POST APOCALYPTIC - Terrible Writing Advice

I like how in the later videos the cheery music cuts out when the ideas turn dark but in this one it just keeps going. lol

The road towards the apocalypse is formed from bad cliches and laziness.

All these common tropes were cool in the 90s, when dark and edgy was a popular thing. But nowadays, it's hard to find a unique post-apocalypse story that doesn't use the same damn tropes. I get it, originality is dead. But that doesn't mean you can't take the common tropes and try twisting it. Rather than making the protagonist a brooding antihero, make him a snarking quipster who uses humor to cope with his despair. Rather than using the concept of post-nuclear war, try other end-of-the-world scenarios. Global warming, supervolcanic eruption, etc.

🧿 never stop progressing humanity.. never stop.

this is legit the most helpful writing channel ever

Why are they always nuclear? An ice age would count as an apocalypse too

how does a post-apocalyptic story set in and around a cabin in the frigid wasteland sound, where there is no combat at all and the only thing the survivors have to worry about is finding enough food to eat and fuel to keep warm. And in the midpoint of the story there is a mayor crisis when a tree falls into their living room, creating a gaping holy for the blizzard to get in and destroying their only functional stove.

Just say you hate Fist of The North Star

i have a story of this here

its caused by anomalies shaping the entire earth where people are forced to adapt.

now raiders here are more like of extortion and theft and not randomly killing everything they see because how they get members?

and the creatures they see are voidlings which looked humans lacking facial features except eyes and their entire body is pitch black

the sky is more dream like brighter

and it affected the sea by literally making tides ceasing to exist

the main protagonist here is the archivist that is a former junior research in a research facility at North Dakota

while Tennessee is half recovered as largest faction of survivors are there.

also they use brass casings as currency

Theres Ohio a faction of farmers because C O R N

and they can't contact wyoming without going pass illinois because detroit.

and getting tolls.

the joke at the beginning about hating office life so much he'd rather be a zombie... there's actually a comic, now show, about that. it's called zom 100. basically the zombie apocalypse happens. everyone is shitting themselves and dying horribly, meanwhile the mc's cheering because he can take the day off.

I think people are a lot more likely to help each other through a crisis than to give up. Or at least enough people are that humanity would have a good chance of survival after an apocalypse. Scientists think it’s an evolutionary trait that’s kept us alive since the stone ages. Look up any crisis in the last 20 years and you’ll find reports of ordinary people protecting each other. It’s really cool.

👏Normalize👏writing👏as👏a👏state👏of👏mind👏

oh, i thought it was only the best, coolest designers survived

I guess that am the only author who has written a posta-pocalyptic story where the world ends as a result of an epic ice age, everyone like DESSERTS

To be fair, a wasteland can be cold. Gobi desert has snow regularly.

You forgot the twist where the post-apocalyptic world isn't actually post-apocalyptic. Its all a lie anyway.

This actually got me making a character for my cozy post-apocalypse story (my term for a post-apocalyptic setting but societies have been building for a generation or two and the story isn't focused on the apocalypse) who got really good at making dyes because the survivors of the apocalypse didn't have hair dye and so needed to make their own, and now she's been refining that knowledge! I work with a lot of teenagers (save your sympathy, I adore them) and something like the world ending absolutely would not change the desire to change their hair to reflect an intense change in emotion.

But what if im writing a post-apocalypse story where all humans are dead?

Rewatching this now in days make me kinda surprised about How well ashes both used Tropes and deviated from them in such a effective way, Really a masterclass in post apocalyptical work

I feel like people forget both Fallout (1,2,NV) and Mad Max take place in two really hot places in the world, Australia and the US south.

3:52 Am I the only one who got this reference?

Despite gasoline's short shelf life, trucks have stronger armor, they can go faster than a bike, they're not as tiring, and you can hit people with them

When did Mad Max hurt you?

Yeah work with the deep themes of a apocalypse is a very good option, but remember a History it's always about a person doing things, if you don't focus in one person, or a group, or a city idk, your are making a documentary about the apocalypse and not a history in a post apocalyptic universe

The original Fallout is the best! I say this having bought all the new games, thereby contributing to the problem. Hypocrisy, what’s that?

