Category Archives: zombies

>Prepping For Writing Horror by Watching Horror Movies… (NaNoWriMo)

> black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Prepping For Writing Horror by Watching Horror Movies…

It’s only 7 days til NaNoWriMo, as usual I will be writing Horror – my seventh year as a Horror Wrimo, YAY! I love doing Edgar Alan Poe style Horror, and so every October I pull out my Poe books and read them. Than the last week of October, I drag out all my dozens of Vincent Price DVDs (most of them based on Poe books) and start watching them.

As I do every year, I am prepping for NaNoWriMo by watching a different Vincent Price movie every night until November 1st – Pit & Pendulum is tonight’s movie. On Halloween night, I will keep myself awake till midnight, by watching a bunch of them all at once. That way, by 1 second after midnight I’ll be ready to jump into NaNo with my brain packed full of Poe and Price and ready to right in the Horror style I love best. I always see my male Main Character as being played by Vincent Price, and watching his movies gets me in the right mood to get my writing done. =P

I watch horror movies all year long.

last week I watched all 4 Final Destinations and most of the Ju-On/Grudge series

in the past few months I’ve also watched:

Phantom of the Opera (Robert Englund version)
Saw (several of them)
I Know What You Did Last Summer
When a Stranger Calls
Hide and Seek
Fourth Kind
Paranormal Activity
Dark Waters
Ringu
all of the Halloween series
most of the Friday the Thirteenth series
Dracula (Lugosi version)
Nightmare on Elm Street series
Scream
Wrong Turn
Resident Evil series
Frailty
Sweeny Todd
Secret Window
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Rose Red
Dr Phibes series
Lost Boys
White Noise
Langoliers
40 Days of Night
Army of Darkness
Dawn of the Dead
The Visitation
The Others
Quarantine
just about every movie ever made with Bela Lugosi or Vincent Price in it

my brain is so ready to write horror

So what about every one else? I can’t be the only one who preps for writing horror by watching horror movies – Who else watches Horror movies to help them get in the right mood for planning their NaNovel? What Horror movies do you watch? How does watching them help your writing?

Need help with NaNoWriMo?
Check out these:
The 13 Step Method
The Top 5 NaNoWriMo Tools
Creating Character Profiles
Voodoo Dolls for Writers
Those super soft extra fluffy scarfs I wear to Write-Ins

Want to network with me?
http://www.keen.com/EelKat
http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

This blog is part of:

Prepping For Writing Horror by Watching Horror Movies… (NaNoWriMo)

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Prepping For Writing Horror by Watching Horror Movies…

It’s only 7 days til NaNoWriMo, as usual I will be writing Horror – my seventh year as a Horror Wrimo, YAY! I love doing Edgar Alan Poe style Horror, and so every October I pull out my Poe books and read them. Than the last week of October, I drag out all my dozens of Vincent Price DVDs (most of them based on Poe books) and start watching them.

As I do every year, I am prepping for NaNoWriMo by watching a different Vincent Price movie every night until November 1st – Pit & Pendulum is tonight’s movie. On Halloween night, I will keep myself awake till midnight, by watching a bunch of them all at once. That way, by 1 second after midnight I’ll be ready to jump into NaNo with my brain packed full of Poe and Price and ready to right in the Horror style I love best. I always see my male Main Character as being played by Vincent Price, and watching his movies gets me in the right mood to get my writing done. =P

I watch horror movies all year long.

last week I watched all 4 Final Destinations and most of the Ju-On/Grudge series

in the past few months I’ve also watched:

Phantom of the Opera (Robert Englund version)
Saw (several of them)
I Know What You Did Last Summer
When a Stranger Calls
Hide and Seek
Fourth Kind
Paranormal Activity
Dark Waters
Ringu
all of the Halloween series
most of the Friday the Thirteenth series
Dracula (Lugosi version)
Nightmare on Elm Street series
Scream
Wrong Turn
Resident Evil series
Frailty
Sweeny Todd
Secret Window
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Rose Red
Dr Phibes series
Lost Boys
White Noise
Langoliers
40 Days of Night
Army of Darkness
Dawn of the Dead
The Visitation
The Others
Quarantine
just about every movie ever made with Bela Lugosi or Vincent Price in it

my brain is so ready to write horror

So what about every one else? I can’t be the only one who preps for writing horror by watching horror movies – Who else watches Horror movies to help them get in the right mood for planning their NaNovel? What Horror movies do you watch? How does watching them help your writing?

