A few months ago, while playing Left 4 Dead, I found myself cowering in a closet, absolutely terrified to go back out and face the horde. I knew that I had to move so the game would continue, but I just didn't want to go out and take my chances. I didn't know at the time that L4D has this sinister AI called The Director, which keeps the game constantly changing depending on what the player does, adjusting things to keep the game fun. For example, if you're cowering in a closet and think you're safe there, The Director will send a bunch of the Infected to claw down the door and give you a friendly little nudge so you'll keep going.
Eventually, I was dragged out of the closet by a Smoker, saved by Francis, and went on to finish the level, heart pounding and my hands trembling just a little bit. It was awesome.
The next morning, while I ate breakfast, I was thinking about what it would be like if that was real. What would it be like if you really couldn't just cross the street any more, because there were zombies everywhere who wanted to kill you? What would it be like if you knew that, whatever you did, wherever you went, there would always be more zombies coming at you, night and day, until you died? In zombie stories, the characters are always heroic and noble (with rare exception, and even then we know those characters are just there so they can get their comeuppance) so I wondered what it would be like to write a story where the main character looks around and decides that sooner or later the zombies are coming in, the survivors are going out, and either way, they're totally fucked.
I wrote the whole story, doing my very best to ignore the various voices of doubt and such that keep coming back (yes, like zombies) no matter how many times I think I've killed them. It was really fun to write. I knew more or less what I wanted to do with it, and I sort of knew who the characters were, but I didn't stop myself from making things up as I went along, if something caught my eye and seemed worth exploring.
Yesterday, I finished the major rewrites, and though it still needs some editorial polish and Andrew's Red Pen Of Doom, I'm anxious to publish it with some other shorts I've worked on recently.
Ah, to be a celebrity.
I’m looking forward to reading some of your fiction.
Any chance you’ll have something ready to trade for shiny rocks by PAX?
I thought of the celebrity thing as soon as those words appeared on my screen.
I’m not making any promises for PAX, but I may just have some kind of fiction-related limited-edition chapbook, if I can get it together.
This is why I decided long ago to join the zombie horde if they ever attack.
How about releasing it as a Novellete with Sub Press or a chap book? I know I’d pick it up and Bill would probably as well.
This sounds awesome Wil…I can’t wait to exchange shiny gold rocks for it. Will you make an extra special box set of it and MOTF, with hot cocoa sampler included?
Also any idea if woot is going to release your shirt to you or make more?
Oddly, the fix-up novel I’m working on now is based on the premise that the whole ‘zombie apocalypse as heroic ethical and moral test’ thing is wrong: that it’d be the stupid lucky and the mercilessly selfish who survive.
A Zombie Kobayahsi Maru? I don’t believe in the no win situation.
Did you try it out on Ficly? It sounds like a little bit you put up on Ficly a short time back. I’m looking forward to reading it.
I always find that the best stories (regardless of genre) deal with characters that are far, far from perfect and not just in that “Oh, I have a sordid past that really didn’t do much to change me but it did enough so that I come across as deep.” kind of way. Of course, even most of the far from perfect characters still have some sort of redemption. But what if there isn’t any redemption for them or it’s just not worth it? Of course, then you have to define “redemption” – is it just resigning oneself to a situation? Is it rising above it? I’m just rambling now. Don’t mind me.
I’m looking forward to the shorts you’ve been working on.
You should try out the series, “Monster Island,” “Monster Nation,” and “Monster Planet” by David Wellington. One of the main characters is a zombie. It makes for an interesting twist on the genre.
Yeah, the bit I excerpted and put on Ficly came from this story.
I LOVED Monster Island and really liked Monster Nation. I was so incredibly disappointed with Monster Planet, I couldn’t even finish it.
Here’s what I wrote about it at Goodreads:
I was so excited for this book, because I loved Monster Island. Monster Island is so fantastic, I’ve used it as an infection vector (har) to get several of my friends who aren’t into zombies to give the genre a try.
The sequel, Monster Nation, wasn’t nearly as good, but was still an enjoyable romp that struck the right notes for me.
Now, there’s Monster Planet, a book that, though it shares title and some characters in common with its predecessors bears little resemblance to them in tone, story, and enjoyment. I couldn’t even finish it, giving up about halfway through because it just drove me crazy.
David Wellington is a fine author, and I adore his other work, but Monster Planet just isn’t at the same level as his other novels. It very much feels like a publisher wanted a trilogy, he agreed to give them a trilogy, and then realized that there really wasn’t a third book in the arc. Or maybe he decided to challenge himself and do something completely different from the first two (which would have been a bad idea. Imagine Return of the King with spaceships instead of Nazgul.) Whatever the reason, the result is a lot of crazy supernatural stuff that is so convoluted it strains suspension of disbelief (yes, even in a novel that’s about the living dead), and was a major disappointment to me, especially considering how much I loved the first two books in the series.
