Why I Love The Walking Dead

Why do I love The Walking Dead?  Well, it's about zombies.  Isn't that enough?

Okay seriously, I enjoy zombies and to have them featured in an on-going TV series is a dream come true.  It also amazing that the show is so good.  Yes, it has its ups and down and there were some big lulls in the 2nd season, but on the whole, the show has engaged, entertained, and shocked.  It's also incredibly brave.  It has no reservations with killing off main characters.

It also very human.  You have people at their best and their worst.

I think I'm most happy that it's tapped into a wide audience -- which surprises me because I never guessed that that it would garner such an audience.  Who would have thought that zombie would have that sort of appeal.

Balancing a "Real Job" with My Writing Job

Like many, many writers, I have a real job that pays the bills while I fit writing in as I can.  Well, that's not an accurate statement, really.   I don't fit writing in as I can, writing is one of the priorities that I balance with a full time job (and a family, too).  When I'm putting words on paper (or characters on screen), I tend to write 1,000 words a day.   Why I qualify my writing with the phrase of "putting words on paper," is that there are days in the writer’s life that he/she has to work on marketing, cover design, ebook formatting, etc.  While writing is the essential activity, these other duties are crucial to being successful.

Anyway, the way I maintain my productivity is to stick to both a production schedule and a quota.  As for quota, I want at least 1,000 words a day...or 90 minutes of writing times.  Regarding a schedule, I want to maintain one as best I can.  I write for an hour in the morning and an hour over the lunch hour.  In the past four months, I have never missed more than one day of writing in a row.  In fact, since December, I've only missed writing on 3 days.  I even got in 1,000 words on Christmas Day.

If I think I might miss two days in a row, I get very, very nervous. Good habits are hard to make and easy to break.  Being dedicated to writing every day, even if I miss a day here and there, is important to me.  

For instance, today I’m getting ready to leave for a weekend retreat with my wife.  We’re only gone for two days and it is a retreat for us, but I know I probably won’t be writing.  Nervous, nervous, I am.

You can’t beat yourself up if you miss a day or two if you’re sick or you need to attend to something important like keeping your job or making sure your significant other is happy, but, for me, I need to make writing a priority.

Fear and Trepidation in Zombieland

In many ways, I feel like I've come to the party late.  What I mean by that is I'm writing a zombie apocalypse novel.  My fear is that the reading public is done with the zombie apocalypse and is ready to move on the next fad, be it mutant robots, resurrected vegetables or whatever.

Stant Litore, a writer who's written several zombie novels, posted a note in the Horror Forum on Amazon asking readers to rate where they were on the following continuum:

Are you "zombied out?"
A. Heck no, bring me more ghouls!
B. I enjoy reading boks with an entirely new take on zombies
C. Meg, somewhat
D. Please God, make the zombies stop
F. Zombies were never on my thing anyway

While I was heartened by the fact that many people did respond with "A- Bring on the Zombies," I was discouraged that many were getting fatigued by the genre.

Ergo, why I'm feeling fear and trepidation.

Of course, you have to write the book you want to write and right now, it's a zombie apocalypse novel.  I do think well written books -- in whatever genre they're written in -- will break through to audiences.  Or least I delude myself with that thought.

What do you think?