creative writing describe zombie

Zombie Writing Prompts and Story Ideas

Zombies are a beloved trope in literature and media, and it doesn’t seem like the craze will be dying off any time soon. However, in such a diverse genre, it’s not always easy to come up with ideas on your own. Zombies are only part of the equation, after all. 

If you know you want to write about zombies, but you need a little direction, here are some short prompts, settings, and story ideas to help you get started. 

Short Zombie Writing Prompts for Warming Up

Zombies are a lot of fun to write about, but if you don’t want to write an entire novel, try just writing a single scene instead. It can exist as part of a larger story, but you don’t have to write everything that precedes it. Give readers enough context to understand the characters and the situation, but get creative with how you reveal information over time. That way, you can practice writing about different zombie-related situations without the pressure of making it a complete narrative. Besides, if you end up liking what you write, you can always flesh out (haha) the story later and add more to it!

Here’s a list of zombie writing prompts you can use to warm up, practice, or just have a little fun:

• A desperate character decides to loot a shady gas station they normally wouldn’t approach. Most places have already been ransacked, and this is the only option left. 
• Your characters have a bit of downtime repairing and cleaning up their current shelter. What sorts of things do they talk about? How long have they been there?
• Two characters are driving through a zombie wasteland when their car breaks down. One has to repair the car while the other has to defend against the oncoming horde. 
• One character in a group of survivors is secretly infected. As their health slowly declines, they get more desperate to blame their symptoms on other things (ie: the colder weather, allergies). At what point do the other survivors realize the truth?
• A pair of siblings reunite for the first time in forever—in the middle of a zombie siege. Is this tearful reunion shortly followed by tragedy, or do the two successfully escape with their lives?
• Zombies are little more than a vague rumor, and you aren’t sure what to believe. The media has a habit of exaggerating the truth, after all… But when you accidentally hit a zombie with your car, you have no choice but to accept the gruesome truth. 
• The zombie apocalypse has been going on for some time, and one character has managed to survive inside their own home. Most people abandoned the city, and there aren’t even many zombies around, so they have gotten away with fortifying their home very little. However, when a looter breaks in and injures them, they regret not taking the time to build up their defenses more. 
• Your characters have nothing to lose, and a lot of high-powered weapons. When they are cornered by an immense hoard of zombies, they decide to take as many down with them as they can. What ensues can only be described as a zombie-slaying massacre, and the characters leave carnage in their wake before they finally succumb to the zombies. 
• A single father of three has to break the news to his children: he was bitten and is going to turn.
• Describe a character slowly succumbing to the disease in first-person. Is it painful? At what point does their consciousness fade? Does it fade completely, or do they remain somewhat aware of what their body does after turning? 
• Your protagonist has been living off-the-grid for years, with almost no connection to the outside world. During a rare visit to town, they finally learn about the state of the world.

Setting Ideas for Zombie Apocalypse Stories

If you’re already writing a zombie story, then you probably know that the setting plays a huge part in the storytelling. You need to keep putting your protagonists in interesting and exciting places to encounter zombies to set scenes apart from each other, but it can be hard to keep coming up with new ideas. So, I’ve come up with a brief list of setting ideas that you can use to spice up your characters’ zombie encounters!

Your characters could encounter zombies in a:

• Swamp 
• Cruise ship
• Graveyard 
• Lecture hall
• Hiking trail
• Subway station 
• Furniture store
• Wax museum 
• Train graveyard
• Mountain lodge
• Sports stadium
• Nuclear power plant
• Movie theater

Zombie Story Plot Ideas

If you’re looking for plot ideas for an entire novel, comic, roleplay, or another kind of story, then I’ve got some ideas for you. Unlike the prompts above, these will give you ideas to base an entire narrative around.

• Write a story from the perspective of the person who caused it. Are they a poor scientist trying to find a cure for another disease? A team of infectious disease specialists hired for biological warfare? What was their motivation in the beginning, and what are they going to do about the outbreak now that it is out of control? 
• Your main character finds a safe camp, completely walled off from zombies. They have food, water, and shelter in place, as well as a complex security system and a simple form of government. They say their medics have discovered a mix of drugs that combats the virus in early stages and can even prevent infection from spreading immediately, but this is all a ruse in order to control and manipulate people. How do the protagonists find out the truth, and what do they do about it? The people are safe from infection behind the shelter’s walls, but there is no such thing as freedom here. 
• Lately, rumors of a perfect camp have been spreading around the wasteland. With nothing left to lose, your protagonist sets off to find it, asking everyone they can for information. Finally, after months of searching, they manage to find the formidable walls of the last major safe place in the nation. When they approach the gates, however, they are told that the shelter is no longer accepting new residents, and if the protagonist does not leave, the shelter will open fire. What happens next? 
• There’s a cure for the disease, and you’re a recovering zombie. What’s that like? Will you ever return to normal, or will you live with symptoms forever? Is this story a psychological horror, a comedy, or something else? 
• The zombie disease only affects children. Some kids manage to make it to adulthood without getting sick, but the population isn’t sustainable, and the disease becomes more widespread each year. Humanity is slowly dying off. Your main character has a young child they are trying to protect from getting sick, but not only do they have to battle zombies, they have to resist a government that wants to confiscate the child to ensure they reach adulthood. As a bonus, all the zombies in this world are miniature because they’re all children, so that adds another layer of horror into the mix.
• Your protagonist is determined to find a cure… by any means necessary. They slowly descend into madness as the cure proves impossible to create, and they begin desperately experimenting on other human beings by infecting them with the disease. 
• Zombies have been a problem for years, and your protagonists are part of an elite zombie cleanup team. The outbreaks are always kept under control and quickly contained… until recently. Now everyone expects your protagonists to control the growing horde, and they’re in over their heads. 
• You’ve been bitten. You know it, your group knows it, and no one is trying to hide it. You know that you’re going to die, and you have accepted it. However, your group would be defenseless without you, so you must escort them to a new safe place before you turn completely—and you’re running out of time.
• A group of astronauts on a space station brings in a mysterious space rock from outside. Everyone forgets about it pretty quickly—especially since people start getting sick soon after. Thanks to the infected people’s tendency of biting at their doctors, the alien sickness spreads rapidly and soon gets out of control. Now, the astronauts must survive an alien zombie outbreak, trapped in a space station orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth. 
• Zombie fighting is now the most popular form of entertainment for post-apocalyptic America. Two zombies are drenched in fresh blood and locked in a cage together to tear each other apart. People gamble on the fights, and it all seems like a good way for people to overcome their resentment towards the zombies while having fun in the process. Your protagonist has been going to these fights since they first started, and they love it. However, they stumble upon a dark secret: one zombie owner has been kidnapping strong humans and turning them into zombies to win more fights, and ultimately make more money. 

How Writing About Zombies can Make You a Better Writer

Writing about zombies is a great way of refining some really good skills as a writer. That sounds ridiculous, so let me explain. Zombie stories commonly contain a lot of similar themes, techniques, and storytelling strategies. To write one effectively, you need to be good at utilizing suspense, surprising your readers, and exploring the duality of each individual character. You will have to press your characters to do bad things, to manipulate each other, and to act in unsavory ways, and this can help break you out of the habit of writing perfect Mary Sues. 

In addition to that, zombie stories often blend many different genres, like horror, action, and even romance or comedy. You need to be able to write high-energy fight scenes, while also being able to properly write suspense and tension. You’ll need to convey sadness, fear, loss, and death, and you need to show tenderness and love between surviving characters. Zombie stories are a great way of probing human conscience and exploring the complex emotions of humans when pushed to their limits. 

Although that sounds difficult, a lot of this comes naturally to writers tackling a zombie plot. We’ve all seen zombies in movies, books, comics, and video games, and we subconsciously understand that that’s what the genre requires. Then, after writing about zombies, you’ll get better at applying those techniques in other things you write.

And really, zombies are fun to write about, so relax and just enjoy the carnage. 

20+ Best Words to Describe Zombie, Adjectives for Zombie

In the eerie realm of horror, one creature has captured the imagination of storytellers and audiences alike: the zombie. In simple terms, a zombie is an undead being, a reanimated corpse devoid of life’s essence, existing only to roam the earth in a relentless pursuit of flesh and brains. These undead creatures have inspired a plethora of descriptive words that evoke spine-chilling fear and fascination. From “grotesque” to “shambling,” and “ravenous” to “unyielding,” this blog post will explore the chilling lexicon used to depict these nightmarish beings that haunt our darkest dreams.

Table of Contents

Adjectives for Zombie

Here are the 20 Most Popular adjectives for zombie:

Adjectives for Zombie Walk

• Bone-chilling

Adjectives for Zombie Behavior

• Unpredictable

Adjectives for Zombie Appearance

• Hollow-eyed
• Bloodstained

Words to Describe Zombie with Meanings

• Decaying : Showing signs of decomposition or rot.
• Lurching : Moving with awkward, unsteady motions.
• Cursed : Plagued by a malevolent supernatural force.
• Soulless : Lacking a living spirit or essence.
• Horrific : Extremely frightening or shocking.
• Malevolent : Having an evil or harmful intent.
• Rancid : Emitting a strong, unpleasant odor.
• Clammy : Damp and unpleasantly cool to touch.
• Grim : Gloomy and foreboding in appearance.
• Gruesome : Repulsively horrifying or gruesome.
• Diabolical : Wicked and devilish in nature.
• Infected : Contaminated with a harmful agent or disease.
• Undying : Unfaltering, unable to be killed permanently.
• Wretched : Extremely miserable or unhappy.
• Sinister : Suggesting evil or danger; ominous.
• Hollow : Empty or lacking emotions or substance.
• Abominable : Deserving of strong dislike or hatred.
• Desolate : Deserted and devoid of life or hope.
• Deathly : Pertaining to or resembling death.
• Dismal : Depressing or dreary in nature.

Example Sentences for Zombie Adjectives

• The decaying corpse sent shivers down spines.
• The zombie was lurching toward its prey.
• The cursed town was haunted by zombies.
• The abandoned house was filled with soulless beings.
• The horror movie had a horrific ending.
• The malevolent creature lurked in the shadows.
• The room reeked of rancid flesh.
• Her hands were cold and clammy .
• The setting sun cast a grim light on the graveyard.
• The haunted mansion was filled with gruesome sights.
• The diabolical plan threatened the city’s safety.
• The survivors avoided contact with the infected .
• The undying zombie continued its pursuit relentlessly.
• The beggar’s appearance was wretched and pitiful.
• The abandoned asylum had a sinister atmosphere.
• The old tree had a hollow interior.
• The abominable creature terrorized the villagers.
• The desolate landscape was devoid of life.
• The moon cast a deathly glow over the cemetery.
• The weather forecast predicted a dismal day ahead.

Explore More Words:

Words to Describe Character

Words to Describe Horror

Words to Describe Halloween

How to describe zombie writing?

Zombie writing often entails vividly depicting the decaying, relentless, and eerie nature of the undead, evoking a chilling sense of horror and fear.

What are zombies known for?

Zombies are known for being reanimated corpses, devoid of life, and driven by an insatiable hunger for human flesh and brains.

How are zombies killed?

Zombies can be killed through methods such as destroying the brain, severing their heads, or completely incapacitating their bodies.

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About the author.

Hi, I'm USMI, engdic.org's Author & Lifestyle Linguist. My decade-long journey in language and lifestyle curation fuels my passion for weaving words into everyday life. Join me in exploring the dynamic interplay between English and our diverse lifestyles. Dive into my latest insights, where language enriches every aspect of living.