Skip this, and if you really want to read more zombie stories, give World War Z a try instead.
I’ve totally read these sorts of stories in the past. I mean, specifically, zombie apocalypse-y and non-heroic-y. Some are hit some are miss.
Look forward for another hit, obviously.
Now… lets talk. Web series using the L4D format. Group of survivors trying to get out. Not dragged out over multiple seasons either… probably some sort of conclusion by the end of the season, although I have an idea what S2 and S3 already look like… 😉
I definitely agree that the third novel took the trilogy into a completely different direction, but I enjoyed it. I think I was just still fascinated with the concept of thinking zombies that the odd explanation for why the zombies existed in the first place didn’t bother me that much.
I’m definitely wanting to read World War Z, though. I wish I had thought about it at the beginning of summer, rather than about a week ago when I have to start thinking about being a responsible adult who teaches children.
I’d check out Kim Paffenroth’s “Dying to Live” books put out by Permuted Press that has similar themes as your story, Wil. They’re also great reading and some of the best zombie books around.
In other randomness, just found on metafilter: http://www.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~rsmith/Zombies.pdf
Generally I’m not a big zombie fan, myself, but that story just sounds amazing. I’m ridiculously excited!
Did you ever see an old web animation site called (I think) Icebox? They had a show called Zombie College, or Zombie roommate or some such. It was about a college where some of the students were zombies. Zombies and humans living together, trying to lead normal lives (except for the occasional brain eating).
You know one of these days I’m going to actually get your books. I’m intrigued by this particular story you’ve finished, so I’ll have to look for it.
As for the game, I’ve not played it, but I watch my husband play it on a regular basis. It’s creepy…in that good way.
That made me think of Edge Online’s article about the mechanics of cultivating fear in video games:
Also makes me think of Robert Rodriguez’ commentary track on Planet Terror, in which he observes that every location our heroes visit ends up overrun or on fire or both …
I cannot wait for this and it is beyond the obvious reasons.
My youngest (10) wants to be a writer one day and make movies and comics (which he has already started). Both myself and his school are very good at supporting this idea and helping his skills grow. He is already drafting storyboards and brainstorming outlines for various things and has notebooks laying all over the house with his ideas.
Now add his love for all things zombies and his recent idea for a new zombie-ish infection (Nuditis, cute story there) this book will be perfect for him once it comes out.
He is in love with Stephen King as a writer right now but idolizes you for so many things and he will be so overwhelmed to learn that you are now writing fiction and fiction that he will love.
I can’t play left 4 dead. Not as in “it’s too hard”, but as in “I would be a danger to myself and others.”
I have been known, in the past, to get so terrified that there might be zombies outside my house in the middle of the night, that I can’t even open the blind and need to call my boyfriend.
Nope, hadn’t watched a zombie movie. Or played a zombie game. Or had a nightmare.
I just have a very active imagination. Now do you REALLY want to expose a mind like that to left 4 dead?
Well exactly.
If YOU are writing about Zombies I can only paraphrase from Robocop: “I’d buy that for a dollar!”
That’s interesting. I found this zombie infection simulation years ago: http://kevan.org/proce55ing/zombies/
My wife loves Left4Dead and can’t wait for the second one to come out. She wants it like Veruca Salt wants a golden egg.
She’s big into zombies and reminds me often that, when the zombie apocalypse comes, humanity will separate into two group:
1) Those who have prepared themselves for the zombie apocalypse (with the help of many hours of training in L4D).
2) Lunch.
I love Left 4 Dead. Its one of my favorite zombie games. Wil, are you playing by yourself or in a group? Its way more fun in a party. It seems everyone has zombies on the brain today though. My husband and I had a conversation just this morning about zombies. I am thinking its fresh on everyones mind because there has been a lot of talk about Left 4 Dead 2. It looks great and its by Valve. I am not sure what else a person could ask for.
As for your stories, I am really looking forward to reading them. I like reading stuff you write and I am sure it will be great. A thought that just crossed my mind is What would Kirk do in a zombie attack? I bet that would be really funny and he would probably find a way to get a cute chick in the middle of everything. :o)
Just think though, You really only have to be able to run faster than your neighbor. Either that, or just trip them. :o)
My first thought is that I want to read that story. The second is that I must play that game! An AI that changes the game? How cool is that? (Totally cool…)
So I just informed my youngest about this and you should have seen his face.
He asked me what the story will be called, and I told him I did not know. He then proceeded to tell me that he needs to talk you because he can help you come up with a really cool title.
