To many people, a zombie is a zombie is a zombie. “Everyone knows” what a zombie is. As a writer of zombie fiction, you can’t afford to take that simplistic approach. There are many different things that have been called ‘zombies’ over the years. People can spend a lot of time arguing about whether or not something is ‘really’ a zombie.
It’s your story, you make the rules. But you need to know what those rules are.
You need to know what your zombies are and how they work, even if your characters don’t. That means answering the questions in this section. Even if you don’t explicitly use the answers, you need to be aware of them in order to keep your story consistent.
As a bonus, you might find that answering some of these questions gives you ideas for scenes or even entire new stories.
Zombie Design Questions
- Run or shamble?
- Dead or alive?
- What caused the outbreak?
- How does the outbreak begin and spread?
- How do ‘we’ become ‘them?
- Who and what can become a zombie?
- What is the incubation period?
- What are the symptoms?
- Do any people have natural immunity?
- How do you ‘kill’ something that’s already dead?
- How smart are the zombies?
- Do the zombies hunger for brains?
- Is your story allegorical?
Once you’ve answered those questions and are ready to start writing, check out the zombie thesaurus.