That’s from my most recent post in my Progress Journal. I remember that first day. It was April 24th, 2018. I sat down, opened a Google Doc, and began writing Zombie. I had written different versions of the concept within the past week, one of which was titled Starshower. I abandoned that because it was based on an alien invasion, which I wasn’t too interested in. I took ideas from Starshower: a couple of teenagers trying to survive the apocalypse turned into four, two of which together, who had been comatose for thirteen years. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just thinking “maybe this will work,” writing that, and then deleting or editing it if it didn’t. I think I made them comatose for so long so that they would be teenagers to the point where I could relate, but in their twenties so that publishers wouldn’t be as turned off by the murder they’d commit to stay alive. I would be more comfortable with it as well. My life was in a much worse place than it is now. Little did I know, I would soon meet my future girlfriend, and things would go mostly up from there. This wasn’t my first writing rodeo. In 2015, I was writing a much different book. The main character was a dragon named Spencer, who was thrown into the middle of a war between dragons and humans. Being an angsty twelve-year-old, it had a swear word whenever it could, and it was way too dark right off the bat. In what was probably 2017, I rewrote the whole thing. The idea of humans v. dragons was the same, but mostly everything else was different. Still, the fantasy wasn’t working out for me. In 2018, my school recommended that I take a book from the library. That was the day that changed my life. I picked up The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey. This book is what made me realize I adore science fiction, and even inspired me to write my own. I wrote all kinds of ideas, and then settled on one, titled Zombie. I won’t spoil anything in Rick Yancey’s wonderful work, but there’s a murderous character named Zombie in it. I took that and made my own Zombie. Don’t worry, they’re much different. Anyway, Zombie is the POV character in my WIP. Their name is where my username, Zombie Among Us, comes from. The epistolary story is from the pages of their journal, which they brought with them to the emergency bunker when the apocalypse, called The Invasion, struck. I owe the original base idea of my story to one detail of The Fifth Wave. In conclusion, it’s been a wild ride. Like I said in my quote, “I’m happy with where I’m at and I can’t wait to see where I go.”
From my "Hey Guys!" post, I will forever remember a story I wrote in third grade: it was about a young boy who caught bees but was allergic to wasp stings. My teacher said (quite aggressively) that it didn’t make sense that his parents would let him play with bees while knowing about his allergy. I always remember that when I’m writing, it reminds me to make sure that the story is plausible. Thanks teacher! Writing and life in general, for me, greatly has to do with taking the good out of a bad situation. It hurt me as a kid to have someone tell me off for an issue with my writing, but I'm glad it happened. Maybe I can be a little paranoid about how people will react to my stories, but if you ask me, it's better than assuming it makes sense without thinking it through. Recently, I asked someone I know if they would like to help me with my story, and they quickly said yes. The very next day, they admitted that they didn't like reading or writing and only said yes to make me happy. That shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was for me because I got way too attached to the idea of having a beta reader/editor/whatever literally overnight. The lesson I've taken from that is to not jump right into something that quickly. The way I see it is that I should've waited a while before assuming a possibility must be fact. They have admitted that they shouldn't have been dishonest with me, but I completely forgive them. They had good intentions and taught me a valuable lesson: don't get too caught up in an idea in an instant. Bottom line, I'd advise to generally take the good out of the bad. You're allowed to acknowledge the bad, I'm not saying you aren't, I'm just saying that there's a good side to things. When it seems like there's no good side, remember this, something my girlfriend said one day: it has to get worse before it can get better. Just thought I'd share my experiences with you guys.