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T.Z. Barry's Blog
September 24, 2016
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
A common question that writers are asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” Most writers seem to hate the question because they have no clear answer. I can understand that. Sometimes an idea just comes to me, and I’m not quite sure where it came from. But other times, I can trace the source of the idea. I’ll see a great movie or read a great book and get inspired to write something as good. Or I’ll see a bad movie or read a poor book and get inspired to write something better. Or I’ll take one small nugget from a fictional story, or from real life, and expand upon it. But there’s more to it than that. Thinking of ideas requires…well…thinking. Literally devoting time to daydreaming and brainstorming ideas.
Many of my stories have come from me taking my favorite stories and thinking about how I can make something similar yet new and different. For example, I always loved time travel stories, so I tried to think of a new twist on time travel that’s never been done before. I focused time to think about every aspect of time travel, and soon the ideas started to come. What if you can only travel forward in time, instead of backward? What happens years after time machines are invented, and they are popular commercial products? I spent hours, days, weeks, months, years, thinking about the world of my story and wrote everything down. Eventually, I had more ideas that I knew what to do with—some good, some bad. I took the good ones and wrote the story.
So that’s where I get my ideas. My mind. I see something and think to myself, “What if…” But if you don’t take the time to think, the ideas will never come.
Many of my stories have come from me taking my favorite stories and thinking about how I can make something similar yet new and different. For example, I always loved time travel stories, so I tried to think of a new twist on time travel that’s never been done before. I focused time to think about every aspect of time travel, and soon the ideas started to come. What if you can only travel forward in time, instead of backward? What happens years after time machines are invented, and they are popular commercial products? I spent hours, days, weeks, months, years, thinking about the world of my story and wrote everything down. Eventually, I had more ideas that I knew what to do with—some good, some bad. I took the good ones and wrote the story.
So that’s where I get my ideas. My mind. I see something and think to myself, “What if…” But if you don’t take the time to think, the ideas will never come.
October 29, 2015
Top 10 Movie Influences for Trick or Zombie Treat
My novel Trick or Zombie Treat is difficult to categorize. It can be for middle grade readers, young adults, and adults. It has horror, comedy, science fiction, fantasy, action, adventure, and drama. The characters include ghosts, zombies, vampires, werewolves, dinosaurs, basketball players, pop singers, and more. Maybe the best way to give a feel for what my book is like is to list the movies that influenced it. So without further adieu…
1. The Goonies
A group of kids go on an adventure in their neighborhood to find a pirate treasure. Ever since seeing The Goonies, I’ve searched for any and all movies like it. After that, I attempted to write one of my own. My short pitch for TZT is “The Goonies on Halloween with zombies.”
2. Stand By Me
Stand By Me is kind of like The Goonies without the action—but it’s even better. Four boys go searching for a dead body. I love the character dynamics and interactions between the boys, and tried to include some of the same in TZT.
3. The Sandlot
About a group of young boys in the 1960s who loved playing baseball together. Full of great characters and a dog as big as a dinosaur. Stand By Me and The Sandlot looked back at the 1950s and 60s with nostalgia, just as I did with the 1990s in TZT.
4. Shaun of the Dead
I was never really into zombies or zombie movies until I saw Shaun of the Dead, which injected clever comedy into the genre. All of Edgar Wright’s films are great. Zombieland was another zombie comedy I liked that served as inspiration for TZT.
5. The Monster Squad
A group of boys fight monsters in their neighborhood, including Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
6. ParaNorman
Most zombie movies are rated-R, but this was a PG animated zombie film. You don’t need real blood to make a good zombie movie. Frankenweenie and Monster House are two more PG animated horror movies I liked.
7. Ghostbusters
The ultimate fantasy comedy with ghosts and monsters. Except in TZT, the ghost is good—more like Slimer or Casper.
8. Cabin in the Woods
I love the meta aspect of this horror/comedy/sci-fi mash-up. It would be a spoiler alert to say too much more, but I liked how Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard included all different kinds of horror movie villains and monsters.
9. The Lego Movie
Another meta mash-up… The characters in TZT aren’t made of plastic toy blocks, although there is one reference to Legos in the book. But the real way this movie influenced me is how they threw all different kinds of famous characters (real and fictional) into one story–Batman, Superman, Han Solo, Gandalf, Abraham Lincoln, Shaq, Shakespeare, and more. I even included a couple of those characters myself.
