[JesusMonroe]

I'm writing a CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) zombie story and I need help with certain situations. The story branches off into three main paths and I already have one of them done and that's about 800 pages of material so this is MASSIVE. Well, I need some help.

First, a title. I'm stuck on three but if you hate all of them, please offer your own

Choice and Consequence
What We Become (I'm hesitant on this one because it's a WD volume)
Abandon All Hope

Second, I need some moral dilemmas. Go all out on these because this is a very dark and bleak story. There is a daughter in one of the plot lines and I know a lot of you are going to think "Just like Clementine," but I wanted to focus on a father-child relationship and if I picked a son, everyone would think "Just like Carl." Can't please everyone.

Third, I just need general zombie writing help from the fanfiction writers already here. My main issue is that so much happens and that there's so many branching paths that eventually the reader will just become desensitized but I find trouble in a lot of areas so please, if you're a writer or a critic and you see a mistake that you do all the time or that a lot of the writers do all the time, please let me know

[stickoffury412]

Hmm I'm an extremely new writer so it great you have it plotted out but it could get really tricky . Especially the choose your fate deal.

If done very precisely it could be something interesting . All I can do is send some support your way and leave it to the more experienced writers to help you out. So good luck!

[KidSeventySeven]

I'm not much of a writer, but I'm a pretty voracious reader and I just wanted to say..man, I loved pick a path books growing up. I think it'd be great to see a zombie/apocalyptic version here on the forums so yeah, I'll definitely be reading. Abandon All Hope would probably be my vote for the title as Choice and Consequence is a bit literal, not that it's necessarily bad or anything. Now moral dilemmas...hmm, so the way I look at it (and this is just my opinion of course) is that most morality issues in books/films/comics and games have been covered, i.e. rape, murder for survival, betrayal of those you care for the greater good, things like that...I'd imagine the key would be putting your own spin on it. It would be neat to see a path you can take where it seems as though you're making all the right choices but in the end the consequences are devastating, or the flip side of making all the "bad" choices which leave you with the potential to have the best possible ending in the story. I'm curious because I remember those pick a path books I used to read and sometimes you made a choice and it got you killed, and then you had to go back to a certain page/key event and choose an alternate decision to carry on, otherwise your story ended there. Have you thought about doing anything like that? At any rate I'm rambling about now, I think your story is going to have a lot of re-reading value and will draw the reader into the universe by giving them choices and making them feel truly involved in the character's fates. I look forward to checking it out.

[Jenners]

Is this a fan fiction for the forum? I don't really have any input because I read the stories but I don't write them. I can say about your titles that I like "what we become" although, that doesn't really make sense.. Should be 'what we became' or 'what we've become'

[RickRhymes]

For titles I like "What We Become" and "Abandon All Hope". I'd give the edge to "Abandon All Hope" because it isn't already the title of a Walking Dead comic arc.

Moral dilemmas... It's a little difficult to think of those without reading some of your established material and knowing the dynamics of the story. I'll do my best to think of some good ones.

Since you mentioned a daughter, I'm going to say that it could be possible that she can be bitten and turn at some point. The reader can then have the option of killing the zombified daughter or keeping the daughter "alive" as a zombie like Morgan did with Duane in the comics. We've seen both scenarios before, but I haven't really seen the latter thoroughly explored in zombie fiction. Maybe the reader and the zombie daughter come across some other survivors that either kill the zombie kid on sight or try to kill her. It could be interesting to see the options the reader would have in a situation like that.

I'll think of some more situations and get back to you. I'm looking forward to reading your CYOA.

[JesusMonroe]

Now moral dilemmas...hmm, so the way I look at it (and this is just my opinion of course) is that most morality issues in books/films/comics and games have been covered, i.e. rape, murder for survival, betrayal of those you care for the greater good, things like that...I'd imagine the key would be putting your own spin on it. It would be neat to see a path you can take where it seems as though you're making all the right choices but in the end the consequences are devastating, or the flip side of making all the "bad" choices which leave you with the potential to have the best possible ending in the story.

I have some things like that. The main character's name is Connor and I've been thinking about having every single path end with him dying except some paths end with more of your friends alive than others. I think some people would get tired of that but some of his deaths could be like him dying of old age or something. I don't know. The thing is, this is Connor's story and I think it would be appropriate if every path ended with him dying.
I remember reading a book called "Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?" and almost half of the paths ended with no resolution and some were just immediate death. I don't plan on it being like that. It's going to be fun but also intensely emotional and most of the paths will be seen through until the end.
And for what you said about the dilemmas, I have some of those, except they're more immediate. For example, one of the choices is to give a gun to your daughter. If you give it to her and go to place A, she'll save her own life. If you give it to her and go to place B, she'll accidentally shoot a member of your group. In one chapter, you have the choice to save the life of a member of your group who's a murderer and is about to be devoured. If you let him die, you'll have the bullets later to save another member of your group so in this, the moral choice is only sometimes the right choice.

[JesusMonroe]

Since you mentioned a daughter, I'm going to say that it could be possible that she can be bitten and turn at some point. The reader can then have the option of killing the zombified daughter or keeping the daughter "alive" as a zombie like Morgan did with Duane in the comics. We've seen both scenarios before, but I haven't really seen the latter thoroughly explored in zombie fiction. Maybe the reader and the zombie daughter come across some other survivors that either kill the zombie kid on sight or try to kill her.

Hmm...I've done the former but not the latter. I'll be sure that you get credit on that one

[RickRhymes]

Woo! My first writing credit! Pulitzer Prize, here I come!

Now, along with a credit, I expect full merchandising and animation rights to Zombie Daughter™.

[JesusMonroe]

Woo! My first writing credit! Pulitzer Prize, here I come!

Now, along with a credit, I expect full merchandising and animation rights to Zombie Daughter™.

Sounds like a CBS sitcom