#wsibc?igtda!

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seven sentence sunday

thank you for the tags, @space-writes and @the-golden-comet!

this snippet is from why should i be careful? i'm going to die anyway!

Aura forced herself to unwrap the chalupa - steak, her favorite, but it tasted like cement.  Her hope soured like milk in her gut.  Fuck.  She hadn't counted on Chris evacuating with his family.  He was the one with the guns, the iodine tablets, the MREs he'd bought 'just to try them'.  Hell, he was the one who carried a fire-starter tinder card in his wallet so he could set shit on fire without needing a cheap plastic lighter!  They needed him!  Every apocalypse plan she and Vivi had ever discussed included Chris, because they couldn't imagine him not being part of the group. But apparently, he thought they were capable of taking care of themselves.  He was going to do the noble thing and escort his underage siblings to the safest place they could be.  She should be proud of him - Chris wasn't exactly the noble type.  But her stomach felt like rocks and she could barely keep her food down.

TAGGING @leahpardo-pa-potato - @paeliae-occasionally - @winterandwords - OPEN TAG!

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writing share tag

thank you for the tag, @inseasofgreen!

this is from why should i be careful? i'm going to die anyway!

“Oh.”  She sank back into the chair and watched him reorganize the backpack, somehow without removing even a single item from its contents.  He zipped it shut and tossed it at her - she was amazed that she didn’t drop it.  “Protect that with your life.  Without it, we’re toast.” She nodded, but he was already moving to the bedroom.  Something thumped and banged - she winced as the sound echoed through the apartment.  He should really try to be quieter so he didn’t alert anything – any-one – roaming the hallway, but she didn’t dare shout to tell him.  That would make the problem worse, not better. Her heart sank as he came back, his arms overloaded with not one, not two, but three large guns.  A shotgun and two semi-automatic assault rifles.  He’d shown them to her before – she’d even hefted one and was surprised at how heavy it was – but he talked about them so rarely that she’d forgotten they existed.  Of course he was taking all of his guns. “I don’t have time to clean them,” he grumbled to himself as he dumped them on the table and disappeared back into the room.  He emerged again almost immediately, this time with arms full of ammo boxes.  “Better not come back to bite me in the ass.”  He plopped into his chair and lifted the shotgun first, feeding slugs into the chamber one at a time.  To her surprise, it slid across the table and came to rest in front of her. “What are–” “Four golden rules of guns.  Go.” He’d drilled her on these repeatedly through the years, always promising that shooting lessons were soon to follow – yet here she sat, completely uninitiated.  She swallowed, suddenly nervous.  She always, always, got the last one wrong.  It had never mattered before, but for some reason, it mattered now.  “Uh – never aim at someone or something unless you intend to shoot it.  Never put your finger on the trigger unless you are about to shoot.  Always make sure your gun is unloaded and safety is on if you’re not planning to shoot something in the next thirty seconds.  And…um…” Because of course she’d forget the last one.  Again. “Before you shoot, always make sure you know your target and what’s behind it.”  Chris snapped a magazine into the first semi-automatic assault rifle and set it aside.  “Because it would really fucking suck to shoot a zombie only to blow up a propane tank behind it with a stray pellet.  Lame way to die in the zombie apocalypse.”  He loaded the second assault rifle and checked the strap that would presumably attach it to his back.  “All right.  I think that’s everything.  We ready to go?” “Already?” “Yeah.  Longer we hang around here, the more dangerous it gets.  Right now, we only have to deal with Jace and Kelsey.  They’re running around infecting people while we sit here doing nothing.  Do you want to deal with a little horde right out the gate?  Because I don’t.”

TAGGGING @willtheweaver - @space-writes - @flock-from-the-void - OPEN TAG!

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vaguely summarized wip

thank you for the tag, @theink-stainedfolk and @drchenquill!

