Zombies Co-Write

1. Do the zombies move about at night or day or both? Are they more active during one than the other?
2. How big is this group?
3. What kinds of things do we know about the zombies? (Territorial, mindless, do they have basic needs other than feeding?, what of their five senses do they use?)

Please reply in number form in order to make the post more organized to keep up with.
@ She Said Poptarts
@ perfect disaster
@ Wynnie Shawn

1. I think that the zombies should move all the time and then when there isn't any humans or food source around for them, they go into a dormant stage and stay like that until they hear, smell, or see something. So when they're "awakening" it could take a minute for them to get back into the whole zombie thing and that small window of time is what saves our characters lives at one point.

2. Four, and then maybe a few more people who get killed or try to make it on their own. But there will be four definite characters, one for each author (unless someone write for more than one)

3. Each character knows different things but we could create a basic list and those points are proven in different ways by each of the authors. But I don't think the zombies should feel anything. Like if they get shot in the arm, they won't feel it because their brain isn't sending those kind of signals to the rest of the body.

1. I think maybe they should be more active at night though active at all times. I agree with Wynnie. I think they should be "inactive" until prey is in the area or until they find something to follow to eat.

2. I think it should be around twenty or so. It needs to be enough that we don't have to write about one another's characters all the time because I can see possible irritations if someone were to write that Lucy's character was mean to there's but Lucy doesn't think her character would ever say those things. I'm more of an emotional and mental writer. A lot of my writing is psychological and so I kind of need other characters I can use to compare my character to and to socialize with my character without endangering the characterization of a co-writers character. (Sorry about the thousands of "characters" in there.) I guess when I say character I am referring to all our side characters not the actual Main Four, which are our characters.

3. I agree with Wynnie on all of her answer to this so I'm not going to repeat her answer. Haha...

@ perfect disaster
@ Katie_Bugg
@ Wynnie Shawn

1. Well… zombies are known for being able to walk, groan, and feed, right? So.. I agree with Wynnie, they’ll just kind of stay in one place, or kind of slowly wander.

2. Maybe a small group, like 10 people? Just ‘cause you wouldn’t have to rely on anybody as much, and plus got to watch how many mouths that need feeding. Also having too many characters can be a bit confusing. I do want to have a person in the group, a guy or a girl, that goes completely mental and almost kills them all.

3. That they don’t get tired, they can’t feel anything, they can hear, smell, see… I don’t know about tasting, lol.

We're not going to make them like George Romero's, are we? If they can run... omg. That'd be scary, and tough for the characters.

Oh dear, I haven't been on in two days and so much has happened.

Calli, so are our characters going to be the two that meet up and travel together? And I'm cool with the gated community idea, since I think I'm the last to respond on that. I like the idea of our characters meeting there. Maybe there could already be someone, not one of our characters, that's already hiding out in the gated community, then this person gets super pissed at whoever left the gates open more than anyone else.

1. To be honest I'm not a huge zombie fan, so I don't know a whole lot about them... so I don't know how helpful I'm going to be be there.

2. Yeah, ten sounds better. So is that including our characters, assuming each of us write from the point of view of one, or not?

3. I agree with what Wynnie said about each of the characters knowing different stuff. Maybe not all of it can correspond, like some of it can just be flat out wrong and over the top?

I ready added my character to the story by the way! So if you go to the zombie cowrite and then click the characters button, you'll see mine. Her name is Amber Weatherly.

And also, when will the story start? Does it start a few days before the apocalypse when people are just hearing strange things on the news or when the crazy breakout actually happens? Or just skip all that and start after the breakout and they're already fighting for their lives?

I think that we should start when the breakout happens. Mainly because I have this really sick idea for how my character will experience the breakout. She's going to be on a plane and the guy next to her literally dies before waking up again and going on a rampage!

@ Wynnie Shawn

OMG, I don't know why, but I'm laughing so hard right now. I live in Edmonton, AB! I never thought anyone would write about this place. (not including Hockey fanfics)

@ perfect disaster
Should our characters be strangers in the beginning? Or should they know each other?

Yeah, and maybe he (whoever was at the gated place first) could be like, "no! I'm not going anywhere, I'm staying right here." Or maybe there could be an accidental death from the fight, like he could threaten to kill whoever because of them leaving the gate open.