How to Write Great (Awful) Zombies

By Melanie Karsak

It’s October, my favorite month of the year. Without fail, I always get in the mood to write something spooky this time of year. Over the summer, I completed the fifth and final book in The Harvesting Series. The Harvesting series begins with an outbreak that leads to a zombie apocalypse. Once mankind is mostly dead, the survivors learn that we weren’t as alone as we thought we were. The fey, vampires, and other supernatural creatures and powers always existed in our world, we just didn’t know it. Writing five books in a zombie series pushed me to constantly innovate and look for new ways to write scary creatures. Just how many ways are there to describe a zombie? In the end, I found the best was to go back to basics. Hit the readers right in the senses:

1) Zombies smell like…

I spent a lot of time considering how a zombie might smell. From the harrowing bouquet of the rotted corpse to the whiff of an entire horde of the decaying undead, zombies stink. When writing zombies, you will get your readers into the scene more completely if you can help them envision what it would be like face-to-face with breath that smells like the “soup” at the bottom of a trash can. On The Walking Dead , characters can grimace and cover their mouths. Our characters should do that too, but describing the scents of rancid, pussy sores, molding clothing, and maggot-filled chunks of bloody flesh can bring your zombies to…life? Zombies should smell so bad you can taste it. Speaking of…

2) Zombies taste like…

Okay, no one is going to go around and taste a zombie, but you should get the reader’s taste buds thinking. My favorite taste description is of the bloody saliva my zombies drool all over everything. Imagine that sharp salty and metallic taste of blood in your mouth. Imagine the wash of stomach acid that will burn up your esophagus and into your mouth when you see one of my stinking zombies. Image a scent so putrid you can taste it. Yes, zombies taste bad too.

3) I hear zombies…

The groan of the undead, the sound of them dragging their body parts down the street behind them, the spitty hiss they make as their decayed teeth, yellowed and full of pulpy bits of bloody flesh, snap as they try to bite you, all make up the beautiful chorus that is the zombie apocalypse. Zombies moan like no other monster. Their terrible hunger evokes painful sounding moans as they hiss and snap at their meal: you. The zombie really makes a music all its own.

4) Zombies feel like…

Imagine a rotted corpse had just lunged at you. You try to push it away find only pulpy, decayed flesh. Your fingers sink into the meat. The skin peals back like the casing of a sausage to reveal rotted sinew and tissue now softer than mud. The decaying flesh slips off the still-solid skeleton underneath until your down to the very bone. Zombies feel gross. Describing how zombies feel is best imagined as that feeling you get when you reach into a bag, box, or cupboard only to find something wet, soft, and suspect—where it shouldn’t be. If you have kids, you’ve experienced this for sure. You’re immediately repulsed by the unknown. Add in some great taste and smell descriptions, and you have a perfect recipe for the grotesque.

5) Zombie look like…

Describing how a zombie looks is where writers can take the most liberties. Are your zombies fast or slow? Do they decay or do they not? It’s pretty standard fare to have zombies in tattered clothes, from I am Legend ’s thinking and hairless undead to 28 Days Later’s fast zombies, a bad wardrobe is the norm. Zombies can have red eyes, black eyes, white or decayed-looking eyes, or more. You zombies might be able to communicate or even seem more human than undead. Playing with just what your special brand of zombie will look like, and making is as scary as possible, is what makes writing zombies entertaining.

Evoking the senses when trying to scare the reader is really fun—and maybe a little evil—way to pull the reader into the moment and get their hearts racing. The best way to imagine what will be scary to the reader, what will repulse and frighten them, is to question what you find repulsive and frightening. Play on common human fears. Manipulate the fears of the dark, unknown sounds, and all manner of deeply held unconscious worries.

Of course, I didn’t write a zombie dressed as a clown spitting out spiders while giving a speech, but if I did, he definitely would have smelled like rancid meat, his entrails falling out of a fresh wound as he tried to claw off some poor innocent’s face with his yellowed fingernails, pressing those boney fingers into their flesh. I didn’t write that scene…yet.

The Harvesting

More about Melanie Karsak

9 responses to “How to Write Great (Awful) Zombies”

It was good and helpful

Exceptional detail given here. Two thumbs up! I feel inspired for my own “zombie book”.

Thank you so much this will really help with my creative writing in class. Thanks again.

What does it mean to ‘write like Zombies’?

Your suggestions certainly are helpful for writers of fiction. What would you do differently in a zombie/western screenplay?

I love this article thank you!

Your article was amazing so inspiring thank you!

I find this very helpful and inspiring for my creative writing. Thank you.

This was very helpful with my story! I felt it was bland before, but after some revising with these tips in mind, I like it a lot more!

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50 Zombie Writing Prompts to scary up stories

November 21, 2023 by Richard Leave a Comment

Undead Inspiration: 50 Zombie Writing Prompts to Scare Up Stories

Few horror creations have embedded themselves into popular culture quite like zombies – the ravenous, shambling undead that relentlessly crave brains. Zombies have shuffled their way into movies, TV shows, books, video games, and endless creative works, taking over imaginations worldwide.

Part of what makes zombies so compelling is that they can represent different themes and tap into deep societal fears – of contagions, mob mentality, the loss of our humanity and free will. They emerge from the unknown – maybe science experiments gone wrong, occult practices summoning the dead, or biblical plagues.

Zombies stories throw characters into high-stakes survival situations where ingenuity, courage, and luck are constantly tested in the struggle against the undead threat. The scenarios force difficult choices, community-building, heroism but also sacrifices in an unforgiving apocalypse landscape. There seems to be no end to creative angles and mashups the undead can shamble into.

So if you’re looking to write a zombie story, I’ve created a list of 50 zombie apocalypse writing prompts covering a wide range terrifying and thought-provoking scenarios. Let the zombie story ideas and survival tales come ripping straight out of your brain and onto the page! Click below to check out the prompts and let me know which ones capture your imagination or inspire a tale you’d read! Also check out other writing prompts on our site .

50 Zombie Writing Prompts to Scare Up Stories

50 zombie writing prompts:

• After a zombie virus outbreak, a group of survivors barricade themselves in a mall and try to fight off hordes of the undead to survive.
• A researcher desperately tries to develop a cure as the zombie infection spreads exponentially, threatening to overwhelm the city within days.
• A man wakes from a coma to find himself seemingly alone in a hospital that shows signs of being hastily evacuated – then discovers it’s swarming with zombies.
• Soldiers battle swarms of intelligent zombies that retain the military training and lethal skills they had when human.
• A teenager faces her zombified parents not knowing if she can pull the trigger to stop them.
• Rival groups of survivors clash over scarce resources after establishing strongholds, struggling to rebuild society amidst the relentless undead threat.
• A widow traverses the zombie wasteland with her infected husband in tow desperately searching for a sanctuary rumored to be developing a cure.
• A jilted groom rampages through his wedding after a zombie virus outbreak turns guests and family undead.
• A blind man discovers his spare senses make him uniquely attuned to detect and hunt zombies roaming the city ruins.
• After zombies overrun earth’s last sanctuary bunker, scientists desperately try escaping into space but realize too late one astronaut was bitten.
• Distraught survivors gather for counseling struggling with losing everything to the apocalypse only to learn the therapist was bitten days ago.
• Fearing zombies breaking into their doomsday bunker, a prepared survivalist insists a newcomer slave quarantine outside for weeks, exposing divisions within the shelter.
• A guilt-ridden scientist tries to rescue his family from the zombie army created inadvertently after his experiments were sabotaged.
• After zombies topple the government, resistance fighters discover the undead’s hive mind intelligence rapidly evolving without conscience or restraint.
• A man arrested for his wife’s suspicious death wakes imprisoned as the zombie outbreak begins, battling undead while handcuffed as he tries to prove his innocence.
• Contestants half way through an isolated reality TV series shoot emerge from wilderness exile to discover an apocalypse overran civilization in their absence.
• A lone survivor is ambushed and bitten by zombies but discovers he’s immune, fueling him with determination to reach the rumored refuge developing a cure.
• Bold survivors drag Racing cars out the abandoned speedway to battle undead gladiator style, buying precious distraction time for others harvesting supplies from once overwhelmed towns.
• An Emergency Room doctor watches helplessly as zombie bite victims rapidly turn while hospital chaos erupts into an ordeal separating him from his trapped family.
• A widowed grandmother protects her bedridden husband’s reanimated zombie unable to accept losing him, keeping him secretly isolated and bound within their home.
• Solitary scouts maintaining vital radio relays across vast distances risk the horror of being stranded far from shelter after zombie swarms ambush communication towers.
• Fragile alliances between rival apocalypse cults fracture, plunging survivors into sectarian warfare as fanatics try purifying decimated populations they each consider damned.
• From remote farm country untouched since the outbreak began, groups risk everything following faint emergency radio transmissions toward promised airlifts off the mainland.
• After satellites confirm the zombie infection went global, an ISS astronaut helplessly watches the Earth burn below then investigates strange garbled transmissions about secret survival stations established off planet.
• A Special Forces team infiltrates a zombie hive cresting the wreckage of an overrun asylum to capture specimens and fallen intelligence critical for developing defenses and weaponry able to overwhelm exponentially growing undead numbers.
• An ordinary high school inexplicably becomes both haven and hell for lost students and staff fleeing zombies while trapped without communication amidst deteriorating siege conditions and crumbling campus defenses.
• A lone wolf special ops veteran works to extricate their apocalypse hardened but traumatized child squad from capture by an opportunistic warlord building zombie army conscripts from brain washed orphaned survivors.
• Fueled by revenge after loved ones are infected, resistance fighters brutally combat collaborating cults worshiping the undead, sparking an unholy civil war amongst remaining battered human holdouts.
• Preserved cryogenically waiting decades for a cure, an infected couple awaken in a seemingly deserted complex, banding with others to restore power and access the abandoned world outside to verify if humanity survived.
• Bereaved survivors overwhelmed with trauma and loss after relentless horrors find therapy adopting orphaned refugee children, forcing meaning in mentoring the next generation.
• A serial killer languishing on death row becomes an unexpected asset able to exploit understanding of evil during initial zombie outbreaks allowing government agencies critical insight when negotiating fragile truces.
• Facing dwindling odds of evacuating the zombie wasted red zone, a weary medic wrestles with should they stay attempting to stabilize the quarantine line or flee carrying vital research before the city is aimlessly nuked.
• Beneath a remote monastery converted into an apocalypse bunker, descending catacombs reveal mysterious glowing relics worshipped by forgotten gods and dark cults suggesting zombies were prophesied punishments upon a sinful world awaiting this foretold cleansing.
• Fanatical preppers vindicated establishing isolated redoubts amidst global zombie outbreaks warily debate rescues as infamous raiders and infiltration risks until dwindling supplies ultimately force confronting harsh survival realities alone.
• After civilization collapses when initial ineffective directives worsen outbreaks exponentially, rogue generals launch unauthorized nuclear strikes against overrun strategic zones, fracturing command continuity and communications vital for global response efforts.
• A jaded CDC doctor races to perfect an experimental vaccine derived from an anomalous immune survivor’s blood as zombies close in on her surviving team’s clandestine mobile laboratory’s location, threatening to end essential research.
• Desperate enclaves transmit repeating emergency broadcasts, each falling silent one by one as relentless zombies overwhelm isolated havens and scattered listeners debate seeking opportunities for sanctuary or making final stands.
• Facing terminal cancer treatment delays after zombies devastate infrastructure, a father struggles crossing the wasteland seeking scattered rumors of rogue biochemists concocting bootleg pharmaceuticals from abandoned labs to self administer life saving makeshift chemotherapy.
• Grieving survivors adopt orphaned children rescued from devastated areas, discovering youth traumatized witnessing zombie slaying prove unexpectedly better adjusted forming new post apocalyptic families from the remnants of broken ones.
• Trapped aboard an international space station watching helplessly as governments collapse worldwide, diverse astronauts of rival nations uncomfortably cooperate awaiting plans for recovery missions or permanent exile drifting above an overrun home world.
• Underground coal miners surprised unscathed emerging after exhausting emergency supplies for shelter discover the zombie infection strangely bypasses populations isolated from open air contamination suggesting fungus or chemtrails as the vector.
• Vigilante auxiliary units raid overwhelmed infection zones striving to rescue critical personnel in danger being overrun before vital knowledge, expertise and infrastructure guarding civilization’s last sanctuaries is lost amidst the chaos.
• Driven by survivor’s guilt after loved ones perish early in outbreaks, a remorseful scientist works ruthlessly perfecting weaponized contagions to genocidally eradicate zombie threats despite moral outcry over his drastic bio attacks from others.
• Responding to ashes from funeral pyres darkening skies, opportunistic apocalyptic cults herald zombies as harbingers of end times, flourishing conversions from lost souls seeking answers even as rational enclaves actively work to restore sanity amidst turmoil.
• Surviving celebrities band together as influential social media influencers using fame advantageously uniting scattered fans into communities for protection, their star power strange currency in a ruined landscape.
• An intrepid documentarian follows an eccentric billionaire covertly funding illegal experiments ritualistically sacrificing zombie specimens attempting to reanimate the dead seeking immortality, eternal youth or resurrecting loved ones.
• A clumsy oaf bumbling through outbreaks realizes his inexplicable invulnerability is a latent mutant superpower allowing him to heroically save others when boldly walking through hordes unscathed.
• An intrepid journalist investigates hidden Pentagon bioweapons experiments as the initial source of unprecedented ‘wildfire mutations’ rapidly accelerating zombie virus transmission and resilience worldwide.
• Under siege and without communications for months, isolated survivors in an apocalyptic red zone emerge changed by their ordeals, having turned feral forming violent tribal communities centered around defending scarce local resources from outsiders.
• An obsessive scientist frenetically works in secret to weaponize the zombie virus aiming to perfect infectious control mechanisms for deploying swarms as unquestioningly loyal minions trainable seeking brains through precise directives encoded into post hypnotic triggers.