Rules: Summarize your story in fifteen 2-5 word bullet points (as if you were trying to summarize it in fifteen seconds)

I'll summarize Why Should I Be Careful? I'm Going To Die Anyway!

his stepsister asked you what?

you should really not do that

...and you did it anyway...

we'll die if we stay

we'll die if we go

fuck it, we ball

i don't want a (found) family

sharing is caring, asshole

*scratches at the door*

books, glorious boooks

too much drama honestly

but i don't like water

too many candles

well, that was messy

time to be extra

TAGGING @leahpardo-pa-potato - @finickyfelix - @willtheweaver - @paeliae-occasionally - OPEN TAG!

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nine lives nine people

thank you, @space-writes, for the tag!

this one actually comes from why should i be careful? i'm going to die anyway!

The first thing Vivi noticed as consciousness swirled around her was the blinking fluorescent light directly above her face.  Its buzz filled her ears like bees swarming cotton candy.  It was only after she closed her eyes against the oppressive glare that she realized the pain boring into her skull, cramping her shoulders, pinching her spine. "Oh thank fucking Christ.”  Quinn's voice was too loud, too close.  “How you feeling?” She wanted to say 'how do you think I'm feeling?’  She wanted to swallow a handful of Sucnoin and sleep until the pain went away.  She sure as shit didn't want to deal with coworker bullshit right now.  Instead, she pushed herself upright, wincing at the sharp pain that stabbed her spine.  “Fine. Never better.” “You sure?  That door hit you pretty hard.  You’re gonna have some wicked bruises.” Vivi shook her head.  “I’ve had worse.”  The lie slipped out so easily, just like it always did.  The truth was, she wasn’t sure if she’d had worse this time.  She’d never had a broken bone, but she had sprained her ankle once, and this… this felt worse than that.  She could barely turn her head, even if she turned her shoulders with it.  But her eyes trailed over to Maeve, laying on a nearby table with a frozen pork loin resting on her spine, and she gritted her teeth. Compared to Maeve, she was fine.  She had to be. Her eyes swept around the room.  There were more people in here now, a few that she recognized.  Kai, her deli supervisor - wait, no, not anymore, she’d almost forgotten that Kai had stepped down and was just a regular worker now.  A few meat department workers with their flimsy plastic aprons and expressions of sheer shitting-themselves terror.  Some guy in a business suit leaned against a shelf; she tried not to notice the blood splattered across his tan sleeve.  Quite the crew they’d assembled.  She couldn’t feel safer. …god, she was not good at sarcasm.

TAGGING @drchenquill - @finickyfelix - @willtheweaver - OPEN TAG!

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last line tag ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

here is the end of the first chapter of Why Should I Be Careful? I'm Going to Die Anyway!

TAGGING @theink-stainedfolk - @winterandwords - @aeaea-writes - OPEN TAG!

"Besides,” he added as he stepped away from the table on shaking legs, “if you had shot her, you would have hit me too, and I’d be dead.  Then who’d protect you?” Aura shot him a dirty look.  “I can protect myself.  I killed her, didn’t I?” “You grabbed a sheet first.  What were you gonna do, hang the dead girl?”  Chris dropped into the recliner and wiped the sweat from his forehead.  It came away with a streak of black, the zombie girl’s blood.  He smeared it on his cargo pants; it vanished against the dark canvas. Someone screamed in the hallway.  It echoed through the cavernous apartment.  Aura froze, her shoe half-tied.  “Chris?” “Aura?”  He didn’t seem to be listening, bent over the scattered pieces of his broken headset. “Did you shut the front door?” Chris went very, very still as another scream broke out, this time much, much closer and much, much angrier.

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first / last line tag

thank you for the tag, @space-writes!

this is the first and the last line of why should i be careful? i'm going to die anyway!

first line

As he thrust into her, Aura couldn't help but wonder What the hell am I doing here?

last line

“If I die, you’re fucked anyway, because I have the keys and you can’t drive.  So you better hope I don’t die.”  He grinned at her, as if they were merely discussing a terrible movie, and stepped to the heavy front door.  “Stay close and stay quiet.  Here we go.” And he opened the door.

TAGGING @winterandwords - @mjparkerwriting - @watermeezer - OPEN TAG!

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oc questionnaire

thank you for the tag, @willtheweaver!

i'm going to answer as aura from why should i be careful? i'm going to die anyway!