@ She Said Poptarts
I live in Alberta too!

@ Wynnie Shawn
WHAT?
omg, you're the first Mibbian I've met that lives in Alberta!

@ She Said Poptarts

This is crazy! That's awesome, the most Mibbians I've met are from the UK or America!

@ She Said Poptarts
I have no idea. Maybe they knew each other from camp and haven't seen each other in years, then they meet up during the apocalypse?

@ perfect disaster
@ She Said Poptarts
@ Katie_Bugg

Okay, well since no one has been talking on this in a while, I'll try to help.
Personally, I think your characters should know each other before and are going on a road trip together with other people. And then you could have it so one of the characters is really the sibling of the one who is driving so they have to come and your two characters don't particularly like each other. That way it can have some drama, they can have a 'past' together that slowly gets revealed throughout the story, and it will be a great scene for when they become friends, if they ever do.

I don't know, you don't have to use my idea but I just wanted to get the ball rolling again! Haha

No, I like the idea, I think it's great!

That is a good idea! Sorry I haven't been on in a few days. My computer was having drama and my aunt had to help me fix it since she's a computer genius! Haha!

But I like the ideas being thrown around.

@ Wynnie Shawn
As for when our story starts, what if they started a couple days before. Remember not every story need be the same as long as our symptoms and reactions to the "sickness" are the same. I was kind of thinking that my character might notice some small stuff but she doesn't truly realize the seriousness for a few days after it becomes a big deal. Olive (my character) is in a deep depression since her husband and son died so she's having to try to survive when all she wants is to die. That's not someone who's going to notice something dangerous or even really strange. That's someone who's going to maybe see those things but they don't register.

What kind of symptoms come with the "sickness"?

I was thinking maybe it could be like slight twitches. Perhaps sharp and ragged breaths that leave them dizzy, maybe even unbalanced like they can walk but they're stumbling around a bit unable to walk a straight line. Maybe in the beginning there was an upsurge of DUI charges but no one knew what was causing them to be intoxicated since they were passing breathalyzers. I don't think we should go with fevers because that's what Walking Dead and many other zombies stories go with. Maybe the body's temperature drops instead.

@ She Said Poptarts

@ perfect disaster

@ Katie_Bugg

That's a good idea! And maybe their skin is cold to touch because their blood isn't circulating properly. And then there would be the small things that each individual picks up themselves, like bloodshot eyes, pale skin, hair loss and jaundice (yellow tinge to skin from liver failure) and stuff like that. But none of that is certain.

How long will these symptoms occur before they finally die and then wake up. Personally, I think the time should vary. Because like any virus, it is going to take over a body at different rates (but still in a certain time frame) So I was thinking anywhere from 1-5 hours.

@ perfect disaster

@ She Said Poptarts

Yeah, because I would think a person with a stronger immune system would display the symptoms for a longer time before finally dying. (That sounds really obvious, but I have no idea how to start this out...)

What if the people affected also started experiencing memory loss? It's just a thought, I figured it'd be a little bit more drama.

@ perfect disaster

That'd be kind of cool. Like if someone part of the group is infected they keeping on having short periods of time that gradually become more consistent?

@ Katie_Bugg

@ She Said Poptarts

Hi! I'm sorry for not replying. I was away for the weekend, but I'm back... obviously.

I like the memory loss idea, I could definitely see characters get all confused and be all, "Who are you? What happened to my parents? Where's Doug? (random name)"

@ Wynnie Shawn
@ perfect disaster
@ Katie_Bugg

@ She Said Poptarts
@ Wynnie Shawn
@Katie_Bug

No problem.

So... what now? Are we just waiting for Kayla to comment on the memory loss thing before the next thing or am I forgetting something?

@ perfect disaster
@ She Said Poptarts
@ Katie_Bugg

Hey guys! So I hate to do this but I'm going on vacation for about a week. I don't know if I'll have access to wifi so chances are, I'm not going to be replying to anything for awhile.

Also, when do you think we'll be done planning and get onto actual writing? I mean, we've got most of the facts straightened out and we can always post a question in this when we're writing if we need to collaborate!