I hope these 50 Zombie Writing prompts will get you writing. If you want to share your work or comments or concerns please leave them in the comments below.

Related posts:

• 50 Poetry Prompts Every Writer Should Try
• Daily horror writing prompts 
• 50 Fantastic Science Fiction Writing Prompts
• 31 Creepy Writing Prompts for Every Day of October
• 50 Christmas Fiction Writing Prompts

About Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) has worked for literary magazines and literary websites for the last 25 years. He holds degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology and Education. Richard has headed many writing workshops and courses, and he has taught writing and literature for the last 20 years.  

In writing and publishing he has worked with independent, small, medium and large publishers for years connecting publishers to authors. He has also worked as a journalist and editor in both magazine, newspaper and trade publications as well as in the medical publishing industry.   Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page .

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Dissecting Zombies in Fiction Writing

In this post, we explore the history and technique of using zombies in fiction. We dissect zombies in fiction writing.

Zombie stories are a fan favourite, and a writer’s playground.

While not always popular, zombie tales rise from the grave every so often. Western zombie stories shot to public attention from the 1800s. Many blended genre forms exist now, including romance, horror, and action.

Here’s where zombie stories come from, and which techniques can help you to craft a great zombie tale.

Dissecting Zombies in Fiction Writing  

A grand zombie history.

Proposed theories about the origin of zombies point to Haitian voodoo, which tells of corpses brought back by priests – usually to serve, or do evil deeds.

Tales of corpses brought to life exist in other legends, including South African and Brazilian myths. Like vampires, early zombie legends contained the common element of fear.

Early zombie stories travelled with victims of the slave trade, and the story would spread and evolve.

In English, the word ‘zombi’ was used in poet Robert Southey’s ‘ A History Of Brazil ‘ between 1810 to 1819. The next popular, credited early use appeared in ‘The Magic Island’ by WB Seabrook in 1929.

Imagination was sparked, and many writers would use the basic idea of reanimated or drugged ‘zombies’ from here.

Film would follow. ‘White Zombie’ released in 1932 was one of the first big zombie features . ‘Night Of The Living Dead’ from 1968 brought zombies back again.

Modern zombie tales would move further away from bewitched, cursed people zombies. Instead, post-1930s zombie tales often use a viral, bacterial, or chemical cause.

Zombies In Fiction Writing  

Zombies defined.

According to the Merriam-Webster definition, a zombie is: ‘a will-less and speechless human (as in voodoo belief and in fictional stories) held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated’

We know, though, that the zombie story can be more than supernatural .

Zombie stories have taken a turn for the biological or viral in the 21 st century: most modern zombie stories make little mention of faith or supernatural origins.

Fear is different.

Readers are more likely to fear unstoppable viruses, isolation, and survival. Thus, the story has evolved to become more effective.

What Causes Fiction’s Zombies?

A zombie can be created by three things:

• Being bewitched or drugged,
• Being bitten (by a zombie),
• A virus, bacteria, or chemical.

Other causes exist, but if authors steer too far away from the accepted myth, you will end up with something that is not necessarily a zombie story at all.  

If you had describe a square badly, a reader can’t possibly draw what you have described. It’s too far away from what a square is, right?  

Treat stories with myths (including zombies and vampires) like how you would describe a square. Describe with creativity, but make sure the reader still knows what you meant.

Zombie Characteristics

Let’s talk about the things zombies are (and are not).

Zombies are always human, and either (1) brought back to life, or (2) degenerated by a virus or disease. A zombie-bite can sometimes turn another person ill, or infect them with the cause.

These simple threads run through almost all zombie stories.

More optional elements are out there.

Zombies are slow, though might be fast. Sometimes, they can be fixed, but in other stories their heads have to be destroyed.

Once you’ve got the base of a ‘zombie tale’, you can play with the secondary elements and get away with it.

When Is A Zombie Not?

Zombie tale drafts can miss the point far enough to stop being a zombie story, too. Edit if you have done this to your plot or story.

Zombies are human: the moment they are not, then they are no longer a traditional zombie. Zombies are undead, but separated by their traits from other undead myths like vampires .

One more example: sure, you could set a zombie tale in space, but the moment zombies are aliens from another planet you have crossed into another genre. Not a zombie tale anymore now, is it?

Matheson’s ‘ I I Am Legend ‘ sits between genres, and is more often called a vampire or apocalyptic story.

Traditional Zombie Stories

Zombie fiction can take several turns, and become a sub-genre of zombie story. Survival, horror, and apocalyptic or dystopian themes are common through zombie fiction.

‘ Home Delivery (collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes) ‘ by Stephen King is a good example, using fear, survival, and isolation in the zombie story.

‘ Cell ‘ is a return to the zombie genre for King, but used cellphone towers as plot device.

Modern Zombie Fiction

Modern zombie fiction is more willing to incorporate freedom in the genre. Sometimes, stories don’t have to be horror (or survival horror) at all.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion and ‘A Girls’ Guide To Dating Zombies’ by Lynn Messina made zombies romantic.

Pride + Prejudice + Zombies introduced zombies for effect in a known classic work.

All kept the ‘zombie’ element, but played around with the rest.

The Last Word  

In this post, Writers Write explored what makes zombie fiction different from other, popular undead stories.

By Alex J. Coyne.  Alex is a writer, proofreader, and regular card player. His features about cards, bridge, and card playing have appeared in Great Bridge Links, Gifts for Card Players, Bridge Canada Magazine, and Caribbean Compass. Get in touch at  alexcoyneofficial.com .

If you enjoyed this, read other posts by Alex:

• Dirty Journalism: How Journalists Can Keep Research Legal
• How Writers Can Research Settings Remotely
• The Use Of Real People As Characters In Fiction
• 8 Proofreading Tricks (That Save Valuable Time)
• 7 Techniques Of The Faustian Story
• Famous Rejection Letters & Their Lessons For Other Writers
• 8 Self-Published Books (That Went Big)
• The Art Of The Complaint Letter
• 6 Bits Of Writing Advice From Authors’ Letters
• The Art Of Writing Fiction With Fewer Settings

Top Tip : Find out more about our  workbooks  and  online courses  in our  shop .

• Alex J. Coyne , Featured Post , Genre

© Writers Write 2022

How to Write a Zombie Story: One Dance at a Time

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on April 21, 2023

Categories Writing

So, you want to write a zombie story? Let’s face it; we’re all infected with the hunger for undead adventures. From classic zombie films like Night of the Living Dead to the modern-day mayhem of The Walking Dead , zombies have been making our hearts race (and sometimes stop) for decades. As you venture into the deliciously gory world of zombie lore, let us guide you through writing a story that keeps your reader (and zombies) hungry for more.

First, we must get our brains in gear and consider what makes a great zombie tale. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from shambling corpses, it’s persistence. Your story needs characters readers can root for, a dynamic plot, and just the right amount of gore. Above all, your zombies should be more than mindless, flesh-eating fiends – they should represent something more profound, like humanity’s deepest fears, societal decay, or even a really bad case of the Mondays.

Now that you’re just as excited as we are let’s grab our survival gear, barricade the doors, and jump right into crafting the perfect zombie story. From drawing inspiration and choosing the right narrative voice to embrace your inner Romero and delving into the darkest corners of your imagination, we’ve got your back every step of the way. Remember, when writing about the undead, the only limit is your brain – we mean imagination.

Zombie Origin

In crafting a compelling zombie story, one of our first considerations should be the origin – how did this whole mess begin? Let’s explore some classic and humorous options.

Classic Causes

When it comes to traditional zombie origins, there are a few tried-and-true avenues we can consider:

• Virus: A deadly virus, natural or lab-engineered, can turn victims into mindless, shambling horrors.
• Supernatural: Dark forces, such as curses or demonic possessions, provide a chilling rationale for the undead uprising. ‘
• Science gone wrong: Sometimes, experiments in reanimation or biological enhancements go horribly awry, unleashing an unstoppable horde of zombies.

Humorous Twists

For those of us looking to lighten the mood and take our readers on a humorous, tongue-in-cheek adventure, consider these unconventional zombie origins:

• Alien Cuisine: Extraterrestrial food critics visit Earth, accidentally turning humanity into zombie ingredients for their reality cooking show.
• Fashion Catastrophe: A new craze in cosmetic techniques unlocks an unforeseen side effect – customers end up craving brains instead of beauty.
• Zombified Pets: After a pet food company releases a new line of products, pets start transforming into zombies, taking their unsuspecting owners along for the ride.

With such a diverse range of possible origins at our disposal, we’re equipped to create an engaging and entertaining zombie story that will capture the imagination of our readers, regardless of our chosen narrative tone.

Character Development

When writing a zombie story, how we develop our characters is of utmost importance. Remember, even the most exciting zombie apocalypse can become a drag without intriguing characters. So let’s dive into some essential aspects of building unique survivors and zombies.

Survivors with Style

First and foremost, let’s talk about our living, breathing protagonists. Sure, the basic survival skills are essential, but their style sets them apart from your run-of-the-mill survivor. Think about their dress, manner of speech, and quirky habits.

For example, consider a survivor who sports a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt amid a zombie-infested urban landscape, cracking jokes that lighten the mood even as hordes of the undead close in. The point is to create memorable and relatable characters, making it easier for readers to invest in their journey.

• Consider unique backstories for your characters.
• Give them specific goals, desires, and fears.
• Add humorous or emotional elements to make them more relatable.

Zombies with Personality

Let’s not forget the other half of our cast: the undead. Sure, they may be brain-eating monsters, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a little personality. Sprinkle some variety into your zombie horde by giving them distinguishing traits that hint at who they were before becoming a mere morsel on a survivor’s menu.

Maybe there’s a zombie who can’t seem to shake off its former love for dance, shuffling around in a bizarre but oddly fascinating routine. Or perhaps a zombified security guard persists in its old duties, chasing after survivors who dare to trespass on its territory.

By giving our zombies some personality, we add a layer of dark humor to the story, making it far more enjoyable for our readers to sink their teeth into. After all, who wouldn’t get a chuckle out of seeing an undead accountant stumble around, clinging to a ragged briefcase?

Plot Points

As all good zombie stories go, our approach needs a little twist to keep readers engaged. Let’s break down the plot points for our zombified masterpiece.

Laughing Through The Apocalypse

Inspired by classics like “Shaun of the Dead” and “Zombieland,” our zombie story will combine wit and sarcasm amidst the chaos of an undead apocalypse . It’s important to balance horror with comic relief. Our characters need to crack jokes, engage in ridiculous situations, and maintain their sense of humor even when faced with certain doom.