Is there anything that creeps you out or otherwise scares you?

aura: oh god, so many things. you know those videos of cavers squeezing themselves through the tightest spaces? i can't watch those. they freak me out. i'm a little bit claustrophobic. like, i can't be in a bathroom with the door closed and the lights off - i freak out. um, what else? centipedes give me the ick. i like spiders but i can't let them within touching distance. the whole *gestures broadly* pregnancy thing too, that creeps me out. oh, and i can't do anything with zombies after dark. no movies, no games, no books, no nothing. gives me nightmares. weird, right? because they're so cool, and yet they give me nightmares. i'm sure this isn't going to become a major problem later on.

Are there foods you do not eat? If so, why?

aura: so, being autistic, i have a very...visceral reaction to foods i don't like. they literally make me puke. i can't even be around the smell for a lot of it. um, i don't like fish - shrimp is yummy, and i adore crab rangoon, but those are the only fishy things i can tolerate. potato and egg salad as well. i think it's the consistency? because i love potatoes and eggs. uhh, onions. i can do onion rings and fried onions, but raw onions are so nasty. oh, and cabbage. cooked cabbage, not the raw cabbage they put in cole slaw. i feel so bad about fish and cabbage, because i would love to go to japan someday, but a lot of their food has fish and cabbage in it, and i can't eat that. sad face.

Would you consider yourself someone who is good with children? Why or why not?

aura: um... i mean, i'm a firm believer that children should be treated kindly and with respect, right? they're little people, and how you treat them stays with them forever. so i try. i really do. but i'm just awkward in general, and kids make it ten times worse because i don't relate to them, y'know? i'm in my thirties. it doesn't help that i, um, don't really like kids that much to begin with. i think they're annoying and obnoxious. i know they're still trying to figure out the world and their place in it, and i try so hard to be patient with them, but...god they're annoying. i avoid them when i can and when i can't? i try my best to be kind, but also to get away from them as quickly as possible. go to vivienne, little children. she loves kids and she's so good with them. you'll have an infinitely better time with her, trust me.

TAGGING @asher-writes - @rookitowrites - @badscientist - open tag!

YOUR QUESTIONS ARE:

do you like to make your space cozy? why or why not - and if yes, how?

after a long day, do you cook, order take-out, or heat up a frozen meal?

what is your favorite season, and what makes it special to you?

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For the word guessing game: Star

I went through the entirety of The Corpse and the Killer twice. I combed through it with my handy dandy find-and-replace tool. TWICE.

I do not have a single star in my fic.

But my characters stare. A lot. Did no one teach them manners? It's rude to stare, and yet they do it constantly! Tsk, tsk.

ANYWAY. As per the rules, I must write three fresh sentences for you! We'll do it from WSIBC?IGTDA! because it needs more content that I've been procrastinating for no good reason.

Aura let her eyes drift across the labyrinth of stars. For a moment, she didn't have a crick in her neck - for a moment, the rasps and hisses below her didn't matter. For a moment, life was as it was before.

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Why Should I Be Careful? I'm Going to Die Anyway!

Chapter 3 Snippet

“All right.  I think that’s everything.  We ready to go?”

“Already?”

“Yeah.  Longer we hang around here, the more dangerous it gets.  Right now, we only have to deal with Jace and Kelsey.  They’re running around infecting people while we sit here doing nothing.  Do you want to deal with a little horde right out the gate?  Because I don’t.”

“Okay.”  She took a slow deep breath to calm her nerves, but it only made her more aware of her rapidly beating heart.  Her fingers tightened over the canvas straps of the backpack in her lap.  It was happening.  It was really happening.  All those daydreams and silly little conversations with Vivi were real now.  Her every decision would matter from this point on, because even one wrong decision could mean horrible, painful death.

Fuck.  She couldn’t do this.

“You can do it.”  Chris apparently noticed the absolute terror written across her face.  “I’ll lead.  You follow.  We just have to make it to the Jeep.  It’s not that far.  You can do that, right?”