He then went on to say, “It is too bad that he won’t give you a sneak peak of the book so that I can read it.” To which I replied, “No worries love. I will buy you a copy.”
“OMG! REALLY MOM!! THANKS!”
Totally made my kid’s day.
“In zombie stories, the characters are always heroic and noble ”
Sadly, this is true of fiction in general. I like flawed characters much more than perfect heroes. I once sat down to write a story and the only characters who showed up for duty that day were the scum of space. It got a semi-finalist award from Writers Of The Future and a note that said the characters were too unlikable. I thought about re-writing it but everytime I sat down and read it I liked the characters as they were. It’s stayed unchanged and now languishes on my blog.
I look forward to reading your zombie story. Dare to write the un-heroic. (Star Trek could use with a bit of grim here and there don’t you think?)
Am I the only one who wants Wil’s Steam ID so that I can play L4D with him? The game really shines in co-op.
That’s an absolutely hawesome premise you have going there, Wil, and I really do hope that we one day will get to read it. Suffice to say, if I were a famous author/actor/blogger and some douchebag was always writing ball busting comments on my blog posts, the first order of business in writing a fictional story would be to A. Name a character after this person and B. Have them die a most gruesome death. Okay…that was the attention whore speaking, I’ll shut her up now…
No bullshitting around, though, I seriously doubt anything that you write could ever be bad. You’re an extremely talented writer, otherwise I don’t think that this many people would be showing up here on a regular basis and going to Cons and book readings to see you do it in person. I asked (OK, fine, I begged) you over three years ago to write more to the Room 302 story, and there was a reason for that. You’re great at this writing stuff, so stop being so damned hard on yourself and accept the fact that people love your work. And yes, that would include your acting work, too, but we’re talking about writing right now. Just write, Wil, write whatever the hell you want to write about and tell those voices of doubt to shut the hell up while you’re doing it. Or better yet, sic some zombies on them, they have it coming to them, trust me on this.
Did someone say we should have a L4D co-op night with Wil Wheaton?!? If they did I second the motion. 🙂
Those doubt zombies should run in fear because Wil Wheaton eats mother fucking panties for breakfast!
LOL Jules!! You’re damned right he does! Screw Chuck Norris and his so-called manliness, Wil Wheaton not only eats panties for breakfast, he has a slammin’ hot, awesome wife that bakes him (and their lucky family) banana bread! And he’s an extremely talented writer. Amongst many, many other things. He’s 100 kinds of awesome and 100 kinds of win. You just can’t go wrong with Wil Wheaton. The guy’s a centuple threat!
If I learned anything from videogames, the best way to combat zombies is with a bunch of plants.
Gatling Peas + Torchwood 4tw.
Fiction! Awesome! I’m not that into zombie stories, but I’ll give yours a try.
Sounds like a great story and I look forward to reading it but it sounds a bit like the premise to The Walking Dead.
This has nothing to do with your post, although that post is awesome. I saw you at the ECCC, but I was too nervous to say “Hi”. I bought your shirt fromt shirt.woot, wondering, if I send it to you, would you sign it?!?!?
I’m with Thiefree, at least in that I can’t watch/play with/entertain thoughts of scary zombies. I don’t last in these games precisely because I wouldn’t last if I were in that situation for real. Faced with the need to run for my life I’d go straight for the felodesine chip*. When I was seven my sister used to hide behind my bedroom door and jump out and scare me. And even though I knew she was there, it still scared the carp out of me every time. Every single time. I started waiting to go to bed, and that was just over “boo!”
I can’t stand suspense. At all. I couldn’t get past the first fifteen minutes of Toy Story. Somewhere in my mind I knew the treasured toy would get back to the house and reattain the little boy’s love, but I couldn’t stand the tension of the meanwhile. And that psychotic neighbor kid that carved up the dolls?!?!
I learned to lucidly dream to combat nightmares. Not on purpose, mind you. Just through my desperate need to be able to escape the zombies. Now, when someone’s pointing a gun at me in a dream, or about to eat my brains, or chasing me while I can’t escape because I can’t breathe or scream or run through the jello-like entirely uphill atmosphere, I pull a Zach Morris/Evie Garland and freeze the action. Never one to try to fully dominate the environment, I only change one aspect or two. The gun becomes a Twinkie. The zombie falls asleep. The chase becomes a fun run, and I congratulate my nemesis for running a great race while asleep and still holding that Twinkie at my head. Then we all eat ice cream.
And now I’m scared to go to bed.
(*A phrase like this comes out of me naturally, I fear, and somehow doesn’t seem quite so banal when posted on other sites. eek)
Oh so this was all a tease! I thought I was going to get to read it NOW – or at least a cerpt. “Coming to theaters in 2015…” – thanks a lot!