To make this happen, let’s work on the following:

• Quick-witted dialogue with genuinely funny lines that don’t feel forced
• Embarrassing or comically awkward situations, like a character slipping and falling in a puddle (of ketchup, not blood)
• Physical comedy, like a zombie getting hit with a frying pan or a character’s pants falling unexpectedly

Comic Conflicts

Next, we’ll create comic conflicts to set our story apart from the standard brain-eating narratives. We can develop a unique cast of characters who, even in the apocalypse, can’t help but bicker and tease one another.

Here are some ideas for comical character conflicts:

• The protagonists meet other survivors with polar opposite personalities, resulting in hilarious clashes.
• Despite zombies threatening to devour them at any moment, our characters engage in petty arguments over something trivial, like who gets the last piece of chocolate.
• Miscommunications spark chaos, causing the truly ridiculous – like a character-driven game of telephone that turns an ordinary message into something outlandish and obscene.

With these plot points and comic situations in place, our zombie story will be an undead delight, giving readers a hilariously fresh take on the apocalypse.

Setting and World Building

When crafting our zombie story, we cannot stress the importance of setting and world-building enough. A properly thought-out and fleshed-out world will not only enhance the story’s terrifying, thrilling, and humorous atmosphere but also allow our colorful cast of characters to interact with the environment in wildly unpredictable ways. Let us delve into a couple of subsections:

Hilarious Havens

Starting with “Hilarious Havens,” these are the safe zones where our survivors take refuge and inject a bit of humor into an otherwise grim tale of survival. In these havens, it’s important to consider what remains intact in the old world that can be used for laugh-inducing relief.

For example:

• An overturned ice cream truck – why not serve up a sweet treat amid the chaos?
• A comedy club with a functioning sound system – perfect for impromptu stand-up sessions to break the tension.
• An antique store – characters can find outrageous outfits to wear to confuse the zombie hordes.

Wacky Wastelands

Now let us move on to “Wacky Wastelands.” In this desolate environment, we can still find those little pockets of absurdity that remind us, even in the darkest times, that life is indeed still mad. Wacky wastelands can include:

• A long-abandoned amusement park – imagine navigating a zombie-infested roller coaster or battling the undead inside a haunted house attraction.
• A petting zoo turned into a ragtag fortress – who wouldn’t want to ride into battle on a sturdy llama?
• An office environment – we’ve all experienced the drudgery of cubicle life, but throw in some zombies, and a stapler can become a hilarious weapon in a pinch.

Keeping these two approaches in mind during our setting and world-building will elevate our zombie story from a simple tale of survival to an unforgettable piece of apocalyptic hilarity. Don’t be afraid to experiment and let loose – after all; it’s the end of the world!

Writing Tips and Techniques

We’re here to convince you that writing a zombie story can be as amusing as it is spine-chilling. So get ready to dive into our tips to strike the perfect balance between horror and humor.

Balancing Humor and Horror

Let’s start by finding the right laugh-and-scream mix in our story. We’ll need to decide how serious (or unserious) we want our zombie apocalypse to be.

We must maintain a sense of danger to ensure our comedic moments don’t undermine the horror. We can use humor to lighten the mood but should remind our audience that zombies never stop being a threat.

When creating our characters, it’s essential to have a variety of personalities that will naturally bring out the humor. For example, mixing a tough-guy action hero with a lovable fool can produce great banter and survival moments when the zombie horde descends.

Using Puns and Satire

Puns and satire are our weapons for keeping our story entertaining. In the bleak world of a zombie apocalypse, a good pun can work wonders to break the tension, while satire can help us expose the absurdities that might accompany the end of the world. Imagine our hero saying, “ I must be losing my mind because these zombies seem deadly serious .”

• When it comes to using puns, we’ll want to sprinkle them throughout our story—but not overdo it. Timing is key. We don’t want our characters cracking jokes left and right while they’re in mortal danger. Remember, less is more.
• As for satire, it’s an excellent opportunity to poke fun at the conventions of the genre while still keeping our story engaging. We can satirize everything from governments’ responses to the outbreak to the ridiculous ways people try to survive.

There you have it—a few of our favorite techniques to pen a memorable and entertaining zombie story. Follow these tips and unleash your creativity while crafting the perfect blend of humor and horror. Good luck!

Writing a zombie story is a blast. We’ve covered everything from fleshing out your undead antagonists to crafting nail-biting conflicts that keep readers on the edge. All that’s left is to grab our pens, fire up our laptops, and let the creative juices flow!

We’re a fan of experimentation, so don’t be afraid to break the mold occasionally. Who says zombies must always be brain-munching monsters? Perhaps our reanimated friends could form a well-choreographed dance troupe or become dedicated environmentalists, cleaning up the toxic waste that created them in the first place.

Furthermore, use this opportunity to play with various story structures and themes. But remember, balance is key. Since we’re aiming for a light-hearted, whimsical tone, employ humor thoughtfully. After all, we wouldn’t want our zombie saga to become a detergent commercial, would we?

Lastly, enjoy the process. Embrace the absurdity and revel in the creative chaos. It’s our story, after all! Let’s take the world by storm together, one zombie dance routine at a time.

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Free Character Writing Prompts #16: Zombies

Grrr Arghh! Check out these 10 character writing prompts about zombies. After many years as a very defined character type, the zombie is making a comeback. When zombies first took over the cinema they were primarily mindless hordes that would stop at nothing to infect humans with their teeth and fingernails. Zombies made a brief turn in the 1993 movie My Boyfriend's Back as a comedic figure that maintained their minds and souls and were simply decaying and falling to pieces. A recent change in movies like 28 Days Later and video games like Dead Island have changed zombies to blisteringly fast animals that tear apart humans, spilling blood with enhanced speed. If we are to create a zombie film or story, let's have fun with the way these zombies are portrayed and how they came to be the undead way they are today.  Free Character Writing Prompts #16: Zombies

1. When he heard about the nationwide zombie attack, he knew that he would be attacked and infected. He was short, slow and he had little in the way of quick thinking. Long-term thinking, however, was his specialty as a neurological researcher. In a deep, underground lab, he submitted to be the guinea pig in a process that would literally block the virus from infecting parts of the brain with a microscopic protective coating. The process worked and when the facility was taken over, he was one of five people who had the hunger for blood but the ability to control it. How will he survive as a cognizant zombie in a world of brainless assailants?

2. He was a lover, not an eater. When he pushed his way out of the grave, he was afraid that he would attack and kill the ones he loved like he'd seen in the movies. He was surprised to find that all his mental facilities were still intact. Sure, he had to hunt down a deer or bear every so often to keep himself semi-alive, but that was more than worth it to be with his wife and children. His wife was hesitant at first and considering running away, but her husband was just as sweet as the day they'd met. He worked hard at a new job that was willing to hire the undead and they were able to keep the family together. How long will he be able to maintain this undead lifestyle before people begin to notice his eccentricities?

3. She had been the top of her class during her junior year of high school and she was gunning for valedictorian when a zombie attack began. She knew that it was inevitable that most people in the world would be infected, so she planned to go out on her own terms. She created a looping video tape for herself to try to make her remember her humanity and she hid deep within the school basement. After securing herself and starting the tape, she infected herself with zombie blood. For the first few months, she was a zombie like the rest of them, undead and craving blood. She had left herself some food close by and while it wasn't what her infected mind craved, it sustained her. Eventually, the video began to reach the zombie her and she started to remember who she was and regain her power to speak. Using her newfound reasoning, she used a cryptic message in the video to free herself. What ends up happening to this enlightened zombie?

4. Life was always a wild adventure for her and she was one of the most carefree girls you'd ever meet. She and her friends had gone well beyond a fenced in boundary of a U.S. Army facility when they heard the shockwave. A blast of green mist rushed past them and turned her into patient zero. She had a strong goal now, to attack anybody who did not resemble her and the zombie brigade drove off into town. They had a bit of their wits about them but knew that the only way they could survive was by infecting others. They started with small towns and slowly gathered up a convoy of zombies, driving across the country infecting everybody possible. She was the leader and though she couldn't speak, her howl got the troops in line when they were unfocused. Does her convoy succeed at taking over the country or will the humans prevail?

5. During his living days, he had a mental disability that confined him to a wheelchair and made it impossible for him to truly express his thoughts. When he was attacked and turned into a zombie, it didn't have the same effect on him as the others. He still had a hunger for blood, but while the others could no longer speak or reason, he was able to express himself and control his impulses. He determined correctly that if he could create his brain condition in others, the world might be salvageable. He found a friend who had the same situation and the two of them embarked on a scientific journey to change the chromosomes of the world. Though he couldn't talk when he was alive, he always appreciated the help that was given to him. He felt that it was time to give back. Is he successful with his plan to save the world or are they doomed?

6. When the living contained all of the undead in a single fenced-in area, they at first tried to cure the zombies, especially the biggest of them all who had endured quite a mutation. He was over seven-feet tall with muscles that could lift up a bus if needed. After cures were unsuccessful, the living tried to napalm the zombies to death, but it only turned them into angry, running fireballs and the largest one of all was the first to break through the fence. He picked up humans, tore into them and then tossed them over 20 feet away. He destroyed secondary barricades and angrily screamed to strike fear into the heart of the living. The other zombies soon rallied behind him and the path that he cleared. Will the humans be able to stop this huge, mutated zombie or will he alone begin the extinction process?

7. She was a complete pushover secretary when she was living, but when she was infected with a corrupting zombie virus, she gained a confidence she'd never felt before. She looked the same on the outside, but on the inside she craved the blood of all who'd wronged her in life, which took the form of everybody in her company. She locked down all the security systems and prepared for the hunt. She remembered who wronged her the most and she wanted to save them for last. When she was still breathing, she was a great observer of people and this allowed her to thwart most of their counterattacks. The first few kills were easy, but those higher up in the company knew that working together was their only hope. She destroyed the light system and the backup generator and now there was only silent waiting and hoping. What will happen during this frightening night in the building?

8. Her and her sorority sisters were the best of friends before the zombie attack. Now that she was infected during a routine day of sunbathing, she was both one of the most beautiful and hideous zombies on campus. She ran around terrorizing those who would have previously checked her out and turned away. Now, they ran as fast and as far as they could. A part of her didn't understand why this attention had changed so much and she felt slightly ashamed. This made her zombie self even angrier and she began to find weapons along the way and coat them with her blood. She didn't realize that this would make infecting her victims all the easier. Now some of her sisters are the only ones who can stop her. Will their best friend end up being the end of them all?

9. He was a zombie alright. He looked in the mirror and saw the slightly pale skin and the bloody mark from where he had been attacked. He washed it off and put a bandage on it. While most of the other zombies appeared to be ready to kill at sight, he felt no different at all. Maybe his mother was right when she said that he was special. He looked out the window and saw the streets overrun with zombie attacks. He wondered if there was something he could do as a sort of spy. He called the Federal Bureau of Investigation and told them his story. An average ticket taker at the local multiplex would now head up an operation to destroy all zombies. He snuck around undetected and though the other zombies thought it was strange that he was constantly on a cell phone, they could see he was infected and left him alone. How successful will his mission be and will he encounter any more like him?

10. When nearly all of humanity was overrun by zombies, she was their final hope. As one of the first zombies, she was one of the most pure samples of the virus, which was most able to be manipulated. Her mind was altered with a computer that changed her primary target. She would infect zombies with a new virus, one that restored their humanity. They experimented and found that most zombies were no match for her and they returned to human form within a few hours. She was the true anti-zombie and since the facility was overrun before more could be made, it was her versus a world worth of zombies. She smiled after infected each fortunate victim like a feral cavewoman and deep down she wondered what would happen if she was successful. Does the anti-zombie succeed? Describe some of her battles against the hordes she will encounter.  Did you enjoy these character writing prompts?  Buy the full book of 1,000 Character Writing Prompts on Amazon!   Done with Character Writing Prompts about Zombies? Go back to Creative Writing Prompts.  

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199+ Zombie Name Ideas for Your Story [Funny, Scary, or Creepy!]

Are you looking for a good name for a zombie?