Actually, I do believe the fashion designers would be among the first to bite the dust when the world ends, and everyone would go outside wearing pajamas.

👍

Maybe the clothes came from dead humans

I actually have this story written out for a game called "the end of our days" which is a post apocalyptic survival action where 20 years has passed since the fall of humanity in the year 2056, where aliens, mutants, robots, monsters, have taken over and killed off 66 percent of the world population in a matter of 10 months, the remaining humans work together to try to rebuild a broken world, with aliens, high tech robots, mutants animals and hideous monster which some at giants, and common bandits, thugs, and killers, no one was safe in this new world.

Want a good post-apocalyptic story? Check out the anime "Girls Last Tour."

It's a totally chill story with some dark undertones, as two cute girls wander across a war-torn world in search of civilization. It's charming, it can be cute, and it delves into some existentialism without being preachy or pretentious; something that's very difficult to do.

If I learned nothing from Italian apocalypse knock offs, every one always has perfectly coifed hair, stylized outfits, unlimited gas, and bad dubbing.

From a while back I was like the post apoc aesthetic would not work, at least for women. Heavier than normal makeup and worse, piercings... the time, the money/resources, plus the chance to get an easy and escalating infection...

I found the video bethesda used for making their take on fallout.

Joking, joking.

Thank you for your sense of humor. That makes me feel a bit better :)

You know what we need more of in the post apocalypse, Tractors. Tractors have lots of attachments that help with farming, are very powerful, and can drive over uneven terrain (like cars in the road). I think more authors should use tractors in the post apocalypse

I watched this disaster movie where their daughter was literally dying in a building and they,divorced parents,kissed. Keep in mind,the mother had been widowed literally minutes earlier by a rogue wave.

What fallout but dutleg

Regarding the desert wasteland and the global cooling. A desert isn't always hot. Because they're barren rocky and dry٫ they can actually be very cold.

how to not do a apocalypse

Not a video I was hoping to find for my search, but I'm not disapointed!

Someone: Proceeds to make a series about people riding on bicycles with swords and shields

Yes because petty kingdoms totally won't be established, and people definitely won't fall back on herding.

I can think of one movie that subverted these cliches and it was a box office bomb: The Postman

It starts out with a lone scavenger wandering the wastes, comes across an mail truck when he's on the run, nicks an old uniform to stay warm, and pretends to be working for a restored and functioning U.S. government just so some suspicious locals don't shoot him.

But it starts a chain reaction that unites the scattered settlements, deposes the local warlord terrorizing the area, and ends with an epilogue a few decades later showing modern society had returned.

The movie still has its flaws: like all those big epics Kevin Costner tried to make in the 90s it was too long and sluggishly paced.

But I'll never forget the overall story or its world-building.

None single survivor think about how if they keep scavenging or robing the food will sometime end?! Like,even if they see an edible plant they don't think in planting it to create renewable food sources because if they keep feeding on food rests sometim they will end and they will all die of starvation!? O yeah! Humans also never get in groups of people because...something,is not like humanity survived entirely because of it,pff stupid history

A while ago I read something like "Whenever I read/watch post-apocalypse media where everything is lawless chaos, I assume that it's all in America and the rest of the world is rebuilding and functioning just fine" and you know what I like it

A global cooling trend is not inconsistent with desert terrain, or desertification through death of plant life, although they wouldn't always be as hot, sure.

Tip from a guy who never wrote a book:

If you go for a post nuclear setting, look towards frostpunk. (The cooling would happen, and lets use suspension of disbelief to pretend that the water cycle could create icestorms.)

That means that people would have to band together, meaning that your story has an easy explanation for the gigantic factions.
They all fight for warmth, so wood, coal, etc would be one of the most precious resources, while water would literally be all around and on the ground.

The main character could be part of a big faction, maybe a mid-level leader, and discover an volcano or a lava river has come to the surface thanks to the tectonic plate's moviments during the war.

So the book could be about him and a group of explorers/scouts on a mission to locate and populate said place!

Make some other factions know about such things, and now you got conflict :D

A good setting to show the human hubris whilst showing that, no matter what, humans will always hang on to hope, methinks.