Tales from the Wasteland

I've had the idea for a post-apocalyptic novel for awhile (that was actually fashioned more on being a script) but never got around to starting it due to work on other things. Recent forays into post-apocalyptic fiction/multimedia have spurred my interest further then before and I've been putting together some ideas.

I thought it would be interesting if a world was created and rather then focusing on one large story in this world, the world could be shown through many shorter stories, involving different people and perhaps if there's some interest, that one large story could be put together at one point. Being as of the fact that I'm not really a fan of short stories I thought a good way to make things truly interesting would be to make it graphical, in the vein of Frank Miller type stuff I suppose. I suck at art unfortunately and a big reason to making this thread was to scout out prospective artists who may be interested.

Details:
-Post nuclear war by around 100 years or so
-Set on the West Coast, though the larger story initially had the idea for the main character to travel from Los Angeles to Washington D.C
-Mostly realistic world but with unrealistic happenings. I want there to be a strong overture of dark humor and I'm also a fan of the idea of "running away" with certain things. There will be mutants and all types of creatures as a direct result of the nuclear war.

The idea is mostly to create a slightly humorous setting slightly stylized somewhere along the lines of the Fallout games (but not enough to draw a direct similarity).

Surely, TNL has something to say about this idea...

So you're kinda sorta putting Fallout into a book and injecting a different storyline?

Sorta kinda you could say. I didn't want everything to turn out too similar and there's plenty of other post-apocalyptic works to take influence from.

I mean... it isn't exactly groundbreaking.

It's not a bad idea for a collection of short stories. But you don't like short stories.

It's also kind of like World War Z. Which you should read if you haven't. It does the over-arching post-zombie apocolypse plot using many smaller, specific accounts and "interviews".

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Originally Posted by Mr-K

I mean... it isn't exactly groundbreaking.

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The general idea, yeah, but it's a good setting that really hasn't been taken proper advantage of in years (in my opinion anyhow), plus there's room for a lot of imagination as well as giving a proper enviroment to examine human nature in the most primal of existences. The original story-line showed the results of the war from the West Coast to the East, exploring a large portion of a world that hadn't been seen before.

I think the graphic storyline could make this pretty awesome.

Edit: Also, yes, I don't like short stories, but as I said above that I wanted to do graphic shorts with this. Short stories are incapable of painting a big enough picture for me most of the time, but when part of overall larger story they work just fine.

Hard to comment until you have some portion of it written down. So go for it, even if you only have 1 or 2 chapters, I am sure TNL would give you their opinion.

You should call it Snow Job.

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Originally Posted by Mr-K

World War Z

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ditto.

World War Z is the shit though. Good good stuff.

Are the rumours of a WWZ movie true?

Movie is confirmed.


See imbd and wiki. 2010 is the date. Inked by the same guy who did Babylon 5, so that should make Josh happy.

Thnx, I'll go to bed now. Wake me up in two years time.

I just wrote this entire post post about new works and all and how I was planning on going about this as I finally started work on it, but laptops are fucking retarded inventions with a bunch of programmed features on their keypads designed to fuck up your internet viewing experience if you even think about moving your hands the wrong way.

Anyways I'm still looking for somebody who might be willing to do some doodles for this. It's coming along sort of like a picture-book/comic/photo journal. The narration is done by all the "action" shots while the writing aspect is mostly character dialog and thoughts. Right now I'm focusing on creating a first "episode" detailing the events that led to the world the story is set in (nuclear apocalypse) and will lay out some of the initial groundwork for character introduction and development.

I absolutely suck at drawing/art and I don't have access to a scanner right now so I don't really want to upload any of the stuff but I can dictate it through description if anybody might want to draw a couple of frames or so.

You can't really get a valid opinion until you do some work on it.

Although one note I'd give anyone developing a story is to stop setting things in LA.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gohron

really hasn't been taken proper advantage of in years

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And you're the guy to do it? You should probably learn the difference between "then" and "than" then.

Writing is a lot harder than most people think.

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Originally Posted by Scourge

And you're the guy to do it? You should probably learn the difference between "then" and "than" then.

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Why are you such a dick? My English usage is not great and I'm far less interested in being a "writer" then somebody who can create a story, setting and characters. I've spent a lot of time writing stories that have received plenty of positive reactions outside of the community (and even still, only on the main boards) on TNL. Stop acting like a teacher with a fucking stick up his ass.

Go find something else to do with your time. I'm not terribly familiar with you on the boards but I've always remembered you being an asshole who comes off as thinking himself higher up on the food chain whenever he finds a reason to attack somebody.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gohron

Anyways I'm still looking for somebody who might be willing to do some doodles for this. It's coming along sort of like a picture-book/comic/photo journal. The narration is done by all the "action" shots while the writing aspect is mostly character dialog and thoughts. Right now I'm focusing on creating a first "episode" detailing the events that led to the world the story is set in (nuclear apocalypse) and will lay out some of the initial groundwork for character introduction and development.

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You come up with a story and art direction and people on here might be interested in working with you. Nobody is going to bite with just an idea and not a terribly original idea at that. Not that something good could not come from it, but you have not given anybody reason to be interested yet.

As far as the writing goes, you can go about two different ways. One is to write the stories like you would a normal story, and then you and an artist adapt it to a graphic format. The other, and they way is to be as detailed as possible. You don't have to lay out each frame in words, but you need to have an idea of the important visual parts of each scene. You can then work with the artist in a story board manner to make the story work. I find the best way is to come up with as much detail as possible. Sometimes I feel like I might be stepping on the freedom of an artist if I do this, but I shouldn't. The person helping with the visuals will love you for giving them details to work with, and will adapt whatever you give them to what they are capable of doing. You just have to be free to alter what you come up with to make it work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gohron

Why are you such a dick? My English usage is not great and I'm far less interested in being a "writer" then somebody who can create a story, setting and characters. I've spent a lot of time writing stories that have received plenty of positive reactions outside of the community (and even still, only on the main boards) on TNL. Stop acting like a teacher with a fucking stick up his ass.

Go find something else to do with your time. I'm not terribly familiar with you on the boards but I've always remembered you being an asshole who comes off as thinking himself higher up on the food chain whenever he finds a reason to attack somebody.

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lol