I'm trying my hand at a short story in which the main character can travel between our world and the afterworld. He can talk to the dead (who live in the afterworld), and he eventually will meet the devil. But I am having trouble creating the afterworld. In my head, the afterworld mirrors the real world, only it is crumbled and destroyed and the dead just aimlessly walk around. But I feel like this is somewhat overdone. I can also see the afterworld as exactly the same, the dead go about their business (whatever that may be for dead people), but everything is dark, there is no sun, its constantly thundering and the dead look basically like zombies. I just want to know what you guys think, and if you have any advice.
Locked in a small room, with a CD player and only Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith to choose from. No, wait. That's hell.
Hi @VincentMicah, and welcome to the forum In answer to your question, there are an almost infinite number of variations - for comedy it could be the canteen in the house of commons, for horror it could be a zombie filled post apocalyptic version of our world, for fantasy it could be a valhalla style banqueting hall... it's not as if anyone can pick you up for being wrong... just make it what you need it to be for your story.
OK. So if your MC can travel between our world and the afterworld does your MC also transform into a “dead person” when he enters that realm? Is he the only human within that world? Who does he bump into in that world? His great grandma? His great great grandma? His great great great grandma? All of them? A dead form of someone special to him? Someone important? Someone else? What eventful event(s) happen in the real world and how do the two connect? I guess these are all things you might think about before you begin writing it. Just be confident and sure. Hope this helps.
I once saw a movie based on a play called Steam Bath. It was set in a steam bath and everyone was just wearing a towel. It became clear after a while that nobody could leave until a certain door opened and then only one person could go through it, and beyond the door all you could see was swirling mist. And what made it poignant, what made it clear that the door was metaphorical for stepping through into death, is that before each person was allowed to go through they'd get to talking to others about their life, and their regrets or hopes that haven't come true yet or whatever, and it became very emotional, in different ways for each one. Some were terrified and didn't want to go through, some were ready, felt they had lived a full enough life and accomplished what they needed to etc. At no point though did anyone ever say they think it's death waiting out there, that was left to be inferred by the viewer. What you could do is download free ebooks from Project Gutenberg or the Internet Archive like Dante's Inferno, or various other ones dealing with religious ideas about the afterlife, to get ideas about how it's been done in various different religions. Look into Buddhist ideas about reincarnation, and all the various ways different peoples have envisioned it. Try to separate out what they have in common and what makes them different. of course that would take a long time, but you already know some things about these different ideas of the afterlife. Just cogitate on that for a while.