Max Brooks Teaches Students How to Write Hate Literature
Max Brooks, infamous author of ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’ and ‘World War Z’, recently gave a talk at a writer’s workshop in Asheville, North Carolina, where he instructed students on how he crafts best-selling Anti-Zombie books:
ASHEVILLE — When the zombies attack, will you be ready?
Max Brooks, author of undead-themed literature like “The Zombie Survival Guide” and “World War Z,” answered this question and more at a zombie survival lecture and writing workshop Friday at UNC Asheville.
“I thought ‘You know what? I’m going to get back to the kid I was at 13. I’m going to write a book about how to fight zombies,’” Brooks said at the writing workshop.
Brooks discussed how he faced the challenges of dyslexia as a child and used writing as a place to get away from his struggles in school.
“That was when I was alive,” Brooks said. “That was when I was happy, and writing kind of saved me.”…
Brooks also answered many questions from the audience about both his writing process and tips for overcoming the hurdles of editing and publishing.
“The first thing you have to understand, at least for me and for a lot of writers I know, is the goal of the first draft, your rough draft, is just to write the end.” Brooks said. “That’s it. Don’t worry about making it good.”
Or about making it fair to the Differently Animated. Come to think of it, he doesn’t worry about that in *any* of his drafts.
The saddest part here for me is the way in which a young outcast develops writing as a talent only to use other oppressed or misunderstood individuals, Zombies in this case, as punching bags to further his own fame and career. Why couldn’t he have learned empathy along with writing craftsmanship, and helped further the cause of Undead Equality with his work?
I guess we’ll never know about roads not taken.
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