What would it be like if you knew that, whatever you did, wherever you went, there would always be more zombies coming at you, night and day, until you died?
Welcome to my world. 🙂
Zombie stories are awesome. This is just the right time for a zombie story, too: I’ve had JoCo’s “RE: Your Brains” stuck in my head all day!
I smell a Hugo award (seriously – next year’s Hugo statue will include Scratch’n’Sniff, and feature the odor emitted by Neil Gaiman as he rolls and smokes large wads of cash).
Really, I think you’ve got a disarmingly straightforward way of writing that will lend itself very well to short stories in general and a zombie short story in particular.
Here’s the real tease: http://ficly.com/stories/1357
Apparently, our gracious host here has been writing shorts on Ficly for the past two months. If you scroll up the page and read the exchange between jasonfive and Wil, that’s where I gathered my intel from. I was quick enough on my feet this time around with Google after the whole Room 302 debacle from the other night because I just couldn’t resist the urge to find out more about this elusive zombie story. And I stand by all of my original points that Wil is every bit as good a fiction writer as he is at writing non-fiction.
I quite enjoyed what I can only guess is the intro to the zombie story, but some of the other authors over there seem to think that zombie stories have been done to death and a few were even rude in their comments about it. Now I know who’s been feeding the voices of doubt. I thought it was cool, though. My estimation of those comments makes me think that he probably changed the entire intro because of these bits of “constructive *fuck your zombie story!* criticisms.” His other entries over there are pretty damned impressive. Desperate Passage and the sequel, Name Your Price have this mysterious quality to them that just grabs you by the throat and leaves you screaming for more, but Wil seems to think that writing sequels is cheating for some reason. So I’m not getting my hopes up for a third installment to that particular journey, but it would be nice if one just magically showed up.
Sorry for the super-extra-long-reply-on-steroids. It’s almost 5:00 AM (thanks to the lovely distractions I’ve been reading all night on Ficly), which means that I’ve been up for close to 24 hours again. Enjoy the tease, and bask in the glory of Wil Wheaton: the extremely talented fiction writer that eats panties for breakfast.
Cool idea, looking forward to reading it.
I was reminded while reading this post of the original “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. (Not the Will Smith movie story, but the book it was based on). Of course, that was vampires, not zombies, but I think the main point is really similar to what you’re describing.
Also… fine. I need to go play Left 4 Dead. I understand this. Really, I do. But, I’m an MMO addict so I’m sure you all will sympathize and forgive my just getting through Mass Effect now 🙂
The good zombie news just keeps coming! Yesterday the trades announced that The Walkind Dead is being developed into a TV series for AMC by Frank Darabont and now this!
Vampires may be fading fast, but zombies will stick around in the genre forefront for a little while longer.
Thanks Danyiel – I’ll definitely check those out! WHY am I always the last to know??
I have no doubts about Wil. As for negative comments, writers have to have pretty thick skin. When you create something you know inside whether it’s good or not – whether you hit your mark.
Besides, attention is attention. Whether they love Wil or hate him, they sure aren’t ignoring him! It’s like all the flak over Wesley – “methinks you doth protest too much!”
Yeah, it’s called _Shaun of the Dead_ 🙂
That’s awesome you’re writing zombie fiction!!! About once a year I get on a zombie story kick and end up reading two or three of the latest zombie apocalypse books off of Amazon… some are pretty bad, but I seem to have a higher tolerance for bad zombie fiction, kind of in the way I do for science fiction in general… I’ve sat through, and on some level secretly enjoyed, a LOT of shows and movies that I’d never EVER suggest anyone else watch. Luckily I have a wife that humors me (and loves a lot of bad sci-fi herself), so much so that after overhearing me joking so many times with friends how to best react to the inevitable zombie uprising, she actually bought me a chainmail shirt from ThinkGeek for my birthday 😛
Anyway, that yearly kick just started again a week or so ago, and I’m actually saving the second novel in a so-so (I mean totally awesome!) zombie series called “As the World Dies” for a long flight to Germany on Monday (I’ll be presenting TMNT at GamesCon). In the meantime I’m reading “Earth Abides” by George R. Stewart, which isn’t a zombie novel, but is about a plague that wipes most of humanity out. It was written in 1949, is actually quite good so far (it won the first International Fantasy Award), and I love the fact that it is set in a time where high-tech meant radios.
Anyway, I’m quite excited to read your zombie story!
well, but that’s a comedy 🙂 it happens to work on both levels, though, as a zombie movie *and* as a parody of zombie movies. So well done boys!
I am slowly getting into the whole zombie thing. More so with books.I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.