You’re in the right place! I’m a horror author and filmmaker, and I’ve had tons of experience figuring out good names for monsters! In this article, I’ve listed out a bunch of different ideas for zombie names, organized by the type of zombie you might be writing.

We’ll start with scary zombie names, then move on to campy names, historical names, and many more. Let’s get into the best zombie name ideas!

What Are the Best Zombie Name Ideas?

Let’s get into my favorite names for a zombie – I hope you find something that you like! Feel free to mix and match the names to come up with something uniquely yours.

Scary Zombie Names

Names designed to chill the blood, perfect for your most fearsome undead.

Rancor Shroud : Rancor, a feeling of deep-seated resentment or ill-will, suggests the zombies’ relentless hostility. Shroud, a cloth used to wrap a body for burial, ties into the theme of death.

Morose Abyss : Morose, sullen and gloomy, reflects the despairing mood of a zombie apocalypse. Abyss, a bottomless pit, represents the seemingly hopeless situation.

Bane Hollow : Bane, a cause of great distress or annoyance, speaks to the relentless threat posed by zombies. Hollow, having a hole or empty space inside, could refer to the emptiness within the zombies themselves.

Venom Skein : Venom, a poisonous substance, alludes to the deadly bite of a zombie. Skein, a length of thread or yarn, loosely coiled and knotted, could symbolize the twisted nature of these creatures.

Torment Woe : Torment, severe physical or mental suffering, captures the horror of being pursued by zombies. Woe, great sorrow, or distress resonates with the fear they inspire.

Gruesome Lurk : Gruesome, causing repulsion or horror, is an apt descriptor for zombies. Lurk, remain hidden so as to wait in ambush, reflects their predatory nature.

Cruor Phantom : Cruor, the watery part of blood that remains after clotting, references the gore associated with zombies. Phantom, a ghost, fits the undead theme.

Dread Gloom : Dread, anticipate with great apprehension or fear, encapsulates the terror of encountering a zombie. Gloom, partial or total darkness, adds to the ominous atmosphere.

Vile Omen : Vile, extremely unpleasant, accurately describes the revolting appearance of zombies. Omen, an event seen as portending good or evil, suggests the catastrophic consequences of their appearance.

Sanguine Specter : Sanguine, blood-red, points to the bloody violence caused by zombies. Specter, a ghost, again plays into the undead theme.

Apocalyptic Zombie Names

Names fit for a world overrun by zombies—words that suggest the end of times.

RuinWraith : Merging ‘Ruin’, signifying widespread destruction, with ‘Wraith’, a ghostly entity, to suggest a spirit born from the ashes of devastation.

Doomghast : Combining ‘Doom’, indicating a grim fate or the end of the world, with ‘ghast’, a ghostly figure, to portray a harbinger of the apocalypse.

Desolaghoul : ‘Desola’, derived from ‘Desolate’, suggesting a state of bleak and dismal emptiness, fused with ‘ghoul’, depicting a creature thriving in desolation.

CataclysmSpectre : ‘Cataclysm’, denoting a large-scale and violent event in the natural world, combined with ‘Spectre’, suggesting a ghostly presence emerging from chaos.

Endshade : Merging ‘End’, signifying the conclusion or finality, with ‘shade’, to imply a shadowy figure embodying the end of times.

HavocHaunt : ‘Havoc’, denoting widespread destruction, combined with ‘Haunt’, suggesting a spirit that embodies or thrives in the chaos of destruction.

RagnarokRevenant : Using ‘Ragnarok’, the Norse mythology term for the end of the world, combined with ‘Revenant’, to depict an undead being from Norse end-of-times lore.

ArmageddonWight : ‘Armageddon’, the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, fused with ‘Wight’, to suggest a creature born of the final battle.

Obliviongeist : Combining ‘Oblivion’, the state of being forgotten or unknown, with ‘geist’, German for spirit, to portray a spirit lost or born in the void of forgetfulness.

NihilShade : ‘Nihil’, from ‘Nihilism’, the belief that life is meaningless, merged with ‘shade’, suggesting a spectral figure embodying the void of meaning in a post-apocalyptic world.

Ashen Decay : Ashen, meaning pale and ghost-like, reflects the lifeless nature of zombies. Decay is a clear reference to their decomposing bodies.

Ruin Wraith : Ruin denotes the destruction caused by the zombie apocalypse. Wraith, a ghostly figure, mirrors the eerie and haunting presence of zombies.

Carrion Requiem : Carrion, the decaying flesh of dead animals, alludes to the grotesque diet of zombies. Requiem, a song for the dead, adds a mournful touch.

Grave Dusk : Grave is a direct reference to death and burial, common themes in any zombie story. Dusk, the darker part of twilight, symbolizes the end of the day or the end of times.

Crimson Desolation : Crimson can represent the bloodshed caused by zombies. Desolation, a state of complete emptiness, reflects the bleakness of a post-apocalyptic world.

Ghoul Eclipse : Ghoul, a monster that robs graves and feeds on corpses, is another name for a zombie. Eclipse, an event when a celestial body is obscured, represents the darkening of the world.

RELATED: If you’re writing a zombie story or movie and need some help with brainstorming, click here for my list of zombie story ideas !

Campy or Funny Zombie Names

These names are light-hearted and humorous, and they add a playful twist to the concept of the undead.

Nibbler Norris : Nibbler, suggesting the zombie’s eating style, adds a playful touch. Norris is a common name that makes the character feel more familiar and less menacing.

Stumbling Stanley : The alliteration makes this name catchy, and stumbling is a classic zombie movement. Stanley adds a touch of old-fashioned charm.

Chomper Charlie : Chomper suggests the zombie’s constant gnawing, while Charlie is a friendly, relatable name that lightens the mood.

Giggling Gregor : This name combines the horrifying with the absurd. Zombies are typically silent, so the idea of one giggling is both funny and slightly unnerving.

Lurching Larry : Here, the slow, awkward movement of zombies is paired with the name Larry for a humorous effect. It’s easy to picture Lurching Larry comically stumbling around.

Munchkin Marvin : Munchkin adds a humorous twist, suggesting this zombie is small or cute in some way. Marvin is an ordinary name that contrasts with the horror of zombies.

Waltzing Wilma : Zombies are known for their shuffling walk, so the idea of one waltzing is amusing. Wilma adds a touch of femininity and old-world charm.

Biting Bertie : Biting is a typical zombie behavior, but when combined with the friendly-sounding Bertie, it becomes less scary and more entertaining.

Shambling Sheila : Shambling describes the clumsy, dragging walk of zombies. Sheila is a common name that adds a touch of normality and humor.

Gnashing Gary : Gnashing, the act of grinding the teeth together, is a classic zombie trait. Paired with a common name like Gary, it becomes more comical than terrifying.

Historical Zombie Names

Names that refer to different time periods – they provide additional richness and background.

PharaohGhast : Merging ‘Pharaoh’, the rulers of ancient Egypt, with ‘Ghast’, suggesting a royal undead spirit from the sands of time.

KnightShade : Combining ‘Knight’, medieval warriors bound by honor and duty, with ‘Shade’, implying a ghostly knight lingering in the shadows of history.

SamuraiSpectre : ‘Samurai’, the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan, fused with ‘Spectre’, suggesting an undead warrior still bound by the Bushido code.

VikingDraugr : Using ‘Viking’, the seafaring warriors from Norse mythology, with ‘Draugr’, undead creatures from the same lore, to depict a fearsome undead Viking warrior.

CaesarWraith : ‘Caesar’, a title used by Roman emperors, combined with ‘Wraith’, suggesting the spirit of a fallen leader haunting the ruins of the empire.

SpartanRevenant : Merging ‘Spartan’, known for their martial prowess in ancient Greece, with ‘Revenant’, indicating a warrior returned from the dead to stand guard over Sparta once more.

MingMort : Combining ‘Ming’, referring to the Ming Dynasty, a period of cultural restoration and expansion in China, with ‘Mort’, French for death, suggesting an undead from a time of artistic flourishing.

AztecShade : ‘Aztec’, the Mesoamerican culture known for their architectural and artistic accomplishments, combined with ‘Shade’, implying an undead being from the ancient Aztec civilization.

CrusaderGhoul : ‘Crusader’, warriors of the medieval Crusades, merged with ‘Ghoul’, suggesting an undead warrior still embroiled in the eternal battle for the Holy Land.

Stonehenge Silas: Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in England that introduces a sense of mystery and antiquity. Silas is an old name that adds to this historical feel.

Blackbeard’s Banshee : Blackbeard was a notorious English pirate, and a banshee is a mythological creature associated with death. This name would be perfect for a swashbuckling zombie character.

Dreadful Da Vinci : Leonardo Da Vinci was a famous Italian polymath during the Renaissance. The ‘Dreadful’ part adds a playful, horror twist.

Terrifying Tesla : Nikola Tesla was a renowned inventor and engineer. The ‘Terrifying’ prefix injects some humor and horror into his historically significant name.

Mythical Zombie Names

These names, inspired by mythology, add an epic touch to your zombies.

Amara Okoro : ‘Amara’, meaning grace in Igbo (a Nigerian language), paired with ‘Okoro’, which signifies a man of high status or a free man in the same language.

Mateo Navarro : ‘Mateo’, a Spanish variant of Matthew, meaning gift of God, coupled with ‘Navarro’, a Spanish surname indicating someone from the Navarre region.

Anika Patel : ‘Anika’, derived from Sanskrit, meaning graceful, paired with ‘Patel’, a common Gujarati surname meaning village chief.

Kai Leung : ‘Kai’, meaning victory in Mandarin, coupled with ‘Leung’, a Cantonese surname meaning good or bright.

Lena Kovač : ‘Lena’, a name of Greek origin meaning light or torch, paired with ‘Kovač’, a South Slavic surname meaning blacksmith.

Johan Fuchs : ‘Johan’, a German variant of John, meaning God is gracious, coupled with ‘Fuchs’, a German surname meaning fox, often associated with cleverness.

Mira Bhat : ‘Mira’, derived from Sanskrit, meaning ocean or sea, paired with ‘Bhat’, a common surname in Kashmiri and other Indian languages, often denoting a scholar.

Tomas Rosario : ‘Tomas’, a Spanish and Portuguese form of Thomas, meaning twin, coupled with ‘Rosario’, a surname of Spanish origin meaning rosary.

Yara Da Silva : ‘Yara’, an indigenous Brazilian name meaning lady of the water, paired with ‘Da Silva’, a common Portuguese surname meaning of the forest.

Emil Ivanov : ‘Emil’, of Latin origin meaning rival, paired with ‘Ivanov’, a common Bulgarian and Russian surname meaning son of Ivan.

Minotaur Morrigan : The Minotaur is a mythical creature from Greek mythology, while Morrigan is a goddess from Irish mythology associated with fate and death. This name suggests a powerful, fearsome zombie.

Gorgon Galadriel : Gorgons are monstrous beings from Greek mythology, and Galadriel is an elf queen from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. This name paints a picture of a terrifying yet regal zombie.

Lycan Loki : Lycans are werewolves from folklore, and Loki is a trickster god from Norse mythology. This name suggests a zombie that is cunning and perhaps a bit wild.

Kraken Kali : The Kraken is a giant sea monster from Scandinavian folklore, and Kali is a Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction. This name hints at a formidable, destructive zombie.

Siren Sigurd : Sirens are creatures from Greek mythology who lured sailors to their deaths with their enchanting music, and Sigurd is a legendary hero from Norse mythology. This name suggests a zombie that is both alluring and heroic.

Cyclops Cuchulainn : Cyclopes are one-eyed giants from Greek mythology, and Cuchulainn is a hero from Irish mythology known for his great strength. This name suggests a zombie of considerable size and power.

Fenrir Freya : Fenrir is a monstrous wolf from Norse mythology, and Freya is a Norse goddess associated with love and beauty. This name suggests a zombie that is both beastly and beautiful.

Nature-Inspired Zombie Names

Names derived from the natural world are suitable for zombies with elemental traits.