“I don’t know.”  Her stomach twisted into a tight knot that made her feel like she was going to throw up lumpy chunks of Taco Feast.  “I can’t run –  you know that.  What if they hear us?  What if they chase us?  I’ll be dead, and you’ll be–”

“We’re not going to have to run.  They’re upstairs.  As long as we’re quiet, they won’t even know we’ve left the apartment.  And I doubt there’s any zombies outside.  It’s a school day, so everyone’s at school or work.  It’s pretty dead in this neighborhood around this time.  We’ll be fine.”

She didn’t believe him.  Couldn’t believe him.  But to her surprise, she found herself getting out of the chair and throwing the backpack over her shoulder.  She slipped her arms through the straps and picked up the shotgun.  “Um–”

“Safety is right there.  Flick it.”

“But you said–”

“Just… there’s not going to be time to teach you this stuff once we leave the apartment.  You have to be ready to shoot.  Just keep your finger off the trigger unless someone shows up, and try not to shoot me in the back.”

“What if I miss?”

“It’s a shotgun.  You won’t miss.”

Aura flicked the safety from green to red, and the shotgun instantly felt heavier with the weight of responsibility.  She obeyed his instructions – her finger stayed straight over the trigger hook, and the barrel aimed at the ground in front of her.

Chris nodded his approval, his shaggy hair falling before his eyes, and stood up.  He slung the two ARs over his shoulder so they crisscrossed on his back and shoved his wallet into his pocket.  Car keys stayed in his left hand – his pistol in his right.  “Okay.  We move slow and quiet.  Like Liquidator.  Don’t shoot unless they’re close enough to grab you.  Guns are louder than you think they are, and I don’t want to attract any more attention than we have to.  If more than one shows up, you turn and run.  You know where I parked.  The door’s unlocked.  Get in, shut the door, and wait for me.”

“And…and if you…”

“If I die, you’re fucked anyway, because I have the keys and you can’t drive.  So you better hope I don’t die.”  He grinned at her, as if they were merely discussing a terrible movie, and stepped to the heavy front door.  “Stay close and stay quiet.  Here we go.”

And he opened the door.

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Why Should I Be Careful? I'm Going To Die Anyway!

Chapter 2 - Snippet

She’d seen this scene before, spread across her TV screen.  A man staggers into a place, bleeding from a mysterious wound.  He dies before he can tell anyone what happens.  People swarm around him, trying to help – or take pictures.  He gets back up, and all hell breaks loose.  She’d seen it more times than she could count, on the frequent occasion that Aura curled up beside her and put on a zombie movie, despite them giving her nightmares.

They’d talked about situations like this, cuddling on their crappy futon.  What they would do when – if – the time came.  She’d regale her starry-eyed girlfriend with tales of grandeur, describing herself blazing through the city with nothing but a butcher’s knife to save her beloved.  They’d singlehandedly take over a store, maybe even this store, and survive for years on the supplies inside.  When the end of the world came, they would survive.

That time had come, and Vivienne was frozen in place.  She watched the man fold in on himself, sprawl across the floor.  Customers pressed around him, shouting, snapping pictures on their phones.  Manager Michelle strode out of an aisle, business slacks billowing around her ankles, and shouted instructions.  She dropped to one knee and pressed a manicured finger to the other side of the man’s throat.

Vivienne knew what came next.  She knew that if she called out, she wouldn’t be heard – or worse, she’d be ignored.  She still opened her mouth, still tried to force the words out of her dry throat.  Nothing came out.  She could only watch through the gaps in the customers.

The man sat up abruptly, shouldering Michelle out of the way.  He didn’t move for a moment, pale cataracts flicking from person to person.  They landed on the closest person – Michelle.  She screamed as he snapped forward, teeth sinking into her supple cheek.

All hell broke loose.  The throng around the man scattered, disappearing out the front door and into aisles.  The lines of the checkout aisles surged forward, desperate to get out the door with their groceries in the chaos.  Shopping carts jammed in the sliding glass door as multiple people jostled over who could get out first – now they were all trapped inside.  Panic surged through the air, crackling with infectious electricity.

Aura.

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“Chris?”

“Aura?”  He didn’t seem to be listening, bent over the scattered pieces of his broken headset.

“Did you shut the front door?”

Chris went very, very still as another scream broke out, this time much, much closer and much, much angrier.

