1) Do you think zombie fiction has become over-saturated?
2) Does the genre need to evolve lest it become a victim of its own popularity?
Each and every year, the majority of the responses to these two questions is always the same. The genre is not over-saturated and zombie are fine just the way they are.
I am first and foremost a reader of zombie fiction. I am, I'm afraid to admit, a Johnny-come-lately to the subject. It wasn't until I opened up World War Z that I became entranced with the subject. Soon after, I began to consume all matter of zombie fiction I could find. From big press to indie authors, I loved it all. In fact, it was because of zombie fiction that I came to embrace and respect self-published authors and indie press.
But then something awful happened. I read so much I began to realize I was reading the same story time and again. It was becoming monotonous. The dead had risen from the grave. They were hungry. A small band of survivors. A safe place to live that ultimately becomes compromised. A boat. An island. A crossbow and a machete.
And sinew. Always sinew.
I am afraid that zombie fiction is becoming what hair metal became in the late 80's. Zombie fiction will drive itself into the dirt riding on the wheels of its own mediocrity. I think it's time for Nirvana.
You could reinvent the zombie. It's happening already. Some zombies are fast now. Some have emotion. Some are aware. In my short story collection, SCARED SILLY, there is a story called Old Scrote that is centered around a zombie who has an appetite for something other than brains. I challenged myself to write a different kind of zombie story and the first place I decided to change was the zombie itself... and not by much. All I did was change its appetite and asked how would things be if this zombie wanted to eat a penis? The result was one of my favorite pieces to write and I have garnered a lot of positive responses to its different point of view.
What if instead of the survivors being a rag tag band of misfits or a reluctant loner forced with an adolescent charge or a military or police officer leading a pack of less than resilient civilians, the survivors are a tribe in Africa? Maybe they could be that tribe in Africa that elongates their necks with a series of rings stacked up around their necks. Their heads, and thus their brains, are now out of reach of the average zombie rendering them the last living people on Earth left to deal with the scourge of the dead. You can take that ball and run with it, just credit me in the beginning of the book and send me a free copy!
Strip it down and reconstruct the whole thing. Why do the dead have to come back from the grave? Why can't something like food come to life period? Another alternative zombie story you will find in SCARED SILLY is entitled, GROSSeries. In it, a husband laments a trip to the grocery store to shop for his wife who is caught working late. To make matters worse, all the food becomes animated and leaps off the shelves to attack the shoppers. The reluctant hero must fight, aisle by aisle, to escape the ravenous food products and encounters a baby he must rescue along the way. Will they escape? Will escaping the confines of the grocery store be enough to survive? I guess you may have to read to find out.
I don't think it takes much to nudge the entire genre into a more interesting direction. So I challenge you, the writers of zombie fiction, to write a book, a short story or a flashy little blog piece. Try something different. Take it in a new direction. Find an road that you haven't found traveled and follow that path to see where it takes you. And when you take up the challenge and come up with an end result, be sure to share it with me.
I sure would love to read that!
My short story collection, SCARED SILLY, features the alternative zombie stories Old Scrote and GROSSeries as well as three other frighteningly funny tales to tickle your funny bone. It is available in paperback as well as eBook from Amazon, Barnes&Noble and other major eBook retailers.
