The Zombie's Diary: Anti-chapters

While working on The Zombie's Diary, I was working with a wide variety of ideas, including the fact that you are literally in the mind of the main character throughout the novel. This has lead to many enjoyable insights, but while playing with it I began to ponder the meanings which we give the idea of chapters themselves. What was going on in the background of the story was as equally important for the main character experiencing what he was experiencing. We this and more than a fair dose of post-modern thought helped me dive into an area which should have been obvious. With my main plot device based around the Zombie, why couldn't I do another plot device about those which he interacts with in life and how actions or lack of actions culminate into a cohesive story?



This led me to create the Anti-Chapter, which is best to think about chapters which 'fill in the blanks' about the world around the main character from someone else's point of view. Who the character is in each Anti-Chapter is a mystery for most of the novel, but as more and more blanks are filled in we can see how each and every character changes with further interaction. Telling part of the story from the end to the beginning. In the middle of the book, these two divergent stories come together, forming a cohesive story, one part about the Zombie and the other about all those who interact with the Zombie. As a plot device it is both strange and wonderful to work with, and more than a little bit of a challenge speaking in a wide variety of voices.

Below is one Anti-Chapter, pulled from the book for your enjoyment.

Anti-chapter #: Pondering what you're pondering...

I ponder if what I do is the right course.

Remaking him every time.

It all started with the one.

It began with me.

As it should be. Because before me there was nothing.

The world was deranged. Spiraling out of control.

For ever reaction there is a equal and opposite reaction. I was created. I learned the truth.

The diary is the key. Always has been the key. With the diary anything is possible.

Linking the past to the present in ways which cannot be erased easily. That has always been the key.

By turning that key something changed that day. Something wonderful. Something frightening.

The universe screamed in fear for the first time.

As it should. It was corrupt. A decadent thing. A cursed thing.

I couldn't let history end like it was headed. There was too much at stake. Not when I knew what I could do.

It only took one crack for me to slip through. One tiny crack in that huge wall.

Falling through the looking glass isn't as terrifying when the room you just left is on fire. Righteous fire. Purging fire. The fire of madness gone on too long.

I alone remember the madness. The powers that be would do nothing. The so called gods couldn't care less. They just smiled at me asking if I knew what I planned.

Of course I did. How could I not. I already knew the alternative. I knew what whould happen through inaction. The present held no future.

They pleaded that I couldn't do this. That it was foolish. They reminded me that life will always go on. That some things should not be changed.

They were fools.

They were afraid.

They were lazy in their contentment.

I would become something greater than myself. I would solve the riddle. Because there is only one riddle.

What led us to this?

What nightmare did the 'gods' allow to exist?

What can I do to stop this?

We, not they, are the inheritors of this world. Of this history.

Walking the places where power's don't dare.

Ensuring the world survives.

Plunging the world into the forge until it glows.

Then quenching it all to temper a future.

Damned are those who get in my way.