CedarGloom : ‘Cedar’, a resilient and aromatic tree known for its strength, combined with ‘Gloom’, suggesting a somber, shadowy presence reminiscent of a cedar forest at dusk.

BrambleWraith : ‘Bramble’, referring to a wild, thorny bush, paired with ‘Wraith’, evoking the image of a thorny, untamed spirit wandering the wilds.

Stormshade : ‘Storm’, representing the raw power and unpredictability of nature, coupled with ‘Shade’, suggesting a spectral figure born from tempestuous forces.

IvySpectre : ‘Ivy’, a plant known for its ability to cling and entwine, combined with ‘Spectre’, depicting a ghostly entity that entangles and ensnares.

Frostghast : ‘Frost’, indicating the cold, biting edge of winter, fused with ‘ghast’, suggesting a chilling, ghostly presence that brings a frosty touch.

Galephantom : ‘Gale’, a strong wind, paired with ‘Phantom’, evoking the image of a swiftly moving, unseen force, like a wind that howls through abandoned places.

Thornrevenant : ‘Thorn’, symbolizing defense and resilience in nature, coupled with ‘Revenant’, suggesting an undead being that protects and defends its domain with a thorny embrace.

Mossgeist : ‘Moss’, a symbol of growth and life in damp, shadowy places, combined with ‘geist’, German for spirit, depicting a spirit that thrives in the stillness of shaded, moss-covered locales.

Riverrun : ‘River’, representing the ever-flowing, life-giving force of water, fused with ‘Run’, suggesting a spirit that moves with the ceaseless flow of the river, embodying the fluidity and persistence of water.

Flarewight : ‘Flare’, indicating a sudden burst of flame or light, paired with ‘Wight’, an old term for a creature or being, suggesting a being ignited by an inner flame, wandering the earth with a flickering, ghostly light.

Mesa Marigold : Mesas are flat-topped hills with steep sides, and Marigolds are flowers often used in Day of the Dead celebrations. This name suggests a zombie that stands tall and proud, despite its association with death.

Vortex Verbena : Vortex refers to a whirlwind or hurricane, and Verbena is a plant historically used in protective spells. This zombie name suggests a whirlwind of activity and a protective nature.

Glacier Gardenia : Glaciers are slow-moving masses of ice, and Gardenias are fragrant white flowers often associated with secret love. This name implies a zombie that moves slowly but relentlessly, harboring hidden intentions.

Caldera Calla : Calderas are large volcanic craters, and Calla Lilies are elegant flowers associated with funerals. This name suggests a zombie with a volatile nature and a connection to death.

Savanna Sage : Savannas are grasslands with scattered trees, and Sage is a plant associated with wisdom and healing. This zombie name suggests a wise, healing presence amidst the desolation.

Vengeful Zombie Names

For zombies consumed by a thirst for revenge, driven by a relentless and dark purpose.

Nemesis Qarin : ‘Nemesis’, the Greek goddess of retribution, combined with ‘Qarin’, derived from Middle Eastern folklore, referring to a spirit counterpart or an unseen twin, suggesting an avenging spirit bound to its nemesis.

Furor Vetala : ‘Furor’, Latin for frenzy or rage, paired with ‘Vetala’, a supernatural entity in Hindu mythology known for inhabiting and animating corpses, suggesting a frenzied spirit seeking vengeance through the undead.

Groll Spectr : ‘Groll’, from the German word for grudge or resentment, fused with ‘Spectr’, a play on ‘spectre’, evoking the image of a ghostly figure driven by deep-seated grudges.

Rancar Zilant : ‘Rancar’, a creative twist on ‘rancor’, indicating deep-seated bitterness, combined with ‘Zilant’, a mythical creature from Tatar folklore, symbolizing a vengeful spirit guarding forbidden secrets.

Vendetta Dybbuk : ‘Vendetta’, implying a prolonged campaign of vengeance, paired with ‘Dybbuk’, a malicious possessing spirit from Jewish mythology, suggesting a relentless pursuit of revenge from beyond the grave.

Ira Phooka : ‘Ira’, Latin for wrath, fused with ‘Phooka’, from Irish folklore, a shape-shifting spirit known for its malevolent tricks, suggesting a wrathful spirit capable of deceptive transformations.

Despecho Ghul : ‘Despecho’, Spanish for spite or resentment, combined with ‘Ghul’, from ‘ghoul’, a creature that preys on the dead, suggesting a being consumed by spite and feeding on vengeance.

Keksekhmet : Combining ‘Kek’, the ancient Egyptian god of darkness, with ‘Sekhmet’, the goddess of war and vengeance, suggesting a divine embodiment of retribution and the night.

Atritas Draug : ‘Atritas’, from ‘atritus’, Latin for worn or eroded by friction, suggesting a spirit worn by relentless vengeance, paired with ‘Draug’, from Norse mythology, an undead being, indicating a tireless avenger from the ancient north.

Cholerix Onryo : ‘Cholerix’, derived from ‘choleric’, meaning easily angered, combined with ‘Onryo’, a vengeful ghost from Japanese folklore, known to cause harm in the world of the living, suggesting a spirit whose anger transcends death.

Wrath Wraith : The name Wrath suggests intense anger, and Wraith is another term for ghost or spirit, often seeking revenge. This zombie name implies a spirit driven by intense anger and the desire for vengeance.

Vex Venom : Vex means to irritate or provoke, and Venom represents harmful influence or bitterness. This name suggests a zombie that provokes others and carries a bitter grudge.

Rancor Reaper : Rancor stands for long-lasting resentment, and Reaper is a reference to the Grim Reaper. This name implies a zombie carrying a deep-seated grudge and associated with death.

Rage Revenant : Rage signifies violent, uncontrollable anger, and Revenant is a term for someone who has returned, especially from the dead. This zombie name implies a figure returned from the dead, driven by uncontrollable anger.

Cyber Zombie Names

Names for a future scenario that perfectly blends technology with the undead.

Byte Bane : ‘Byte’ is a basic unit of information in computing, and ‘Bane’ suggests something that brings death or destruction. This name implies a zombie that brings destruction through technology.

Cyber Crypt : ‘Cyber’ relates to computers and virtual reality, while ‘Crypt’ is a tomb or vault. This name suggests a zombie that exists within the digital realm.

Nano Necromorph : ‘Nano’ refers to nanotechnology, and ‘Necromorph’ suggests a shape derived from the dead. This name implies a zombie created or controlled through nanotechnology.

Quantum Quake : ‘Quantum’ relates to quantum mechanics or computing, while ‘Quake’ suggests shaking or trembling. This name suggests a zombie that brings about a significant shift or change through advanced technology.

Pixel Phantom : ‘Pixel’ is the smallest unit of a digital image, and ‘Phantom’ is a ghost or apparition. This name implies a ghostly figure existing within the digital world.

Data Dread : ‘Data’ relates to facts and statistics collected for reference or analysis, and ‘Dread’ suggests great fear or apprehension. This name implies a zombie that instills fear through its control or manipulation of data.

Matrix Marauder : ‘Matrix’ refers to a complex network or environment, and ‘Maurader’ suggests a raider or pillager. This name implies a zombie that raids or attacks within a complex digital environment.

Terabyte Terror : ‘Terabyte’ is a unit of information in computing, and ‘Terror’ suggests extreme fear. This name implies a zombie that brings about extreme fear through its vast amount of digital information or power.

Silicon Specter : ‘Silicon’ is a key component in electronics and computer chips, and ‘Specter’ is a ghost or apparition. This name suggests a ghostly figure that exists within or because of technology.

Circuit Corpse : ‘Circuit’ relates to an electrical network, and ‘Corpse’ is a dead body. This name implies a zombie that exists or functions due to an electrical or digital network.

Child Zombie Names

Innocent yet eerie, these names suit the younger members of the undead.

Daisy Decay : ‘Daisy’ is a common, innocent child’s name, and ‘Decay’ refers to the process of rotting. This name juxtaposes innocence with the eerie nature of zombies.

Pebble Pallor : ‘Pebble’ is something small and harmless, like a child, and ‘Pallor’ refers to an unhealthy pale appearance, often associated with the undead.

Lily Lurker : ‘Lily’ is another common, sweet child’s name, and ‘Lurker’ suggests something scary that hides in the shadows, creating an eerie contrast.

Sunny Specter : ‘Sunny’ exudes warmth and happiness, while ‘Specter’ is a ghostly apparition, combining the notion of a cheerful child with the creepiness of a ghost.

Rosie Revenant : ‘Rosie’ is a cute, playful name, and ‘Revenant’ is a creature that has returned from the dead, blending playfulness with horror.

Buddy Banshee : ‘Buddy’ is a friendly term for a companion, and ‘Banshee’ is a mythological figure known for its eerie wailing, creating a chilling contrast.

Poppet Phantom : ‘Poppet’ is an endearing term for a young child, and ‘Phantom’ is a ghost or apparition, contrasting the innocence of childhood with the eeriness of the undead.

Cherry Chiller : ‘Cherry’ is a sweet and innocent name, while ‘Chiller’ suggests something that causes fear or horror, combining sweetness with fear.

Junior Jinx : ‘Junior’ is a term often used for children, and ‘Jinx’ refers to a person or thing that brings bad luck, juxtaposing the harmlessness of a child with the ominous nature of a jinx.

Moppet Morose : ‘Moppet’ is another term for a child, and ‘Morose’ suggests a gloomy or sullen demeanor, contrasting the joyful nature of children with the gloominess of zombies.

Girl Zombie Names

Feminine names that combine the elegant with the sinister.

Ivy Insidious : ‘Ivy’ is a beautiful name often associated with nature and elegance, while ‘Insidious’ implies an evil or harmful presence that spreads gradually, making it apt for a female zombie.

Luna Lament : ‘Luna’, meaning moon, is an elegant name, and ‘Lament’ signifies a mournful cry, fitting for a sorrowful undead girl.

Amaryllis Abyss : ‘Amaryllis’ is a delicate, feminine name, while ‘Abyss’ implies a deep and seemingly bottomless pit, suggesting the depth of her undead state.

Seraphina Specter : ‘Seraphina’ is an angelic name, while ‘Specter’ refers to a ghostly figure, combining heavenly beauty with ghostly horror.

Aurelia Akuji : ‘Aurelia’, meaning golden, is a regal and elegant name, while ‘Akuji’ means ‘dead and awake’, perfectly describing a zombie.

Violet Vex : ‘Violet’ is a sweet and elegant name, while ‘Vex’ implies irritation or annoyance, suiting a zombie that causes unease.

Rosalind Revenant : ‘Rosalind’, meaning beautiful rose, is a classic, elegant name, while ‘Revenant’ refers to one who has returned from the dead, fitting a zombie girl.

Evangeline Eerie : ‘Evangeline’, meaning bearer of good news, is a graceful name, and ‘Eerie’ suggests something strange and frightening, creating an intriguing contrast.

Celestia Cadaver : ‘Celestia’, meaning heavenly, is an elegant name, while ‘Cadaver’ refers to a corpse, creating a chilling juxtaposition.

Arabella Apparition : ‘Arabella’, meaning yielding to prayer, is a sophisticated name, while ‘Apparition’ refers to a ghost or phantom, combining elegance with the supernatural.

Royal Zombie Names

Names with a regal flair – for zombies who were once kings, queens, or nobles.

Rexmortis : Combining ‘Rex’, Latin for king, with ‘mortis’, Latin for death, suggesting a king who reigns beyond death.

Reginaumbra : Merging ‘Regina’, Latin for queen, with ‘umbra’, Latin for shadow, implying a queenly figure veiled in the shadows of undeath.

Nobleghast : ‘Noble’, denoting high social status, combined with ‘ghast’, a ghostly being, for a noble spirit lingering in the undead realm.

Ducantomb : From ‘Ducan’, a variation of ‘duke’, with ‘tomb’, suggesting a duke’s presence bound to his tomb.

Baronwraith : ‘Baron’, a rank of nobility, merged with ‘wraith’, a ghostly entity, portraying a noble spirit haunting the realm of the living.

