(post)Apocalypse - Writers Forum

Rabid Euphoria · 11-18-2007, 04:15 AM

The idea of the world ending and how we would cope, adapt and progress fro the aftermath has always intrigued me. I've come up with many ideas for Utopic/Dystopic views on it and various interesting ways it could happen. I'd like to put various apocolyptic stories into a collection.

One idea I have is everyone going crazy, or a general erosion of societies all over the world; civil unrest, revolutions, anarchy. People living in the aftermath of it all, years later looking for ways to continue. I understand (as always, an idea I think of has already been done) George Romero did a movie called 'The Crazies' with a similar premise. I'll have to rent it and watch it to see how similar it actually is. I originally wanted it to be a virus of the neurological systems, creating chemical imbalances, enlarging areas of the brain (say, medula oblongata).

As much as the apocalypse itself (backstory, all of it) I'd want to focus on the rebuilding of society as it would be a fantastic time. I've been thinking for years on things the leader of one society can do to be pure and how it works. It would be interesting to tell several stories in different pockets of humans, secluded from each other building to a final interaction. Of course, this would my 'Dark Tower' or magnum opus. While not similar to Dark Tower (except length and number of books) I want to tell a massive story, creating a new world intricate and indepth. Each book tells a different story in the same world, intertwining while apart from each other. It wouldn't be without it's super natural elements, of course, it would be a chance to create different societies with different morals, ethics and laws which perhaps could be allegories on various empires that have existed, but told subtly.

Anyone else intrigued by apocalypse or post apocalypse ideas? Post them here and we'll discuss them, common cliches and ways to avoid them and various other apocalyptic things.

WriterDude · 11-18-2007, 05:03 AM

I love the idea of a post-apocalyptic world and think it could be very interesting if done right. Don't worry about it being done before (in that movie, Fallout games, Mad Max and so on to name but a few). The important part is to make it new and yours.

As for clichés, I'm not sure about that. Pretty much all post-apocalyptic stories I know starts with the world being nuked, so you might want to avoid that. How about a comet crashing into earth, like the one that killed the dinosaurs? A plague, like in The Stand? (King), perhaps? Or if you want a bit of supernatural things, how about something like The Langoliers? (King, again)? Basically people get onboard a plane as usual. A few people fall asleep. People wake up - all alone in the entire world. There's no one else around in the plane. There are no signal on the radio. When they land, there are no one around in the airport or even the city. I know it's not "post-apocalyptic", but it would be a fun variation, don't you think? Part of the story would be to discover what happened, and part would be to see if there are survivors. Maybe when they do find survivors, they still don't get any closer to what really happened. This again could be a theme through all your books, so each book is about new people who lived through the same thing and tries to discover what happened. And this again means you could let them find clues in each book, so the reader will get an idea of what happened when reading, and at the same time want the next book to learn more. This again means you should also have twists and turns, so even if they "learn what happened" in one book, we could learn that it's only part of the truth in the next book. Anyway, that's just an idea.

Malone · 11-18-2007, 06:16 AM

Day of the Dead is another good movie to check out in this vein of though. It has people trying to deal/rebuild after the zombies have taken over.

Amara-J · 11-18-2007, 10:39 AM

Lord of the Flies isn't exactly post-apocalyptic, but it does hearken towards isolation and re-creation of a new societal order (and its gradual leaning towards anarchy) amongst a group of young boys on a tropical island. I guess I've always preferred a narrower, focused approach to the "new world order" issue, which is why I constantly refer to it.

WriterDude · 11-18-2007, 11:08 AM

Lord Of The Flies is on a small scale, yes, but what would happen if you took it to a global scale?

velo · 11-18-2007, 11:22 AM

Lord Of The Flies is on a small scale, yes, but what would happen if you took it to a global scale? I think that's why it works, it focuses on a few characters vs a globe full of them. Obviously, to make such a story work it would have to be focused on a relatively small number of characters. What I would be looking for in such a piece would be an exploration of how such a situation reveals the human race's true nature, in both positive and negative ways.

Malone · 11-18-2007, 11:39 AM

Anyone else love The Simpsons episode when the bus full of kids gets stranded on an island and they parody "Lord of the Flies"? I love that episode, and the original book.

WriterDude · 11-18-2007, 12:24 PM

When I say Lord Of The Flies on a global scale, I don't mean adding hundreds of side-stories and so on. I'm talking about the usual posse, just that they are aware that they are not alone. Society isn't falling just around them, but all over the world. Kinda like War Of The Worlds, where the entire world is in trouble, and yet it focuses on a small family. Or Night Of The Living Dead. The entire world is overrun by zombies, and yet pretty much the entire movie takes place in a small house.

Simpson did Lord OF The Flies? Damn, I haven't seen that. I did see the Night Of The Living Homeless in South Park, though. It was hillarious.