In the Beginning, there were…
ZOMBIES!
Well, no, that's not quite how it worked. True, I knew I had to make a world with
zombies for Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, but before I could bring in zombies, I needed a world
to bring them into. When I worldbuild, I
try to look at all angles, from the geography to the vegetation, the habits and
cultures of its inhabitants, and how it all fits into the story.
Fortunately, Neeta Lyffe was unique to me in that it takes
place in our world--Los Angeles--just a couple of decades in the future. So Hollywood (or Hollyweird, as some of my
friends called it) happenings, American culture and politics, and international
events and history became my template.
Now, enter the zombies.
That, of course, was where the fun began: how would the emergence of zombies affect the
world? Being optimistic about the future
in general, I didn't want an apocalypse.
I think we're too smart a race for that kind of runaway contagion. We'd get smart on zombie combat and
prevention, fast.
However, being
somewhat cynical about human nature when taken en masse, there was a lot of fun
to be had in twisting our practices and beliefs in reaction to the rising
undead. So I plucked some things from my
own experience, and applied them to zombies.
Voter fraud: Now they
really can have the dead vote!
Government regulation:
The federal government does a great thing by mandating that all dead
must have their spine severed before burial, which has cut down the emerging
zombie population greatly. However, LA
refuses to put money into tearing down a known zombie hot-spot because it's too
much trouble and the zombies aren't doing anything at the moment, anyway.
Conspiracy theorists:
One expert blames the H1N1 vaccine for causing the pandemic, and the government
and pharmaceutical companies are covering it up. (You can read about it in his book.)
Radical Environmentalism:
Global warming causes zombie-ism!
Blatant commercialism:
"Ms. Lyffe, we want you to be the spokeswoman for our newest line
of health drinks--Longevitize."
(The photo the lawyer shows her is of her standing knee-deep in zombies
and holding a can in her hand. Caption: After the re-kill, Longevitize.)
International wars:
Iran invades Afghanistan, and the dead afghan freedom fighters come back
to attack them.
And of course, the main idea of the story, Reality TV: Neeta Lyffe trains up apprentice
exterminators in Zombie Death Extreme.
The contestants have a shot at winning a million dollars--if they
survive.
The process itself is pretty intuitive to me. It's just a matter of asking "What
if?" and coming to what I think might be a logical (or sometimes, just
comical) conclusion. When intuition
fails, you can look at similar examples in our history, or draw parallels from
mythology or even other stories (but don't just copy--make it your
world's.) These ideas work the same
whether dealing with a nearly real world, like in Neeta Lyffe, or a completely
imaginary one.
Worldbuilding is a lot of fun, and sometimes, it doesn't
take a lot to create a new and believable world.
Sometimes, all you need to do is toss in a
zombie.
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