Need help with NaNoWriMo?
Check out these:
The 13 Step Method
The Top 5 NaNoWriMo Tools
Creating Character Profiles
Voodoo Dolls for Writers
Those super soft extra fluffy scarfs I wear to Write-Ins

Want to network with me?
http://www.keen.com/EelKat
http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

This blog is part of:

What Makes a Vampire, a Vampire?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Okay, so I’ve got my plot all ready to go, spent 3 months outlining, in 2 days I start writing, I’m doing good too, no vampires in sight – ghosts and zombie, but not a single vampire, and suddenly today, October 30th, I start thinking – tomorrow is Halloween! YAY! Got to go watch every Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price movie under the sun for the next 24 hours!!!! Yep, I’m weird, I know – every Halloween I pull out mountains of Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price DVDs and spend the whole day going classic vampire crazy. Oh no! Two days before NaNoWriMo I have a different plot ready to write and than Halloween shows up and messes up my train of thought and now all I can think about is vampires and how much I want to write a vampire story. :(

Okay, so I’m still doing my Frost Zombie apocalypse and I’m planning on 75k for that, but you know me, since when I have written less than 200k for NaNoWriMo? What that means is, I can go ahead and do a second NaNovel, and if I can go ahead and do a second NaNovel, than why can’t I go ahead and spend Halloween planning a vampire NaNovel? Can I outline an entire novel in less than 24 hours? Who knows, but I’m going to try.

So, here’s where I come to you guys. I’m trying to figure out what exactly it is, I think of when I think of vampires. Who are my vampires? What is it that makes my vampires, different from humans? What makes a vampire a vampire?

So, I am compiling a list of classic vampire things, (I prefer classic Bela Lugosi style Dracula vampires, btw, so that’s what I’m focusing on, and if any one has anything they want to add to this list, feel free to jump in and add your thoughts.

Here is my list so far:

Things that make a Vampire a Vampire:

- drinks blood
- is undead
- looks like Bela Lugosi ;)
- dresses like Bela Lugosi =P

“Regular” Vampires have the following abilities:
“Super Powerful” Vampires also have the additional “rare” abilities:

Movement Abilities:

-Inhuman Speed
-Unearthly Reflexes
-Vertical Ascension (climbs walls)
-Gliding (with help of cape)
-Bat Form
-Mist Form
-Flight
-Move Silently

Rare Movement Abilities

-Clown Frenzy
-Astral Projection
-Dodge Daylight
-Spider Climb
-Cat’s Grace
-Shadow Conceal

Offensive Abilities

-Fangs
-Vampiric Claws
-Enhanced Senses
-Animalistic Frenzy
-Superhuman Strength
-Mind Control
-Wolf Form
-Horrific Transformation
-Glamor

Rare Offensive Abilities

-Pyrokinesis
-Corrosion
-Control Mall Santas
-Ironic Annihilation
-Purge Blood
-Pestilence
-Mummification
-Blood Soaked Vengeance (Carrie)
-Hellfire
-Demonic Familiar
-Bloodletting
-Vampire Lord
-Summon Horseman
-Shadow Transformation
-Bone Spikes
-Demon Summoning
-Telepathy
-Drain Youth
-Raise Zombies
-Invisibility
-Shadow Manipulation
-Blood to Ashes
-Command a Wolf Pack
-Command Rat Swarm
-Cause Madness
-Intoxicating Bite

Defensive Abilities

-Fast Healing
-Impervious to bullets
-Intimidation

Rare Defensive Abilities

-Veil of Thorns
-Winged Guard
-Premonition
-Indestructible
-Iron Skin
-Create Illusion
-Immunity to Religious Icons
-Immaterial (can walk through solid walls)
-Resistance to Sunlight
-Immunity to Silver

(This list was copied from the Zanga Game Vampire Wars, btw)

So, what do you think makes a Vampire a Vampire? Are the things on my list enough, too much, or not enough? I’m not really worrying about cliches and such. I figure if it’s too cliche, well tough luck, I’ll just have cliched vampires than. I’ve always been mesmerized by Bela Lugosi as Dracula, he’s the best vampire ever and he’s what I think of when I think of vampires, so he’s what I’ve got stuck in my head right this moment – of course it helps that I just watched Dracula last night too :)

This blog post, btw, started out in life as a NaNoWriMo Thread, What Makes a Vampire, a Vampire? So if you have an answer, you should post your answer on the thread itself. Okay? Cool!

Find Out More About My 2008 NaNoWriMo Book Which the LDS/Mormon Church is up in arms about. (NOTE – this link goes to the unedited proof of the book and not to the actual listing.)

