I've tried to cast a wide net and interact with a lot of different types of media on zombies, so without further delay:

George A Romero movies - I've seen most if not all of the Of The Dead movies, and was first introduced to the genre through them. Up until I was introduced to George A. Romero's Land of the Dead I was always under the impression that zombie movies were distasteful and poorly done. I never considered the survival aspect of zombie movies, or at that time, horror movies in general. Romero highlights the changes in society and the fight for survival that zombies would create, and lays a lot of the groundwork for how we should combat and deal with zombies.

The Zombie Survival & Defense Wiki - A great site with a lot of user contributed ideas and thoughts on what a zombie apocalypse would be like

Zedpocalypse - A site with a lot of user contributed fiction regarding Zombies - I'm hoping to become acquainted and involved with these guys in the near future.

Zombie Research Society Blog - has a lot of fun and unique content regarding zombies, worthwhile


These are some but not all of the places I've been getting ideas and inspiration from.  I'm not looking at these sites directly for ideas so much as I am to put me in the zombie state of mind, thinking about what such a situation and world will be like when I create it.




With all that said about nothing, I've completed what I think will be the first blog post made by my protagonist, and I'll be typing (I use pen and paper?!) and editing it tomorrow (Friday) and this weekend.  I'm already well on the way with the second post as well, and I hope to have things underway soon - I'm thinking I'll release the first installment sooner rather than later, so I have some content worth reading (unlike these ramblings about the writing process) and teasing.  Adieu.

Work in progress

I'm finding more and more that this is going to be a long work in progress much more than anything easy to churn out, which is what I had originally imagined. I'm well along in the creative process but not very far in the writing process. I'm finding that a lot of work goes into creating characters, a setting and a plot.

I'd like to create as "realistic" a zombie apocalypse situation as possible, so I'm having to spend time thinking about things like:

-how do the characters defend themselves?
-how do the characters find sustainable sources of food and water
-how do the characters shelter themselves safely?
-etc, etc.

I'm spending time thinking about these things because I don't want to write a cookie cutter plot/situation because that would essentially be someone else's creation. If this project is going to be worthwhile, it would only be right to create my own ideas about the entire world I'm creating, rather than picking and choosing ideas from the creations of others.

I had originally thought I'd already be churning out readable content by now, but that's not realistically going to be the case. I have a lot of thinking and writing to do before I want to let people into the world I'm creating. I wouldn't be starting this project if I didn't plan on letting anyone in, so we'll see where this takes us.

New idea, starting tomorrow (today)

Starting tomorrow I'm going to be blogging from the point of view of a fictional character surviving a zombie apocalypse. He'll recount his story on a day by day (or post by post, we'll see how often they are) basis and we'll see how the story unfolds. I still intend to write a short story, so we'll continue to see how that goes, and I'll eventually post it here if I ever do complete it.

Story underway, details ironed

I've ironed out some more details about what I want this all to be about and I've begun writing the story. The details are as follows:

I'll start with a short story so I can see how awfully others perceive my writing

I've started developing a stable of characters first before writing any story, and I have an idea of what will be going on in this short story.

The short story will be a part of a greater story about the lives of the characters following a zombie apocalypse. The story will be a portion of a greater story of their lives that I may or may not write.

I think I'm going to complete my works before I publish them here. I look forward to using this mostly as a tool for publishing completed works - I briefly entertained the idea of publishing to this blog everything that I've written, even work in progress, however I think it will be much more useful and compelling for people to see completed works. I haven't completed anything yet, though, so I won't have anything of substance to put here for a bit.

If anyone does accidentally find their way here, they'll at least know what this webspace is for now, at least.


NOTE TO ANYONE READING:

I'd really welcome any sort of contribution or tips regarding the start of the creative writing process - I don't have any formal training on it and would love to hear from people, especially zombie lovers.

The Beginning

As I bet happens with most blogging, I enter this uncertain. I'm uncertain how much I'll be committed to this project and where it will go, but I've come this far and it's only been 5 minutes, so onward!

I've come up with the idea of a creative writing project, possibly collaborative, to write about zombies. I like zombies, I like to write and I like to read stuff that I've written, so perhaps I could write about zombies.

I have a small amount of experience creative writing, but I intend to explore my capabilities with it much further than I ever have before with this project. If it goes anywhere. (There's that uncertainty we spoke about. I can't stress enough the suspicion that this is likely to proceed directly nowhere. Just so that's clear.)

If anyone reads this thing, I'd be curious to know how much zombie "fanfiction" and free writing is available out there. I've always believed in the freedom of the internet and sort of like the idea of creating something people could enjoy for free via the internet. Is this going on anywhere else? Somebody out there in the world knows all about this and can enlighten me. I wonder if you need to create an account to post a comment in response to this. Which brings me to the next topic -

This choice of blog locations is by no means permanent and I'm really just trying it out. I'm writing the aforementioned story and intend to release it in pieces at a later date. For now this will serve as a placeholder and perhaps a blog about my creative writing experience.. along with some tips for zombie survival interspersed.


EDIT:

I was able to make it so anyone can post comments in response, here. I prefer this way until someone gives me reason not to do it this way.