This one time at bootcamp

Right, for those who have waded through the dodgy story in the previous post, here's why I ditched it.

I ran into a dead end that before bootcamp I might not have recognised until much later on when I would have invested a lot more work into this. I actually started writing this in desperation. I had wandered around the Southern Virginia University grounds for several hours on the Wednesday of the course (Can it only be two weeks ago - wow!) and just couldn't think of a good story idea, despite getting some excellent tuition in story generation the day before from Orson Scott Card. In mild desperation, it occured to me it might be fun to write a zombie story, so I started writing.

That was quite therapeutic, but while I enjoyed writing this, I realised that it was severely flawed. I wanted a short story that I would have finished in a day or so, and this frankly wasn't going to be it. Why? well, it's answering that that I think makes this interesting - otherwise it's just my narcissistic tendencies that have me post it here.

So problems, in no particular order:

Problem the first – Character and Viewpoint

The biggest is that I got the impression that what OSC was looking for was a vehicle for examining character and viewpoint/perspective and frankly, I had set myself an uphill battle with creating a believable character that the audience will sympathise with in a story where fire axes are going to be used. Possibly on toddlers. : ) (Sorry to any sensitive types horrified by this – I’m really a softy and am definitely not either a toddler killer or a horror fan. Although, I would say that, wouldn’t I?)

Interestingly, I cornered OSC and asked him about this and he suggested the way to do this was to examine what drives ordinary people to do heroic things in trying circumstances and use that to create a character that could be compelling. Great advice, but was I going to pull it off here and now to deadline in a few hours? I didn’t think so.

Problem the second - story

There is no story here. I started this writing an idea, not a story. I know this is very obvious, but it passed me by until I was quite far in. There are really only two scenes. And it was 3000 plus words when I came to terms with this.

In other words, turning this around and actually introducing a story and getting it finished on time just wasn’t going to happen. At the pacing I had started, it would have to be around 25,000 words, and that wasn’t going to happen in 12 hours.

For the record, what I planned to have happen was that eventually, the characters would be rescued by helicopter from the roof. Along the way, there would be zombie related shenanigans , but essentially, I started writing a short story without having a story in mind. Dumb, huh? The moral of the story is have a vague plan of your story in mind and in particular have an ending in mind. It doesn't matter if the ending ends up ending differently, but at least it gives you something to work towards.

Problem the third – originality

At the end of the day, the zombie story is a metaphor for claustrophobia, for the fear of being closed in and suffocated. It’s an easy format to raise the pulse in, because the image of countless bodies blocking out the light as they try to get in the doors and windows will give anyone the willies!

This is unashamedly a genre story and that means that pretty much from the first paragraph or two, the reader is either going to get the rules and expectations of that genre or not. However, writing in this particular genre, it now seems to me, presents some extra special challenges that writing in sci fi or fantasy doesn’t immediately seem to present. This is a much more narrowly defined field – are your zombies supernatural or science based – once you make that choice, you are in an even more tightly defined space. I found myself drawn towards the science end of things – supernatural zombies are just too silly for even me to work with. : )

However, because I had chosen science zombies I found myself unconsciously rewriting the movie 28 days later – the best zombie movie ever made, really if you haven’t seen it, treat yourself, it’s really excellent. It’s actually very hard to be original in such a tightly defined world, particularly in the format I had written myself into. I don’t want to write a bad version of someone else’s excellent story.

Problem the fourth – the brief

OSC hates zombie stories. I’m not such an OSC fan that I wouldn't do my own thing, but seeing as I’m not a major horror fan, it seemed a strange idea to purposefully write a story which he would be predisposed to dislike.

I know I could write a fantastic zombie story, and it could even be worth doing just that as a writerly exercise - as a challenge - but I wanted to create the right material that would allow OSC to give me quality feedback on my writing. I wasn’t looking for a pat on the back, but I wasn’t looking for a drubbing either.

So there you go. Anyone see any other problems? Dissect away – it’s not there for you to compliment me on – I’ve already decided it’s a dud. In the end I wrote a Sci Fi story that was much much stronger and that I am currently revising, following some fantastic critiques from my fellow bootcampers and Orson Scott Card himself. So this is the one that didn't make the cut.