Find Out More About My 2009 NaNoWriMo Project

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

———-
Editing and Drafts
Create a Fantasy Realm
Advice For NaNoWriters!
Creating Character Profiles
Are You A Renegade A Writer?
How To Become a Better Writer
The Top 5 Tools For NaNoWriMo
What Genre Is My Vampire Story?
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Improving your writing with what you read.
Have You Written Your Author’s Interview Yet?
How I Reached 50,000 in 30 Days and You Can Too!
———-

Thank You Kitty. . .Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Blingo

Good reason for large numbers of people disappearing?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums the question was asked:

[quote=jamers503]I am doing my NaNo in December this year because November was a lousy time this year. Too many other things.

So, this year my novel is going the post-apocalyptic route. I didn’t want it to, but it did. The plot is a large-scale, highly-destructive meteor shower blankets the earth and knocks pretty much everything out. Power, satellites, all organization. Now, my 4 MCs survived the initial shower and were in the country. They’re hiking back to the city (pop. about 150,000, for the sake of the story) to find out what’s going on. not everything is craters, though about 50% of the landscape was hit. Meaning 50% of houses, cars, people, etc. But I want less people in my novel.

Any ideas on something that would severely reduce the number of people encountered?
———-

2007 – Untitled, but gonna win

2006 – Tucker Martine (50,180)

[/quote]

My first thought is, what about aliens? Could they have whisked away tons of people just before the event?

Looting gone wrong… people do weird things when they panic… like there’s no electricity, but folks are runing into what’s left of WalMart and stealing PlayStation 3′s anyways, and a riot breaks out, cause there is only one left in the store so one guy goes nuts and kills the rest of the mob with a machine gun, he’d looted out of the local army barracks? After he’s killed everyone and a run off with the PS3, he realizes that without electricity he can’t use it anyways…. weird stuff like that could decrease the surplas population quite a bit.

Disease… if you’ve got a lot of dead bodies laying in the streets, it won’t be very long before the people who survived, start to get boubonic plauge and other such diseases…. an outbreak of plauge could kill off 6 million people in less than a month… it did it before in the 1600′s.

The general stupidity of city folk, will kill off quite a few of them. No electricity = no hospitals, no gas stations, no food coming into cities, no tap water, and no heat. People will have to eat wild plants for food, most can’t tell a dandylion from a daisy, and how many city folks know you can eat dandylions? Here’s a question: how many city folks know that you can eat grass? Corn, wheat, rye, oat, and all other grains, are just grass seed… could YOU tell which grass seed was which? No heat is a biggie… in Maine 5 people die each year from gas poisoning, because they do not know to not use a gas heater indoors. And 10 families end up hospitailized because they do not know the same thing. And 30 families lose their homes, because they didn’t know not to light a wood fire with gas and burned their houses down. Farmers and country folk know better because they live with out electricity, 40% of the year anyways… city folk, are quite frankly stupid when it comes to basic survival skills and living off the land.

Apocolyptic religons, that sacrific the unworthy? People in a panic tend to go off on religous frenzies.

Vegitation destroied, so surviors start eating the weaker people?

Wild animals have nothing to eat, so start attacking people.

Zombies?

Vampires?

Werewolves?

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Good reason for large numbers of people disappearing?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums the question was asked:

[quote=jamers503]I am doing my NaNo in December this year because November was a lousy time this year. Too many other things.

So, this year my novel is going the post-apocalyptic route. I didn’t want it to, but it did. The plot is a large-scale, highly-destructive meteor shower blankets the earth and knocks pretty much everything out. Power, satellites, all organization. Now, my 4 MCs survived the initial shower and were in the country. They’re hiking back to the city (pop. about 150,000, for the sake of the story) to find out what’s going on. not everything is craters, though about 50% of the landscape was hit. Meaning 50% of houses, cars, people, etc. But I want less people in my novel.

Any ideas on something that would severely reduce the number of people encountered?
———-

2007 – Untitled, but gonna win

2006 – Tucker Martine (50,180)

[/quote]

My first thought is, what about aliens? Could they have whisked away tons of people just before the event?

Looting gone wrong… people do weird things when they panic… like there’s no electricity, but folks are runing into what’s left of WalMart and stealing PlayStation 3′s anyways, and a riot breaks out, cause there is only one left in the store so one guy goes nuts and kills the rest of the mob with a machine gun, he’d looted out of the local army barracks? After he’s killed everyone and a run off with the PS3, he realizes that without electricity he can’t use it anyways…. weird stuff like that could decrease the surplas population quite a bit.

