Jackson Dean Chase - Writing Apocalypse and Survival: A Masterclass in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction and Zombie Horror

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[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.Nate Philbrick, author of The Little One [Jackson Dean Chase] succeeds in taking fiction to a whole new level.TheBaynet.com[Jacksons fiction is] diligently craftedThe Huffington PostIrresistible [Jackson knows how to write] a heart-pounding story full of suspense, romance, and action!Buzzfeed WRITING GUIDES BY JACKSON DEAN CHASE FAST, FUN ADVICE FOR TODAYS BUSY AUTHOR

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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 theres no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

D AWN OF THE D EAD CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

D EATH HAS ALWAYS FRIGHTENED US , but it's normally on a personal level: losing family, friends, pets. When death looms larger than thatin war, for exampleit 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 fightingand 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.

J ACKSON D EAN C HASE

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www.JacksonDeanChase.com

P . S .: Although theres plenty of advice about zombies inside, most of the information applies to writing any kind of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fictioneven regular disasters that dont 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.

PUBLISHERS 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.

3 STAGES OF THE APOCALYPSE

S OCIETAL 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 Kbler-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 or 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.

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