Crownshade : ‘Crown’, symbolizing royal authority, combined with ‘shade’, indicating a spectral figure, for a royal presence that lingers in the shadows.

Sovereignspectre : ‘Sovereign’, denoting supreme ruler, with ‘spectre’, a ghostly apparition, suggesting an undead ruler with lingering dominion.

Aristoghoule : Blending ‘Aristo’, from ‘aristocrat’, with ‘ghoule’, a variant of ‘ghoul’, for a high-born undead with a taste for the finer things, even in death.

Thronemort : From ‘Throne’, the seat of royal power, combined with ‘mort’, French for death, indicating a ruler bound to their throne beyond life.

Imperialgeist : ‘Imperial’, relating to an empire or emperor, with ‘geist’, German for spirit, for an imperial entity that commands attention even in the afterlife.

Kingston Carrion : ‘Kingston’ implies royal stature, while ‘Carrion’ refers to the decaying flesh of dead animals, often associated with zombies.

Duchess Decay : ‘Duchess’ is a high-ranking title in nobility, while ‘Decay’ signifies the decomposing state of a zombie.

Baron Bloodlust : ‘Baron’ is a title of honor, often of noble or royal descent. ‘Bloodlust’ suggests an intense desire for blood, fitting for a royal zombie.

Queen Quagmire : ‘Queen’ is a regal title, while ‘Quagmire’ represents a dangerous or difficult situation, symbolizing the predicament of being a zombie.

Emperor Ectoplasm : ‘Emperor’ is a sovereign ruler of great power, while ‘Ectoplasm’ is a substance believed to emanate from the physical bodies of the undead.

Viscount Vile : ‘Viscount’ is a British noble ranking below an earl and above a baron. ‘Vile’ suggests foulness and disgust, apt for a zombie.

Lady Lich : ‘Lady’ is a polite or formal title for a woman, often of noble birth. ‘Lich’ is a term for a type of undead creature.

Prince Pestilence : ‘Prince’ is a male member of a royal family. ‘Pestilence’ signifies a deadly epidemic, fitting for a zombie spreading disease.

Earl Eerie : ‘Earl’ is a British noble ranking below a marquis and above a viscount. ‘Eerie’ denotes something strange and frightening, suitable for a zombie.

Marquess Mortis : ‘Marquess’ is a rank of nobility in the British peerage. ‘Mortis’ is derived from the Latin word for death, making it apt for a zombie.

Fantasy Zombie Names

Names that fit into high fantasy settings, imbued with magic and lore.

SihirMort : Combining ‘Sihir’, the Turkish word for magic, with ‘Mort’, from the French for death, suggesting a magically animated undead.

Druidgha : Merging ‘Druid’, from the Celtic priest class known for their connection to nature and the supernatural, with ‘gha’ from ‘ghast’, creating a mystical nature-bound zombie.

Arcanecorps : From ‘Arcane’, meaning mysterious or secret, and ‘corps’, French for body, indicating a body animated by arcane forces.

Feyspawn : ‘Fey’, referring to mythical, fairy-like beings of folklore, combined with ‘spawn’, suggesting a zombie with ethereal, otherworldly qualities.

Necrogeist : ‘Necro’, from the Greek ‘nekros’ for dead, and ‘geist’, German for spirit, portraying a spectral figure with necromantic origins.

ManaMorte : Blending ‘Mana’, a term used in fantasy settings to denote magical power, with ‘Morte’, Italian for death, suggesting a zombie animated by magical energies.

Enchantghoul : Combining ‘Enchant’, suggesting magical enchantment, with ‘ghoul’, for a creature enchanted or cursed into undeath.

Hexwight : ‘Hex’, from the German ‘Hexe’ meaning witch or to cast a spell, fused with ‘wight’, an old term for a creature, suggesting a zombie cursed or created through witchcraft.

Mystshade : Merging ‘Myst’, short for mystical or mystery, with ‘shade’, indicating a shadowy figure with mysterious powers.

Runerevenant : ‘Rune’, ancient symbols with magical significance, combined with ‘revenant’, meaning one who has returned from the dead, for a zombie imbued with runic magic.

Thorngrim Rotmantle : ‘Thorngrim’ sounds mythical and powerful, while ‘Rotmantle’ suggests a cloak of decay, blending fantasy and zombie elements.

Mystwind Fleshweaver : ‘Mystwind’ carries an air of enchantment, while ‘Fleshweaver’ hints at the macabre aspect of reanimating the dead.

Runeclaw Necrothane : ‘Runeclaw’ implies magical prowess, while ‘Necrothane’ combines necromancy and thane, a medieval lord, symbolizing a leader among the undead.

Duskthane Wightlord : ‘Duskthane’ combines dusk and thane, suggesting a lord of twilight. ‘Wightlord’ implies a ruler among wights or undead creatures, particularly in high fantasy settings.

Warrior Zombie Names

Names fit for fighters and undead troops that convey a sense of martial power.

Kriegergeist Battlemourn : ‘Kriegergeist’ fuses ‘Krieger’, German for warrior, with ‘Geist’, meaning spirit, depicting a warrior’s ghost. ‘Battlemourn’ combines ‘Battle’, signifying combat, with ‘Mourn’, indicating a lament for the fallen, suggesting a fighter who mourns the perpetual conflict of the undead.

FeroxShade Warcry : ‘FeroxShade’ blends ‘Ferox’, Latin for fierce, with ‘Shade’, indicating a spectral presence, suggesting a fierce and shadowy warrior. ‘Warcry’ signifies the battle shout of a warrior, emphasizing aggression and the rallying of troops.

SpartanWight Shieldrend : ‘SpartanWight’ combines ‘Spartan’, known for their military prowess in ancient Greece, with ‘Wight’, an old term for a creature or being, suggesting an undead warrior of Spartan discipline. ‘Shieldrend’ merges ‘Shield’, a defensive armament, with ‘Rend’, meaning to tear or split, implying a force capable of breaking through defenses.

BerserkGhoul Ragegeist : ‘BerserkGhoul’ combines ‘Berserk’, referencing Norse warriors who fought in a trance-like fury, with ‘Ghoul’, suggesting a ferocious undead fighter. ‘Ragegeist’ fuses ‘Rage’, indicating intense anger, with ‘Geist’, meaning ghost, portraying a spirit consumed by battle fury.

VikingDraugr Axeveil : ‘VikingDraugr’ fuses ‘Viking’, the seafaring warriors from Norse mythology, with ‘Draugr’, undead creatures from the same lore, suggesting a fearsome undead Viking. ‘Axeveil’ combines ‘Axe’, a Viking weapon of choice, with ‘Veil’, suggesting a shrouded figure wielding an axe.

Battlegrim Skullcrusher : ‘Battlegrim’ combines battle and grim, suggesting a serious, fierce warrior. ‘Skullcrusher’ implies a brutal combat style fitting for a zombie.

Warshroud Bonecleaver : ‘Warshroud’ evokes an image of a warrior cloaked in the chaos of war, while ‘Bonecleaver’ suggests a weapon capable of slicing through bone.

Ironhaunt Gravemauler : ‘Ironhaunt’ combines the toughness of iron and the ghostliness of a haunt, symbolizing an unyielding undead warrior. ‘Gravemauler’ hints at a destructive force on the battlefield.

Swordwraith Deathbringer : ‘Swordwraith’ conveys a spectral warrior wielding a sword, while ‘Deathbringer’ is a clear statement of intent – bringing death to enemies.

Goreveil Warghoul : ‘Goreveil’ suggests a veil or cover of blood, implying a bloody warrior. ‘Warghoul’ combines war and ghoul, representing a warrior among the undead.

Warfang Blooddrinker : ‘Warfang’ implies a warrior with fangs ready for war, while ‘Blooddrinker’ adds a vampiric twist to the zombie warrior.

Runeblade Skullreaper : ‘Runeblade’ suggests a warrior wielding a magical or enchanted blade. ‘Skullreaper’ implies a harvester of skulls, a grim metaphor for taking lives in battle.

Stormwraith Bonebreaker : ‘Stormwraith’ combines the fury of a storm with the spectral nature of a wraith, while ‘Bonebreaker’ suggests a powerful, brutal warrior.

Cursed Zombie Names

Names that suggest a dark fate or a curse – hinting at tragic backstories.

MoiraGhast : ‘Moira’, from the Greek Μοῖραι (Moirai), referring to the Fates who controlled the destiny of both mortals and gods, combined with ‘Ghast’, a term for ghostly beings, suggesting a fate-bound spirit.

DoloreWight : ‘Dolore’, Italian for sorrow, merged with ‘Wight’, an old term for a creature or being, hinting at a sorrowful existence and cursed fate.

MalisonMute : ‘Malison’, an archaic term for a curse, combined with ‘Mute’, suggesting a being silenced by its dark destiny.

TristShade : ‘Trist’, from ‘triste’, French for sad, fused with ‘Shade’, indicating a shadowy figure marked by sadness and misfortune.

Grimbane Revenant : ‘Grimbane’, combining ‘Grim’, as in grim fate, with ‘bane’, meaning a cause of great distress, merged with ‘Revenant’, a term for one who has returned, especially from the dead, suggesting a being marked by a dark and distressing return.

Sorrowgeist Doomloom : ‘Sorrowgeist’, blending ‘Sorrow’ with ‘Geist’, German for ghost, creating an image of a sorrowful spirit. ‘Doomloom’, combining ‘Doom’, a term for a dire fate, with ‘Loom’, suggesting an impending and inescapable destiny.

CruorSpectre : ‘Cruor’, Latin for blood, suggesting violence or bloodshed, fused with ‘Spectre’, a term for a ghostly apparition, hinting at a blood-tainted spirit.

Dirgeborn Blightwraith : ‘Dirgeborn’, combining ‘Dirge’, a lament for the dead, with ‘born’, indicating one born of lamentation. ‘Blightwraith’, merging ‘Blight’, a term for a plague or curse, with ‘Wraith’, suggesting a spectral figure born of affliction.

FatumHaunt : ‘Fatum’, Latin for fate, particularly a dire or fateful decree, combined with ‘Haunt’, indicating a presence marked by its inescapable destiny.

LugubrumReave : ‘Lugubrum’, from ‘lugubrious’, meaning mournful or gloomy, particularly in an exaggerated or unrelieved manner, combined with ‘Reave’, an archaic term meaning to bring to ruin, suggesting a being enveloped in gloom and destined for ruin.

Shadowsorrow Doomwrought : ‘Shadowsorrow’ suggests a creature born of shadow and sorrow. ‘Doomwrought’ implies they were shaped by a terrible fate or curse.

Cursebind Woebringer : ‘Cursebind’ implies a deep connection with curses, while ‘Woebringer’ indicates that they bring misfortune wherever they go.

Griefshade Hexcaster : ‘Griefshade’ suggests a creature cloaked in sadness, while ‘Hexcaster’ points to the ability to cast curses or hexes.

Banesoul Lamentwalker : ‘Banesoul’ implies a soul cursed or poisoned by misfortune. ‘Lamentwalker’ suggests a constant state of grief or mourning.

Runechained Sorrowspawn : ‘Runechained’ hints at a creature bound by magical or cursed chains. ‘Sorrowspawn’ signifies a being born from sorrow.

Cursedrift Wraithborn : ‘Cursedrift’ suggests a creature that emerged from a rift or tear caused by a curse. ‘Wraithborn’ implies birth from spectral or ghostly origins.

Grimcurse Lamenthaunt : ‘Grimcurse’ implies a severe, grim curse. ‘Lamenthaunt’ suggests a creature haunted by remorse or regret.

Heroic Zombie Names

For brave zombies fighting against their undead nature to protect the living.

VirtusOs Lifeschild : ‘VirtusOs’ combines ‘Virtus’, Latin for valor or virtue, with ‘Os’, Old Norse for deity or god-like being, suggesting a valorous, divine-like entity. ‘Lifeschild’ is inspired by ‘Schild’, the German word for shield, implying a protector of life.

