The Rise of Apocalyptic and Survival Fiction

[ScalyFreak]

How old is "Collapse"? Any dystopian futuristic novel that centers around the fall of the US and that doesn't mention at least China, but preferably a few other Asian countries a well, is of no interest to me.

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Basic punctuation & other errors on the first page don't inspire me to keep reading.

That too.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Basic punctuation & other errors on the first page don't inspire me to keep reading. Authors who don't know how to punctuate dialogue need to hire editors.

Totally agree. The message from fedrich519 also sounds like spam. But at the same time it also reminds me of an idea for a book I initially attacked a while back, then abandoned for a better plotline because it was too hard to pull together effectively. As for what it covers, I think there's something there. Namely, what if the disaster in question didn't occur quickly, but rather was a slow, drawn out one? I mean, disasters don't need to be immediate to have long lasting, crippling effects on a culture or people. The general idea of a disaster is something catastrophic that destroys what used to be life as usual. Urban decay in all honesty is just as effective a destroyer as a massive earthquake. It just takes longer, and can be stretched out over several generations. But in the end the effects are the same. Just look at Detroit. That's a slow moving disaster that has taken decades to unfold.

That in itself is an interesting topic, but not as exciting as something that just pounces on you out of the blue. It's like watching a glacier bearing down on your town. It might reach you eventually, but it'll take a few years. In the meantime you can work to mitigate the consequences, or even outright stop them. The aftermath can also be less dramatic as people have time to adapt as things are unfolding, whereas a more traditional disaster leaves you with little more than a few seconds to duck and cover before things go south. But again, slow disasters aren't anywhere nearly as exciting as fast ones. Probably because it seems too much like daily life to a lot of people.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

[...] But again, slow disasters aren't anywhere nearly as exciting as fast ones. Probably because it seems too much like daily life to a lot of people.

That'd be it! ... Trying to work out which icon to attach here, should it be this: , or this: , or maybe this:

[VydorScope]

Eh, I bet if it was a slow event people would mostly ignore it and not change their habits at all. Some would deny its happening and some would find ways to profit out of it....

[WillAdams]

The slow apocalypse has already been done by Nevil Shute (for Australia).

[Steven Lake]

Well, here's an interesting one to toss in the mix. I was reading my news feeds today and it was brought to the forefront that there's been a big string of powerful quakes all along the ring of fire, some in the 7+ and 8+ categories, with a few even having 8+ aftershocks! Now that'd make some juicy material right there for a story for certain. On the survival side of things, imagine if a 9.5 or 9.8 earthquake happened somewhere with the shaking lasting 5+ minutes like it did in the Japan quake of March 2011. Given the level of damage it'd cause, that'd make for one seriously insane survival and recovery scenario given that with earthquakes, the line between Stage 1 and 2 is sorta blurred, as you drift back and forth between them due to all of the aftershocks. Only when they stop does Stage 2 go into full effect. lol. That'd certainly be something to ruin your day.

[Steven Lake]

http://www.mapofthedead.com/

On a small aside, here's something to play with for all you zombie apocalypse lovers, or even someone who's looking into ideas for their book related to resources. It's a Google maps powered survival guide of sorts, showing where the important stores are in each city, areas to avoid, etc. If applied to other disasters it has some possible benefits. If nothing else, it should get the creative juices flowing.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

On a small aside, here's something to play with for all you zombie apocalypse lovers, or even someone who's looking into ideas for their book related to resources. It's a Google maps powered survival guide of sorts, showing where the important stores are in each city, areas to avoid, etc.

*types in zip code*



I need to move. Before the zombie apocalypse happens.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Basic punctuation & other errors on the first page don't inspire me to keep reading. Authors who don't know how to punctuate dialogue need to hire editors.

While we're going after people who don't put commas before and after direct quotes, can we also get the ones who use block formatting instead of paragraph indents?

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by teh603

While we're going after people who don't put commas before and after direct quotes, can we also get the ones who use block formatting instead of paragraph indents?

No. Lets just out law commas completely. I do not think anyone actually understands them. Of course that might get Grandpa killed...

Let's eat Grandpa.
Let's eat, Grandpa.

But... eh... innovation can be costly.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by teh603

While we're going after people who don't put commas before and after direct quotes, can we also get the ones who use block formatting instead of paragraph indents?

I've learned to tolerate blocks instead of indents. Especially in non-DRM'd works, because I can easily fix that.

I'm willing to tolerate some SPAG errors, but not so many that they distract me from the story. First missed comma: meh, everyone makes a typo now & then. Second one in same situation: eep, author doesn't actually know how to punctuate quotes. Misplaced word ("I would say he his report will be positive")... aah. Apparently author couldn't be bothered to acquire a proofreader. And needs one.

Nope, my TBR list is already over-full of books that *do* follow normal English structural conventions, by authors I know I like. "Read new books" only happens when I'm convinced the experience will be somewhat enjoyable. Three basic grammar errors on the first page? For a topic I know plenty of other authors do well? Forget it.

[Steven Lake]

Yeah, even I've butchered sentences before and not realized it, so I think a few mistakes in a book are tolerable. Now when they're numerous, that's a whole other ball of yarn.

[Steven Lake]

Wow, with all of this tornado madness going on, I think it's ripe for a little bit of localized disaster fiction, don't ya think? Or you could expand the idea out to be a worldwide tornado outbreak. Statistically impossible, but it'd still make an interesting book.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Wow, with all of this tornado madness going on, I think it's ripe for a little bit of localized disaster fiction, don't ya think? Or you could expand the idea out to be a worldwide tornado outbreak. Statistically impossible, but it'd still make an interesting book.

Well even before this latest outbreak I have the opening of a story I've started in that direction...

[Steven Lake]

Ok, here's one for you guys. Just to give you an idea of just how popular and prevalent this genre is right now, I was watching an episode of Transformers Prime and discovered that the main enemy was....get this....undead robots. hahahaha!