NaNoWriMo ideas

Regular readers of this blog will know that I like to put some of my ideas for my NaNoWriMo novels on my blog. They will also know that one of my ideas is to use a chapter structure that causes frequent changes of setting or genre or other elements, so that I can incorporate a variety of disparate ideas that I might not be able to develop into an entire novel, even at the relatively modest 50,000 word length. That being said, here are some ideas for separate sections of this year's novel, in keeping with previously posted ideas:

Each chapter would be a parody or homage to something, but in keeping with a zombie theme, some of which would include: A Vampire Hunter D parody (I'm leaning towards either Vampire Hunter A or Vampire Hunter S, which are references to Ashe in the Evil Dead series and Shaun from Shaun of the Dead); an homage to Evil Dead, George Romero's films (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead), and/or Shaun of the Dead; the use of an idea I had for a web-tune, involving a team of crime-fighting zombies (each zombie would be a different type: A Romero-esque zombie; a voodoo zombie; a revenant; a Xombie-type character; an evil curse Evil Dead-type zombie; possibly others like a teenager who is a zombie when playing video games).

My journal narrative structure could be used to bookend the sections or through out. In either case, it would work best as the narrator/protagonist travels through different locations as as the outbreak of zombies goes through various stages. I suppose this would work better if I came up with a consistent reason for people becoming zombies during the book, but I think it also would spice things up if that is never made clear, and each section hints at a different cause of zombification that is consistent with what is being parodied or homaged in that section.

Another thought is that the protagonist himself would change to be consistent with the section. That could mean multiple protagonists, or it could simple reflect his own development over the course of the story arc and his persistent encounters with zombies.

Many zombie movies and books avoid the term zombie. I will not do this, because I think that the reason that it is done is to avoid confusion between different types of zombies. Since my novel will involve many types of zombies, I will use the word because it best captures the overall category of creature that I am dealing with.

Speaking of categories, I will essentially have two types of zombies. They will be either reanimated dead or the still-living. The reanimated dead will be zombies such as in the films of George Romero and revenants. The still-living will include those controlled by voodoo, those infected with something like rage (28 Days Later) or a cell-phone signal (Cell), and those possessed by an evil curse (Evil Dead). I should note that just because they are "still-living" doesn't mean that there is some way to cure them, depending on the type. It just means that they might be easier to kill (for instance, a voodoo zombie could be cured, and could also bleed to death, while a rage-infected could not be cured, but can be killed in most conventional ways; on the other had, Romero-types must die before becoming zombies, and therefore cannot be killed in the same way that a living person could be).

If I have any more thoughts, I will try to post them, but for now I am too hungry to think about much beyond what I should have for lunch. How come I only post when I am starting to get hungry?