I The Blue Banner ! 2.9.2011
Zombie author brings humor to campus
Hall Ledford
hdledfor@unca.edu - A&F Editor
During a zombie outbreak the
most important survival tools
are clean water, weapons, a bi
cycle, a plan and an organized
group of people, according to
Max Brooks, author of “The
Zombie Survival Guide.”
“You’re going to be sitting at
home, minding your own busi
ness and then they will come
for you. They just won’t come
for you in the ones or the twos.
They will come for you in the
hundreds, in the thousands, in
the millions. That is why they
are so scary,” Brooks said. “The
first thing you have to do is dis
abuse yourself of the myths,
fallacies and outright lies that
are perpetrated by conventional
zombie entertainment.”
During his creative writing
workshop in the Laurel Forum
of Karpen Hall Friday, Brooks
discussed his own career and
answered questions about the
writing process for people of
all ages.
Brooks described himself as
painfully dyslexic, often jum
bling letters and reading words
backward.
“I had to train myself when I
was a little kid to sort of relearn
a language, and to this day if
I come across a new word, I
have to pay special attention to
it to make sure I get it right,”
Brooks said. “I’m kind of the
last guy who should have made
writing my career. A guy who is
dyslexic and wasn’t very good
in school, I should have gone
into politics.”
Brooks said he knew he
wanted to be a writer at the age
of 12 when he wrote his first
short story.
“I love being able to get all of
my crazy ideas out onto paper
and people reading it and hope
fully liking it,” Brooks said.
Having dyslexia didn’t keep
him fi-om making a career
out of writing. The disability
only made him work harder to
achieve his goals. Brooks said.
“There’s no magic bullet. You
just have to work harder. Hope
fully if, you’re young enough,
you can get tutored and learn
how to overcome it. It’s like
any other author. You’ve got to ■
work hard and persevere and
Dustin Stuart - Asst. Photography Editor
Max Brooks discussed zombie survival techniques Friday in
Lipinsky Hall auditorium to a room full of people.
"I love being able to get all of my crazy
ideas out onto paper and people
reading it and hopefully liking it."
Max Brooks
Author of "The Zombie Survival Guide"
you’ve got to be able to deal
with rejection, and if it’s what
you love to do, you just don’t
give up,” Brooks said.
The former “Saturday Night
Live” writer said he intended
to keep “The Zombie Survival
Guide” to himself but agreed
to publish it after being ap
proached by a book agent.
Brooks said he was ready to
write another book after his
first was released.
“Zombies weren’t out of my
system, and I wanted to write
another zombie book. For
me zombies are big, they’re
global and I want to answer
those global questions. I have
. always been kind of global in
my thinking and I thought, ‘All
right. I’m going to write a zom
bie story from the world’s per
spective. My story is going to
be a story of the human race.’
Now that’s pretty ffickin’ ambi
tious,” the author said.
Brooks wrote “World War Z;
An Oral History of the Zombie
War” in drafts and spent years
doing research to make the
content as accurate as possible,
trying to back up or disprove
his theories.
“The first thing you have to
understand, at least for me and
a lot of writers I know, is the
goal of your first draft, your
rough draft, is just to write the
end. Don’t worry about mak
ing it good because if you do,
you will never finish. I guaran
tee it,” Brooks said. “Because
once you’ve finished it you’re
like, ‘OK, I’m over that major
psychological hump,’ which is
the empty page. That has killed
more potential novels than any
thing in the world. If you can
conquer that and put anything
on there then you can go back
and say all right, now I can re
work it, now I can throw it out.
You may completely rewrite it,
but there’s that one level of ah,
gone.”
Brooks also suggested ways
to introduce creative ideas to
the public by using the Internet
to post homemade movies and
webisodes to Youtube and self-
publishing short stories and
books on Amazon using the
print-on-demand feature. When
the book is purchased, only one
copy of it prints for that person.
“Take your idea and go do
it in some way, shape or form.
It will be a lot of work and it
will be hard. The truth is, if
you have an idea for a movie,
you go make it,” Brooks said.
“What the digital revolution
has done is minimize risk.”
While working for the Brit
ish Broadcasting Corp., Brooks
lived near a science fiction
bookstore in London. He said
science fiction filtered in and
he learned to write under the
genre.
“I read and read and read
science fiction,” Brooks said.
“That’s how I taught myself
and that’s all you need. Guess
what, there are also really great
science fiction writers who
have a lot to say about our so
ciety. If you can’t learn it your
self, books are out there, just
read them and be influenced as
I did.”
Leighton Carden, who
started the on-campus game
humans vs. zombies, said
he was excited about seeing
Brooks speak and predicted a
large audience.
“We have a lot of people who
are interested in that matter of
subject material. The whole
zombie apocalypse idea sort of
appeals to a survivalist instinct.
It tends to be more of a bigger
thing in America where we con
sider ourselves more individu
alists. Any given person would
See BROOKS on page 10
Arts & I'eaturcs
Local
Events
Thursday, Feb. 10
Jake Shimabukuro
Ukulele Player
8 p.m.
Lipinsky Hall auditorium
T. Colin Campbell
Forks Over Knives
advance screening
7 p.m.
Fine Arts Theatre,
Biltmore Avenue
Friday, Feb. 11
T. Colin Campbell
Meet the Speaker Reception
4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Lipinsky Hall Lobby
Lecture, “Nutrition Is More
Than We’ve Imagined”
5:30 to 7 p.m.
Lipinsky Hall Auditorium
Miss Sweetheart Pageant
Scandals Nightclub
Doors open at 10 p.m.
Pageant starts at midnight
Saturday, Feb. 12
Asheville Symphony:
Romeo and Juliet
8 p.m.
Thomas Wolfe Auditorium,
Haywood Street
Monday, Feb. 14
Yoga and Meditation Club
4:30 p.m.
HU Room 223
For more
campus
events go to
www.unca.
edu/calendar