In re-reading my notes for the manuscript I began writing a few months back, I realized that there just wasn’t enough tension to carry the story. Sure, life was kinda sucky considering a huge chunk of the populace died from a horrible disease. But now, the survivors have started to rebuild. There’s no threat on a daily basis anymore. Those who’re immune are obviously still alive, and those who weren’t are obviously, well, not. So now what?
I recently read a few really great post-apocalyptic novels in the name of “research.” Carrie Ryan’s “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” trilogy, and “Nightfall” by Ellen Connor. (“Nightfall” is also part of a trilogy, but I haven’t gotten to read the second or third books as of yet.) While the FoHaT trilogy is definitely post-apocalyptic, “Nightfall” starts up right in the thick of things. It shows the world starting to go to shit, which I thought was great. I want a little of that in my story as well.
“Nightfall” also gave me some inspiration for a better antagonist (or antagonistic force, since it’s not just one person/entity). In Connor’s novel, something happens to people when they are bit by other people who are “infected.” It doesn’t turn them into zombies, but it does make them into violent creatures who want to bite and infect others (or just eat them, depending on their mood lol). I realized my “virus” that killed off the majority of the world’s population can also do other things (like make people super cunning or extremely violent, etc.). This way, those who are immune to the virus aren’t necessarily “safe” after all. They still have to worry about the people who were infected but who didn’t die.
Now, I must come up with the nitty-gritty of how this virus/disease works. That’s gonna be the hard part, I think. But part of the joy of fiction is being able to just make shit up! That’s why I wanted to write sci-fi in the first place. I’m not stuck writing by the “rules” of the real world. None of that “that would never actually happen” crap. With science fiction, almost anything could happen! It opens up a whole new world of possibilities, which I love.
… BTW if anyone is actually reading this and wondering how I’m doing with my writing goals that I babbled on about in my last post, they were a big bust. I haven’t done any writing in the past 11 days. But yesterday I reaffirmed myself to WW (weight watchers) and today I am reaffirming myself to writing. I just signed up for the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood’s Winter Writing Festival (yes, yet another writing challenge lol). Hopefully I’ll do much better at this challenge than the other two!!!! I’ll keep ya’ll posted :)