10. Trick ‘r Treat
An anthology film featuring four short supernatural horror films set on Halloween. There aren’t enough good movies set on Halloween. There aren’t enough Halloween movies, period. Which is one of the main reasons I wrote TZT. Fun Size, an underrated comedy, is another recent movie set on Halloween.
There are a ton more movies, books, and tv shows that influenced me—some that I’ve forgotten and others I’m not even conscious of. But these are the films that were on my mind when I wrote Trick or Zombie Treat.
1. The Goonies
A group of kids go on an adventure in their neighborhood to find a pirate treasure. Ever since seeing The Goonies, I’ve searched for any and all movies like it. After that, I attempted to write one of my own. My short pitch for TZT is “The Goonies on Halloween with zombies.”
2. Stand By Me
Stand By Me is kind of like The Goonies without the action—but it’s even better. Four boys go searching for a dead body. I love the character dynamics and interactions between the boys, and tried to include some of the same in TZT.
3. The Sandlot
About a group of young boys in the 1960s who loved playing baseball together. Full of great characters and a dog as big as a dinosaur. Stand By Me and The Sandlot looked back at the 1950s and 60s with nostalgia, just as I did with the 1990s in TZT.
4. Shaun of the Dead
I was never really into zombies or zombie movies until I saw Shaun of the Dead, which injected clever comedy into the genre. All of Edgar Wright’s films are great. Zombieland was another zombie comedy I liked that served as inspiration for TZT.
5. The Monster Squad
A group of boys fight monsters in their neighborhood, including Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
6. ParaNorman
Most zombie movies are rated-R, but this was a PG animated zombie film. You don’t need real blood to make a good zombie movie. Frankenweenie and Monster House are two more PG animated horror movies I liked.
7. Ghostbusters
The ultimate fantasy comedy with ghosts and monsters. Except in TZT, the ghost is good—more like Slimer or Casper.
8. Cabin in the Woods
I love the meta aspect of this horror/comedy/sci-fi mash-up. It would be a spoiler alert to say too much more, but I liked how Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard included all different kinds of horror movie villains and monsters.
9. The Lego Movie
Another meta mash-up… The characters in TZT aren’t made of plastic toy blocks, although there is one reference to Legos in the book. But the real way this movie influenced me is how they threw all different kinds of famous characters (real and fictional) into one story–Batman, Superman, Han Solo, Gandalf, Abraham Lincoln, Shaq, Shakespeare, and more. I even included a couple of those characters myself.
10. Trick ‘r Treat
An anthology film featuring four short supernatural horror films set on Halloween. There aren’t enough good movies set on Halloween. There aren’t enough Halloween movies, period. Which is one of the main reasons I wrote TZT. Fun Size, an underrated comedy, is another recent movie set on Halloween.
There are a ton more movies, books, and tv shows that influenced me—some that I’ve forgotten and others I’m not even conscious of. But these are the films that were on my mind when I wrote Trick or Zombie Treat.
October 17, 2015
Trick or Zombie Treat
Like many writers, I have a list of hundreds of half-baked ideas that I hope to one day turn into full-fledged stories. One such idea was kids on Halloween transforming into actual versions of their costumes. Last September, I decided to write it as a short story, hoping to finish in time for Halloween.
Cut to one year and 66,000 words later, and my short story is now a full-length novel.
Trick or Zombie Treat is actually the third novel I wrote, but after going through the traditional publishing process of querying agents for my first two novels (a process I’m still going through), I decided to try self-publishing this one.
Trick or Zombie Treat is a tough book to pin down. There’s science fiction, fantasy, action, adventure, horror, and comedy—just about the only genre not represented is romance. It’s a period piece, set in 1998, and follows a group of five boys (ages 9-13) over the course of one Halloween night. The book is intended for younger readers today, and older readers nostalgic for the 1990s (there are many inside jokes and references to the period).
Cut to one year and 66,000 words later, and my short story is now a full-length novel.
Trick or Zombie Treat is actually the third novel I wrote, but after going through the traditional publishing process of querying agents for my first two novels (a process I’m still going through), I decided to try self-publishing this one.
Trick or Zombie Treat is a tough book to pin down. There’s science fiction, fantasy, action, adventure, horror, and comedy—just about the only genre not represented is romance. It’s a period piece, set in 1998, and follows a group of five boys (ages 9-13) over the course of one Halloween night. The book is intended for younger readers today, and older readers nostalgic for the 1990s (there are many inside jokes and references to the period).
