Sorry to disappoint with a written response, but camera's all fucked up so I had no choice D:
5. Who is your least favourite and why?
6. On a more personal note, how do your family feel about your writing hobby? Are they supportive? Have they ever read your work? And do you wish to do this as a profession? Do your family back you?
7. Ash and Ben had a beautiful relationship in one of my very favourite episodes, "Birthday". How much was this based on your own relationship with your brother (if at all)?
8. The religious aspect of the season has been creeping in slowly in the first few episodes. Could you explain a bit about your research progress and approach as someone who isn't religious and what difficulties you've had in writing about religion?
9. Y U SO GOOD AT CASTING?!
5. Least favorite: Definitely Michael. How unlikeable he was and how poorly written that storyline was ended up making me shorten it and giving the guy an arrow in the eye courtesy of Michael.
It was originally going to be a lot longer, focusing on Michael trying to manipulate PJ and Manila - the group's two outsiders - against them and to assist them in their plans for rebellion. Michael was going to be an early red herring for the traitor storyline too, and then in the end, PJ was going to choose once and for all what side he was on by ending Michael's life before the rebellion could happen. If you recall, there was a few scenes with PJ contemplating letting the soldiers teach him how to shoot early on in the season, which was laying the groundwork for this storyline, but due to how poorly received he was, I decided to look over the outline and reduce Michael's role and then do the two-month time jump in episode 4. It just really helped with the pacing too, because in the amount of episodes I had, there just wasn't a lot of time for that storyline.
On a more personal note, I'd say the
toughest character to write is Tom. He's hard for me personally to relate to, which makes him a great challenge as a writer.
6. Ummm, well they know I like to write and that it's my plans for the future and they seem happy about it and happy that I actually have a fairly solid idea about what I want to do with my life but they're not comfortable that I don't have a back-up plan. Because honestly, I really don't lol. I've never had them read anything, and if I let them, they'd probably think something was wrong with me so maybe it's for the best (the sex scenes, violence, and language would just be really awkward for me to let them read imo). One of these days though, for sure. Good question!
7. I feel like my relationship with my brothers is more of a "harsh" one than the Ash/Ben relationship. There's a huge age difference and I find myself more frustrated/annoyed with them than anything, so it was more of me pouring my emotions and thoughts about how I wish my relationship with them would be. I feel like we're close, but not as close as we should be. Another good question.
8. Religion is always tough because you have to really be careful on how you portray it. I don't want a "Necessary Evil" on my hands here, but it was really easy for me because this is more of a false religion in the shambles of the apocalypse. The conglomeration of the shambles of the Christian religion being pieced together and picked apart by these people was a really interesting idea for me, and I felt like it'd offer another side to the zombie genre. You often see it touched upon briefly in a couple scenes or so, but never as part of a main plot so I thought it'd offer a nice twist. As for research, I admittedly hadn't done much until recently, but it's been a fun thing to do for sure. Religion, no matter which one you look into, is such a deep and intricate subject and there's just so many sides to all of them that make it such a fun thing to explore.
9. I dunno man, I just find it really fun and I have a feeling that enjoying it and not dreading it makes the results turn out a lot better. ;D Just try being more optimistic!
What is the significance of the 2 on the end of the series title this season? =D
And this has NOTHING to do with our legal battle? I BELIEVE YA.
Okay, well truth be told the tone of season 1 and season 2 are just really different. Season 2's more grounded in this one zone, the airport, and has a tighter focus on the storyline and the motivations of the antagonists, and I just felt that whole general idea of the season feels a lot different than the first. It's almost like a totally different show reading the finale of the first and the premiere of the second, so it seemed fitting to the '2' title. Plus, it looks sexy which is always a plus.
1. How the feck do you plan so much? What's your method?
2. What drove you to write ER in the first place? Considering you already had Outbreak.
3. Any plans for a sci-fi?
4. Marry me.
1. I can't get into a show without some sort of game plan. I write it all out on a Microsoft Word file - usually I document down all the characters I'm going to have, what roles (starring/recurring) and how they fit into the overall arcs and then do their own individual storylines that eventually tie in with the overarching stories. I usually like to do this after outlining the pilot/premiere, that way I can have some sort of idea where I'm going to get some foreshadowing/hinting going (this really helped with Ash's season 1 story with Ben). There are always moments that pop up and I get an idea that springs to mind while writing, so I have a few moments of randomness that can change a lot for the show (see above for the answer to Jester's answer for a big example), so I'm not perfect
2. I wanted to do something different with the universe. Outbreak dived more into a focus on story and got deep into science-fiction and action and less on horror. I wanted to go for something that was more personal with my next project, and when Sam pitched these first few pages of a zombie pilot he had and suggested it take place in the Outbreak universe, I was sold. It was focused on characters and I wanted something like that because Outbreak was just a show that exhausted me in the second season with all the meticulousness in it and it got to the point where it wasn't fun anymore. I wanted something more simpler in scope, but infinitely more complex all at the same time if that makes sense?
3. Outbreak's second season was definitely jumping into sci-fi, and it was an exhausting experience. Fun and rewarding, but extremely frustrating to write because sci-fi has never been one of my favorite genres. I don't think you'll get a true, Sam Winchester-esque sci-fi from me. I can appreciate really good sci-fi but it's definitely not one of my favorite genres and I just don't think I'd do it justice at all.
4. Message me about wedding plans