。°。°。°。°。°

Aura loves zombies. Has been obsessed with them since she saw a cheesy B-movie when she was fourteen. She's always secretly dreamed of surviving an apocalypse, her home stuffed with notebooks full of survival tips and prepping guides. Logically, she knows she won't survive - she has a serious heart condition that won't even let her stand up for longer than a minute. Logically, she'd be the first to die. But it's fun to dream, right? When she finds herself thrown head-first into a real life zombie pandemic, she's terrified at first. Sure, she's a treasure trove of knowledge, but any halfway-decent survivor group isn't going to waste valuable resources on a crippled encyclopedia. She's going to die alone and afraid, isn't she? Actually, you know what? No. She's not. Fuck the rules. Fuck safety. The zombie apocalypse has always been her guilty-pleasure dream, and she's going to make it fun, damn the consequences. After all, why should she be careful? She's going to die anyway!

。°。°。°。°。°

CHARACTERS

AURORA "AURA" PORTER

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ thirty-two, disabled, autistic, polyamorous. she/they.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ an avid gamer, a devoted writer, and obsessed with zombies. prefers to curl up with a book over leaving her comfy house. unemployed due to her disability and broke as hell.

CHRISTOPHER GREEN

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ thirty, autistic, bi-curious. he/him.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ a nerd in denial. maintenance at shopmart. aura's best and oldest friend. gun and video game enthusiast. honest to a fault, though abrasive as hell. empathy is not his strong suit.

VIVIENNE "VIVI" ALLEN

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ thirty-three, bisexual, mtf trans. she/her.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ deli worker at roger's grocery mart. aura's girlfriend (open relationship) of ten years. depressed as hell and stressed out of her mind. casual gamer and anime/manga fan. situational pacifist.

TYLER GRANT

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-nine, heterosexual, single. he/him.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ team trainer at the local beef boys. cynical and headstrong. needs to be in charge in all things ever. doesn't "listen to the haters." doesn't trust easily, if at all. king of resting bitch face.

ZION RANDALL

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-eight, bisexual, polyamorous. she/her.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ chris and vivi and tyler's ex-girlfriend. promiscuous as hell and refuses to be tied down. can't hold a conversation without flirting. happy-go-lucky and optimistic to a problematic extent. has she ever shed a tear in her life? no one knows and she's not telling.

BYTHANIE KENDRICK

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-eight, disabled, bisexual. she/her.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ chris's first (and longest) girlfriend and most recent ex. had a rough upbringing, including surviving cancer and a brain tumor. can't let go of her old ways. aura hates her. she hates aura. they made out once.

QUINN VICENTE

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-five, heterosexual, married. she/her.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ vivi's former supervisor from the meat department. has a strong "take no shit - give no fucks" attitude. no one has ever seen her laugh. not afraid to get in and get her hands dirty. surprisingly squeamish.

LEAH KAIDEN

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-nine, lesbian, single. she/her.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ grocery-pickup worker at shopmart. chris's other best friend. excitable and eager to please. will not ask for ketchup for herself but will get it for her friends. suffers from seizures. just as big a nerd as chris but much less in denial about it. always plays a cleric in d&d.

BOHDI PETERSON

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-seven, straight, engaged. he/him.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ hot-shot new york city banker, in town to visit friends. the impossible is just something he hasn't tried yet. has eyes only for his fiance and his pitbull bella. incredibly open about his love of classic literature. plays games he doesn't like as an excuse to hang out with his friends is he the twenty-first patrick bateman? piss him off and find out.

BRIDGET TARRINGTON

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty seven, bi, not-so-secretly dating Bohdi, she/her

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ works as a lab assistant, loves anything green, and annoyingly kind (at least Bohdi thinks so). pocket-sized, and pouty about it.

RYAN LANDYN

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ twenty-eight, straight, married. he/him.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ aura's ex from college, over ten years ago. charismatic and attractive, with an easy smile and a joke for everyone. but aura knows what he used to be like, and she's terrified of him. it's been ten years - people can change. ...right?

