EASTERN ZOMBIE SOCIETY

by Don Bosco

A thriller series for teens

Sandy Lu is a high school student with a big secret: she
was brought up to serve the Eastern Zombie Society.
Her first mission is to stop the Shang Corporation from
building their zombie colony in Southeast Asia. But Jeff
Lau, the charismatic young heir to the Shang empire,
proves to be a dangerous opponent. Can she
survive his cruel game?

Coming soon from

BAT AND SPIDER
a horror / thriller / mystery imprint
of Super Cool Books

December 2015

www.SuperCoolBooks.com

THE OFFICIAL

100
WRITERS
STORY WORKBOOK

DON BOSCO

S U P E R CO O L B O O K S

NOTE: This is a work in progress. We hope you find the

information here useful, relevant and encouraging. Do send us
your feedback, ideas, requests, personal writing anecdotes, etc, so
that we can improve this further. Visit the Super Cool Books
website for updates on the 100 WRITERS project.

THE OFFICIAL 100 WRITERS STORY WORKBOOK

by Don Bosco
Copyright Don Bosco 2015
www.SuperCoolBooks.com
[email protected]
Not for sale. Made in Singapore.

Community partner: StoryCode Singapore

meetup.com/StoryCode-Singapore

CONTENTS
The process

Entertain us

Two dogs, one bone

Imagine

15

Tic-tac-toe

19

Sit and play

24

More stuff

27

About

30

1.

THE PROCESS
There are many ways to come up with
a new story. This workbook will take
you through the process weve been
using here at Super Cool Books.
Most of the work should be done
inside your head.
Step 1: Use your imagination in fun
and clever ways
Step 2: Arrange your ideas to create
the story experience
4

Thats it. It's fun and easy and safe.

Fancy stationery, special iPad
software, hipster coffee shops: nice,
but not essential.
Welcome to the 100 WRITERS
project.

2.

ENTERTAIN US
You need to know why youre writing
your story.
At Super Cool Books, we have one
very simple goal: to entertain our
readers.
Every story should be fun to read,
show some inventiveness, and provide
a satisfying emotional experience.

You might have different reasons for

writing for your story. Thats cool.
Feel free to change the ideas here so
that they work for you.

3.

TWO DOGS, ONE BONE

Youll find a lot of people explaining a
good plot like this:
Two dogs fighting over one bone.
This formula does so many things at
once. First, you set up a contest,
which creates a sense of conflict and
urgency. Second, theres suspense:
which dog will win? And third, our
emotions are aroused: which dog will
we want to cheer for?
8

Before anything else, figure this out

for your story. Who are the two dogs?
What is the bone?
Start a new document for your notes.
Create three columns, so you can fill
in your ideas.

Column 1: HERO (H)

Your main character. Someone we
find likeable, who still tries to do the
right thing where possible.

Column 2: VILLAIN (V)

Not necessarily an evil person. Just
anyone with the ability to destroy
your main characters happiness or
safety or hope.

If your Hero is a schoolboy who

wants to take the day off to
participate in a big skateboarding
competition, and his mother is
determined to make him attend piano
classes instead, then for your story
shes a perfect Villain.
You can go for a David vs Goliath
effect, where the the Villain is more
powerful or competent than the
Hero. And give your Villain a good
reason to be selfish or unkind. This
will make him or her more
interesting.

Column 3: PRIZE (P)

This is what theyre fighting about. It
should have emotional, physical and
symbolic value.

10

Establish at the start of the story why

the Villain really wants the Prize, and
show how itll be at the Heros
expense.

Here are some examples, for different

genres.
EXAMPLE 1: Thriller
H Joan Yang, undercover spy in the
middle of an anti-terrorist mission
V Zissy K, leader of a hacker
group, looking for ways to get rich
fast
P a black briefcase containing
information about all the young spies
currently undercover

11

Story idea Joan (H) wants to

complete her undercover mission so
she can get promoted, but a
notorious hacker (V) steals the
briefcase and is about to expose her
identity. She must get it back (P)
before its too late.

EXAMPLE 2: Horror
H Matt, high school student and
volunteer at animal clinic
V Draghul, an ambitious demon
sent to Matt's city to recruit children
for his master's army
P Winky, Matt's five year old sister
who loves to collect pink watches

12

Story idea Matt (H) has to look

after his sister but a demon (V) offers
her a beautiful pink watch and tricks
her into surrendering her freedom.
Now Matt must fight the forces of
hell in order to save his sister (P).

EXAMPLE 3: Romance
H Yanne, a singer in an indie band
who gets selected to tour Asia as part
of a popular girl group
V Jay, the guitarist in Yanne's band
and also her boyfriend, they made
plans to record a new album together
that school break
P Yannes freedom to choose her
own path
13

Story idea Yanne (H) gets a chance

to be a pop star but her boyfriend Jay
(V) feels that she has betrayed him.
How far will she go to fight for her
freedom (P)?

Come up with lots and lots and lots

of story ideas. You dont have to
develop all of them. Just have fun.
Over time one or two of them might
feel especially promising. Those are
the ones worth working on.

14

4.