Disease… if you’ve got a lot of dead bodies laying in the streets, it won’t be very long before the people who survived, start to get boubonic plauge and other such diseases…. an outbreak of plauge could kill off 6 million people in less than a month… it did it before in the 1600′s.

The general stupidity of city folk, will kill off quite a few of them. No electricity = no hospitals, no gas stations, no food coming into cities, no tap water, and no heat. People will have to eat wild plants for food, most can’t tell a dandylion from a daisy, and how many city folks know you can eat dandylions? Here’s a question: how many city folks know that you can eat grass? Corn, wheat, rye, oat, and all other grains, are just grass seed… could YOU tell which grass seed was which? No heat is a biggie… in Maine 5 people die each year from gas poisoning, because they do not know to not use a gas heater indoors. And 10 families end up hospitailized because they do not know the same thing. And 30 families lose their homes, because they didn’t know not to light a wood fire with gas and burned their houses down. Farmers and country folk know better because they live with out electricity, 40% of the year anyways… city folk, are quite frankly stupid when it comes to basic survival skills and living off the land.

Apocolyptic religons, that sacrific the unworthy? People in a panic tend to go off on religous frenzies.

Vegitation destroied, so surviors start eating the weaker people?

Wild animals have nothing to eat, so start attacking people.

Zombies?

Vampires?

Werewolves?

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>Good reason for large numbers of people disappearing?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums the question was asked:

[quote=jamers503]I am doing my NaNo in December this year because November was a lousy time this year. Too many other things.

So, this year my novel is going the post-apocalyptic route. I didn’t want it to, but it did. The plot is a large-scale, highly-destructive meteor shower blankets the earth and knocks pretty much everything out. Power, satellites, all organization. Now, my 4 MCs survived the initial shower and were in the country. They’re hiking back to the city (pop. about 150,000, for the sake of the story) to find out what’s going on. not everything is craters, though about 50% of the landscape was hit. Meaning 50% of houses, cars, people, etc. But I want less people in my novel.

Any ideas on something that would severely reduce the number of people encountered?
———-

2007 – Untitled, but gonna win

2006 – Tucker Martine (50,180)

[/quote]

My first thought is, what about aliens? Could they have whisked away tons of people just before the event?

Looting gone wrong… people do weird things when they panic… like there’s no electricity, but folks are runing into what’s left of WalMart and stealing PlayStation 3′s anyways, and a riot breaks out, cause there is only one left in the store so one guy goes nuts and kills the rest of the mob with a machine gun, he’d looted out of the local army barracks? After he’s killed everyone and a run off with the PS3, he realizes that without electricity he can’t use it anyways…. weird stuff like that could decrease the surplas population quite a bit.

Disease… if you’ve got a lot of dead bodies laying in the streets, it won’t be very long before the people who survived, start to get boubonic plauge and other such diseases…. an outbreak of plauge could kill off 6 million people in less than a month… it did it before in the 1600′s.

The general stupidity of city folk, will kill off quite a few of them. No electricity = no hospitals, no gas stations, no food coming into cities, no tap water, and no heat. People will have to eat wild plants for food, most can’t tell a dandylion from a daisy, and how many city folks know you can eat dandylions? Here’s a question: how many city folks know that you can eat grass? Corn, wheat, rye, oat, and all other grains, are just grass seed… could YOU tell which grass seed was which? No heat is a biggie… in Maine 5 people die each year from gas poisoning, because they do not know to not use a gas heater indoors. And 10 families end up hospitailized because they do not know the same thing. And 30 families lose their homes, because they didn’t know not to light a wood fire with gas and burned their houses down. Farmers and country folk know better because they live with out electricity, 40% of the year anyways… city folk, are quite frankly stupid when it comes to basic survival skills and living off the land.

Apocolyptic religons, that sacrific the unworthy? People in a panic tend to go off on religous frenzies.

Vegitation destroied, so surviors start eating the weaker people?

Wild animals have nothing to eat, so start attacking people.

Zombies?

Vampires?

Werewolves?

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

test #9

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Thank You Kitty. . .Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!.
Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!.
Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!
.

Blingo

Shop the Star Trek Store Today!
Your Favorite Characters Are At CartoonNetworkShop.com!

test #9

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Thank You Kitty. . .Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!.
Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!.
Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!
.

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Blingo

Shop the Star Trek Store Today!
Your Favorite Characters Are At CartoonNetworkShop.com!