。°。°。°。°。°

GENRE ˚.⋆ zombie horror

POV ˚.⋆ first person and third person, multiple perspectives

STATUS ˚.⋆ first draft

INSPIRED BY ˚.⋆ train to busan - 28 days later - shaun of the dead - anna and the apocalypse

TROPES ˚.⋆

ZOMBIE SPECIFIC TROPES

beware the living ● burn the undead ● deadly lunge ● devoured by the horde ● fearless undead ● flesh-eating zombie ● mistaken for undead ● not a zombie ● no zombie cannibals ● perpetual-motion monster ● removing the head or destroying the brain ● room full of zombies ● the virus ● zombie apocalypse ● zombie apocalypse hero ● zombie infectee

OTHER TROPES

body horror ● rejected as unworthy ● emotional scars ● found family ● rivals ● countdown to destruction ● person in distress ● dead cell phones ● fall in love with the wrong person ● gone horribly right ● hidden truth ● last to know ● love triangle ● they're lesbians, harold ● overqualified party ● splitting up the party ● stranded

TRIGGER WARNINGS

death ● violence ● gore ● sexual assault ● body horror ● starvation ● medical emergencies

TAGLIST ˚.⋆ Ask to be added!

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I've made the Why Should I Be Careful? I'm Going to Die Anyway! WIP page! Go check it out! It's pretty simple, I'm not so good at wip pages, but I'm happy with it ^-^

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I think the worst part about writing WSIBC?IGTDA! is the fact that I'm basing one of the characters on my best friend and NOBODY is going to believe this shit actually happened because it just sounds ridiculous

And on the one hand? I know. I know it's ridiculous. I didn't believe it myself when it was happening. BUT IT HAPPENED OKAY YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME

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Her orgasm did nothing to ease the guilt.  All it did was tear away the lust she clung to like a security blanket.

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author ask tag

thank you so much for the tag, @the-golden-comet! ooh this is gonna be fun!

i'm going to focus on my current wip, Why Should I Be Careful? I'm Going To Die Anyway! because it's still very much in the planning stages (despite how much I'm writing for it) and I have Thoughts

What is the main lesson of your story? Why did you choose it?

I'll be honest, I haven't really thought that far ahead. I suppose, if there is a lesson to take from WSIBC?IGTDA!, it might be that you should always chase your goals and desires, and screw what other people think. Maybe put a little more thought and planning into yours than Aura does hers, though. I mean, she almost dies due to her recklessness. Don't be like Aura.

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding?

Well, it's a zombie book - I love zombies, in case you can't tell - so the world is an amalgamation of zombie stuff I love. The zombies are based off of the Train to Busan zombies. This is a self-insert mess, so I'm using the town and people I know in the town as location and characters. Little tropes here and there that I love in movies and books alike. It's just a big chimera of stuff that I grab from stuff I remember and shove into it. It definitely needs polish when it's done, but I'm having a blast so far, so I'm'a keep doing it :3

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, or help the reader grow as a person?

Uhhhhhh this is a tough question. Right now, Aura is trying to make it to Roger's Grocery Mart to save her girlfriend, but most of the time, she's just trying to have a good time in the zombie apocalypse and hopefully not die. She does eventually grow into a character that (mostly) thinks things through and takes other people's situations into account, so I suppose the lesson is "the world doesn't revolve around you - be kind and helpful to others"?

As for what I'm trying to achieve... mostly, to be honest, I just want people to pick up my book and have a good time reading it. I want to write a zombie book because it's my passion and because there aren't enough zombie books out there. I guess I'm trying to inspire others? To show them that you can survive an impossible situation if you work hard and think things through?

How many chapters is your story going to have?

The only time I've written a full-length book (sorry, the only two times, forgot about Zero: ALPHA), it had about twenty-odd chapters. Z:A had...uh...thirty? That was a long time ago and I sadly no longer have that draft. This one is going to go until it's done. Hopefully more than thirty though!

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Original content! I have no idea where I'm going to post it. I'm torn between Draft2Digital (originally Smashwords) or Substack. Thing is, I'm really bad at marketing and keywords and all that technical stuff that goes into publicizing, so I'm really hesitant to share it at all. I'm the type of person that gets absolutely morally devastated if my own self-inflicted goals aren't met, and I'm not sure if I can handle that kind of crushing heartbreak with this one lol

So yeah. Might publish, might not. Unsure right now.