IMAGINE
So now you have three columns,
labelled HERO, VILLAIN and
PRIZE. And youve combined these
elements into a rough story idea.
The next step is to sit back and just
imagine. Let your thoughts and
impressions flow. Come up with ideas
to fill up each of the columns.
If youre writing a short story,
perhaps you only need five ideas in
15

each column to get you going. If

youre writing a huge epic, you might
need twenty or more ideas, or else
youll lose momentum along the way.
For your HERO and VILLAIN, or
any other important characters, think
about each of the following.
name
age
appearance
family
friends
bedroom
likes
dislikes
talents
childhood
plans for future
fears
etc
16

Feel free to edit this list. You might

want to focus on a few of these
points more than the others. Thats
fine.
All this information will help you
know the characters more intimately.
At some point it should feel as if
youre writing about people youve
actually met. Otherwise your story
will feel forced and shallow.
Similarly, use your imagination to
develop the PRIZE. Focus on the
following.
description
value to HERO
value to VILLAIN
value to HEROs community
value to VILLAINs community
17

contests
resolutions
etc
Important: Do not skip this step.
Take your time and have fun.
Whatever you visualise, try to relax
and see all the details clearly. And
then record what you see.
Also, look for relevant photos or do
some research if you need to.

18

5.

TIC-TAC-TOE

"A story should have a beginning, a

middle and an end, but not
necessarily in that order."
Jean-Luc Godard

Very often you can create a more

interesting story experience if you
played around with how the story
events are presented.
19

But whatever you do, the beginning,

middle and end of your story should
be lined up in a way thats
entertaining as well as satisfying.
Its like playing tic-tac-toe: you work
to get your three crosses in a row, and
then you draw a straight line through
them, so that your opponent can
recognise the pattern and appreciate
your cleverness.
Heres one way I set up my stories:
BEGINNING Introduce the
Hero, Villain and Prize. Stage their
confrontation.
MIDDLE The contest for the
Prize. Things get ugly, feelings are
hurt, illusions are destroyed,
20

weaknesses are exposed and

exploited.
END Hero makes a creative yet
crazy attempt to win. Who gets the
Prize? What are the consequences?
Dont be predictable.
Line up these three parts of your
story and make sure they look good.
Tic-tac-toe.
There are general story patterns that
readers enjoy recognising. Here are
eight of them. If you want to write a
very long or complex story, you can
try stacking two or three of these.
1. Human versus monster
One of the most popular patterns for
stories.

21

2. One way ticket

Going on a mission but knowing you
might not return.
3. Worst day at work
Character caught in a perfect storm.
4. Save a buddy
Answering a call for help.
5. Who did this?
Step by step attempt to solve a
mystery.
6. Playing with the big boys
Coming of age stories.
7. Family falls apart
About a close group thats suddenly
threatened.

22

8. Curse and cure

Breaking out of a bad situation.
Important note: do this only after
youve used your imagination to flesh
out your story elements. If you start
off too early with a story pattern,
your story will quickly get lifeless,
formulaic and unconvincing.

23

6.

SIT AND PLAY

So youve figured out your Two Dog,
One Bone.
You have an interesting story idea.
Youve used your imagination to flesh
out the story elements. You have lots
of them and they seem intriguing.
Youve worked on the Tic-tac-toe bit.

24

And you have a winning story

pattern.
Now give a convincing commentary
about the struggle between the Two
Dogs and the Bone. Sit with your
computer or notebook or voice
recorder and just play something. The
way someone might play a guitar or
piano or saxophone.
Tell your story. Follow any ideas that
intrigue or inspire you.
If you get better ideas along the way,
make the changes. And keep right on
playing.
Have fun. Enjoy the feelings that
come up. Take risks. Go on detours.
Make changes. Start over. Invite
family friends to read what you have.
25

Share your work online. Consult a

professional editor if you want to.
This should be enough to take you a
long way. Have fun, and happy
writing.

26

7.

MORE STUFF
How do you make your characters
more interesting? How do you create
a wonderful sense of place and time
for your story? How do you actually
keep your readers hooked as your
story unfolds? Very good questions.
Ive posted a series of free creative
writing lessons to help you develop
these skills. Visit the Super Cool
Books website and search for
Budding Writers Project. Youll find
four lessons, and each one comes
27

with three short exercises so you can

quickly learn to apply the tips to your
own writing.
If you want to try publishing your
own work, and promoting it yourself,
you can download a free PDF guide
that I created. Search the Super Cool
Books website for Keep Calm and
Upload E-Books. Theres a useful list
of self-publishing resources at the
end, for everything from ebook
publishing platforms to free photos
to tools for promoting your stories.
I also collaborated with StoryCode
Singapore to create an open source
storyhacking kit for developing short,
serialised episodes. You can download
everything instructions,
worksheets and more from
StoryCode Singapores page on
28

Medium. Just Google for Captain

Cardboard VS Bruce Boh An ad-hoc
storyhacking workshop from comics
to cardboards.

29

ABOUT

DON BOSCO writes thrilling stories for

children and teens. His Sherlock Hong mystery
series was acquired by Marshall Cavendish for
international release.
SUPER COOL BOOKS is a publishing studio
based in Singapore. It specialises in original
story entertainment inspired by Asian legends
and pop culture. www.supercoolbooks.com
STORYCODE SINGAPORE is an opensource, global community for cross-platform
storytellers. We invite enthusiasts and
professionals alike to tell a story in a new way,
using the bounty of new tools at our disposal.
www.meetup.com/StoryCode-Singapore

30

FOLLOW THE ADVENTURE

Published by Marshall Cavendish Children
in association with Super Cool Books