When did you start writing?

My dad set up a Windows 95 computer for me in his office, his old one, and taught me the basics of using it. I was five, about to turn six. I immediately sat down and wrote a story about unicorns. I've been writing ever since.

I didn't start writing fanfiction until I was thirteen and had just binge-watched Lord of the Rings for the first time. We don't talk about those works. They were awful.

Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr? What other writers do you follow?

Write it. Oh it's cringe? Who cares? Write it. Oh, it's a rare pair? Write it. You're worried people will hate it? Fuck the haters. Write it. Writing is about having fun. Writing is about pouring your soul onto the page. Writing is about getting those ideas out of your head so they don't drive you insane. It's about reaching that one person that finds your work and loves it. Even if no one reads it - you still accomplished something. You still wrote it. And no one can take that from you.

I have so many writers in my follow list. Uhh. I have no idea how many are still active, so I'm just going to tag who I know and hope for the best lol

@idyllicocean, @keeping-writing-frosty, @bloodtiesnovel, @asher-writes, @kitswrite, @theink-stainedfolk, @karkkidoeswriting, @lavender-gloom, @orphanheirs, @aquixoticwrites, @alinacapellabooks, @marlowethelibrarian, @flock-from-the-void, @dyrewrites, @storycraftcafe, @writer-imagination, @toragay-writing, @inseasofgreen, @stephtuckerauthor, @thatndginger, @finickyfelix, @eternalwritingstudent, @drchenquill, @paeliae-occasionally, @the-golden-comet, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @watermeezer, @goldfinchwrites, @winterandwords, @badscientist, @clairelsonao3, @i-can-even-burn-salad, @leahpardo-pa-potato, @mjparkerwriting, @rowanwriting, @oliolioxenfreewrites, @emelkae, @rita-rae-siller, @rebelxwriter, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @stesierra, @francineiswriting, @sunset-a-story, @chauceryfairytales, @hollyannewrites, @jaydenswaywrites, @captain-kraken, @violets-in-her-arms-writes, @romy-thewriter, @pure-solomon, @writingmaidenwarrior, @koiwrites

go, go follow them. they're all so good and make my timeline glow.

[the-inkwell-variable]

find the word tag

thank you for the tag, @inseasofgreen!

my words are fire, water, ice, air.

since i don't have much written for wsibc?igtda! yet, i'm going to use the corpse and the killer!

FIRE

It wasn’t always meant to be like this.  It was meant to be something big and flashy, something to really catch the Bat’s attention.  A bomb in a train station, perhaps.  Rooftop fires organized to look like the Batsymbol.  Hacking the advertising boards on Grand Avenue to deliver a personalized message – always worked when Riddler did it, why not use it himself?

WATER

She took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the water that splashed from her drenched jeans onto the slippery linoleum steps.  Money was waterproof, right?  She vaguely remembered washing a fistful of dollars at the laundromat and they were fine afterward – a little rain wouldn’t ruin the money in her back pocket.  Unless it was fake money.  Now would be a real shitty time to find that out.

ICE(BERG)

Maybe he should have let Robin join him.  The kid – the man was sneakier than his predecessors and quicker than the wind.  He could get into and out of places that Batman couldn’t even consider.  He could fight his way out of a corner better than a caged tiger.  And damn, if he wasn’t observant.  Bruce didn’t even need to remember how quickly Tim had put together his and Dick’s secret identities.  That had been the tip of the iceberg.  Maybe… maybe Tim could have found the Cloudburst for him.

AIR

Kia dropped onto the box beside her.  Her legs shook too badly for her to stay upright.  She squeezed her hands together, desperate for something to cling to, but there was only air.  As the rain began, she lifted her face to the droplets and welcomed the stinging splashes.  At least this was normal.

TAGGING @theink-stainedfolk - @drchenquill - @orphanheirs - @winterandwords - OPEN TAG

YOUR WORDS ARE RICE, LEMON, PEANUT, GRAPE