Dapperghast Auroragard : ‘Dapperghast’ merges ‘dapper’, an Old English term for elegant bravery, with ‘ghast’, a variant of ‘ghost’, depicting an elegantly brave undead. ‘Auroragard’ combines ‘Aurora’, Latin for dawn, with ‘gard’, from Old Norse ‘gaard’, meaning protection, signifying a guardian of the new dawn.

Hidalwight Lucibearer : ‘Hidalwight’ fuses ‘Hidalgo’, Spanish for noble one, with ‘wight’, an old English term for a creature or being, suggesting a noble undead entity. ‘Lucibearer’ combines ‘Luci’, from Latin ‘lux’ for light, with ‘bearer’, signifying one who carries light and hope.

Audazhaunt Vitawatch : ‘Audazhaunt’ blends ‘Audaz’, Portuguese for audacious, with ‘haunt’, suggesting a boldly spirited ghost. ‘Vitawatch’ combines ‘Vita’, Latin for life, with ‘watch’, implying a vigilant overseer of the living.

Kavodshade Diemshield : ‘Kavodshade’ merges ‘Kavod’, Hebrew for honor, with ‘shade’, suggesting a shadowy figure of great respect. ‘Diemshield’ combines ‘Diem’, Latin for day, with ‘shield’, indicating a defender active during daylight, against the typical nature of zombies.

Valorumbra Speraquest : ‘Valorumbra’ blends ‘Valor’, Spanish for bravery, with ‘Umbra’, Latin for shadow, suggesting bravery within the shadows. ‘Speraquest’ fuses ‘Spera’, Italian for hope, with ‘quest’, implying a quest or journey towards hope.

Adelpest Defendhart : ‘Adelpest’ merges ‘Adel’, German for nobility, with ‘pest’, a twist on the plague-like nature of zombies, suggesting a noble being amidst devastation. ‘Defendhart’ combines ‘Defend’, from Latin ‘defendere’, with ‘Hart’, Old English for hardy or strong, signifying a strong-hearted defender.

Forvaltrot Lumenward : ‘Forvaltrot’ blends ‘Forvalter’, Norwegian for steward or guardian, with ‘rot’, suggesting a guardian amidst decay. ‘Lumenward’ combines ‘Lumen’, Latin for light, with ‘ward’, indicating a keeper of light and hope.

Stalgeist Dawngarde : ‘Stalgeist’ fuses ‘Stal’, from the German ‘Stahl’, meaning steel, with ‘geist’, indicating a steel-strong spirit. ‘Dawngarde’ combines ‘Dawn’, signifying the first light, with ‘Garde’, French for guard, implying a protector at the break of day.

Esperit Valorveil : ‘Esperit’ blends ‘Esper’, from ‘Esperanza’, Spanish for hope, with ‘rit’, from ‘ritter’, the German word for knight, suggesting a hopeful, knightly spirit. ‘Valorveil’ combines ‘Valor’, indicating bravery, with ‘Veil’, suggesting a protective covering, signifying a cloak of courage.

Valorbone Lifeguard : ‘Valorbone’ suggests bravery and courage, even in death. ‘Lifeguard’ implies a purpose of protecting the living.

Courageghoul Dawnshield : ‘Courageghoul’ hints at an undead being with an unusual amount of bravery. ‘Dawnshield’ signifies a protector during dark times.

Noblewight Lightbearer : ‘Noblewight’ suggests nobility and honor, unusual traits for a zombie. ‘Lightbearer’ signifies a beacon of hope and light in the darkness.

Bravehaunt Lifeward : ‘Bravehaunt’ implies a haunted yet brave creature. ‘Lifeward’ suggests a guardian or protector of life.

Honorshade Dayguard : ‘Honorshade’ suggests a creature of honor, even in the shadows. ‘Dayguard’ indicates a protector during the day, when most zombies are inactive.

Bravewraith Dawnwarden : ‘Bravewraith’ implies a brave spectral or ghostly figure. ‘Dawnwarden’ suggests a protector at dawn, the transition between night and day.

Hopespawn Valorveil : ‘Hopespawn’ signifies a creature born from hope. ‘Valorveil’ suggests a veil or shield of bravery and courage.

RELATED: Click to learn how to write a monster that will terrify your audience!

Friendly Zombie Names

Approachable and kind, these zombies defy horror stereotypes.

Calidraith Embraceor : ‘Calidraith’ merges ‘calidus’, Latin for warm, with a twist on ‘wraith’, to suggest a warm spectral figure. ‘Embraceor’ is a creative take on ’embrace’, implying a figure that offers comforting hugs.

Dulceshadow Joykindler : ‘Dulceshadow’ blends ‘dulce’, Spanish for sweet, with ‘shadow’, suggesting a sweet-natured yet shadowy figure. ‘Joykindler’ implies someone who ignites joy and cheerfulness.

Charmdecay Merrymint : ‘Charmdecay’ combines ‘charm’ with ‘decay’, indicating an endearing presence amidst decline. ‘Merrymint’ plays on ‘merry’, meaning cheerful, and ‘mint’, suggesting freshness, implying a source of new and joyful laughter.

Softscourge Allygift : ‘Softscourge’ blends ‘soft’ with ‘scourge’, suggesting a gentle threat. ‘Allygift’ merges ‘ally’ with ‘gift’, indicating a being that offers friendship as a gift.

Cherighost Blissbearer : ‘Cherighost’ fuses ‘cheri’, French for beloved, with ‘ghost’, to describe a dearly loved specter. ‘Blissbearer’ implies a figure that carries and spreads profound happiness.

Tenderbirth Hopeweaver : ‘Tenderbirth’ combines ‘tender’, indicating gentleness, with ‘birth’, suggesting origin or creation. ‘Hopeweaver’ merges ‘hope’ with ‘weaver’, implying one who intricately crafts and spreads hope.

Kindwight Heartwarmer : ‘Kindwight’ suggests a kind and gentle undead creature. ‘Heartwarmer’ signifies an ability to warm hearts and inspire affection.

Sweetshade Cheerbringer : ‘Sweetshade’ suggests a sweet-natured creature from the shadows. ‘Cheerbringer’ signifies a source of happiness and cheer.

Lovelyrot Laughmaker : ‘Lovelyrot’ hints at an endearing, lovable character despite decay. ‘Laughmaker’ implies a creature capable of bringing laughter and joy.

Softspawn Hopespreader : ‘Softspawn’ signifies a creature born soft-hearted. ‘Hopespreader’ suggests a distributor of hope and positivity.

Mildmara Grinseer : ‘Mildmara’ blends ‘mild’, denoting gentleness, with ‘mara’, from old Germanic lore representing a nightmare, suggesting a gentle yet eerie creature. ‘Grinseer’ combines ‘grin’, indicating a smile, with ‘seer’, implying foresight in spreading happiness.

Paxgeist Amicant : ‘Paxgeist’ merges ‘pax’, the Latin word for peace, with ‘geist’, German for ghost, portraying a peaceful spirit. ‘Amicant’ fuses ‘amicus’, Latin for friend, with a hint of ‘ambulant’, meaning walking, to suggest a friendly wandering entity.

Benigngeist Cordial : ‘Benigngeist’ combines ‘benign’, indicating kindness, with ‘geist’, meaning spirit, to describe a benevolent ghost. ‘Cordial’ is derived from ‘cordialis’, Latin for heartfelt, signifying warmth and sincere affection.

Final Thoughts

I hope these memorable zombie names have given you some ideas or inspiration for the zombies in your stories !

Finding the perfect name for your undead creatures is so important when you are bringing them to life—or, more accurately, back from the dead. Maybe your walking dead characters are meant to strike fear in the hearts of readers or add a unique twist to the classic zombie tale, but the right name can make all the difference.

A name can set the tone for your character’s journey and influence how they’re perceived in the scary world you’ve created. So choose wisely, and may your zombies be as unforgettable as their names!

Common Questions (FAQs)

How do i make a zombie name sound scary.

Focus on hard consonants and guttural sounds, as they tend to evoke a sense of dread. Names that hint at decay, death, or darkness can also add to the scary factor.

What if I want my zombie name to have a deeper meaning?

Think about words or names that could have dual meanings or incorporate elements from mythology, history, or different languages that resonate with your story’s themes and the nature of your zombies.

Where can I find more inspiration for zombie names?

Look into horror literature, mythology, and even foreign languages for words and names that evoke the desired response. Watching zombie movies and reading zombie fiction can also spark new ideas.

Love writing stories that feature monsters ? Click to check out these helpful articles!

199+ Unique Ghost Name Ideas for Your Spooky Story

201+ Unique Monster Names & Meanings [For Storytellers]

199+ Alien Name Ideas For Your Story [Scary, Friendly & Unique]

Filmmaker, Author, Actor and Story Consultant

Neil Chase is an award-winning, produced screenwriter, independent filmmaker, professional actor, and author of the horror-western novel Iron Dogs. His latest feature film is an apocalyptic thriller called Spin The Wheel.

Neil has been featured on Celtx, No Film School, Script Revolution, Raindance, The Write Practice, Lifewire, and MSN.com, and his work has won awards from Script Summit, ScreamFest, FilmQuest and Cinequest (among others).

Neil believes that all writers have the potential to create great work. His passion is helping writers find their voice and develop their skills so that they can create stories that are entertaining and meaningful. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level, he's here to help!

Similar Posts

The Top 17+ Horror Subgenres Explained [Horror Movie Guide]

301+ Monster Names & Meanings [For Storytellers]

How to Write a Monster That Will Terrify Your Audience: 7 Steps

50+ Horror Story Ideas [Scary Movie Prompts to Creep You Out!]

Horror Story Writing: 9 Tips for Writing Horror Fiction

The Story Behind the Horror Novel Iron Dogs [by Neil Chase]

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Scriabin Association

Founded to celebrate scriabin, scriabinism and scriabinists…, the texts of scriabin’s works: some observations of a performer-researcher-teacher. by simon nicholls.

The handwriting of any individual is a kind of self-portrait, and reading a handwritten letter can give an indication of the writer’s character and state of mind, and of his or her attitude to the content of the letter. An author’s manuscript often yields valuable information about the creative process; the manuscripts of Dickens or Dostoevsky provide many examples. Examining such a document is a very different experience from reading a novel in cold print. With a musical manuscript, the spacing, the character of the pen-strokes and of the musical handwriting, as well as details of layout which cannot always be exactly reproduced by the process of engraving, give similar information, valuable to the student and to the performer. Beyond factual information, the visual impression of the manuscript, the Notenbild , can be a direct stimulus from the composer to the interpreter’s imagination. In this way, study of the composer’s manuscript can lead both to a narrowing of the possibility of textual error and to a widening of the possibilities of imaginative response to interpretation.

Examining the manuscripts of any great composer or literary author is always a thrilling experience. I have spent many hours studying Scriabin’s manuscripts in the Glinka Museum, Moscow, which holds in its vast archive many fair and rough copies of complete works as well as sketches by Scriabin. The first thing which strikes one is the extreme beauty and clarity of the scores. The slender exactitude of the writing and drawing corresponds to the delicacy and transparency of Scriabin’s own playing of his music, and makes it clear to the interpreter that a similar clarity, precision and grace is demanded in his or her own performance – something extremely difficult to achieve. The care with which the manuscripts were prepared confirms the testimony of Scriabin’s friend and biographer, Leonid Sabaneyev, who was bemused by the care taken by the composer in the placing of slurs, the choice of sharps or flats in accidentals (contributing in many cases to an analysis of the harmony concerned), the spacing of the lines of the musical texture over the staves and the upward or downward direction of note stems.

It was Heinrich Schenker who pointed out the expressive and structural significance  of the manuscript notation of Beethoven, and who was instrumental in establishing an archive in the Austrian National Library, Vienna, of photographic reproductions of musical manuscripts. His pioneering work has led gradually to the present wealth of Urtext editions and facsimiles of many composers’ manuscripts. Reproductions of Skryabin’s manuscripts have been published by Muzyka (Moscow), Henle (Munich) and the Juilliard School (New York; their manuscript collection is available online). [1]  These reproductions cover several significant compositions by Scriabin: Sonata no. 5, op. 53; Two pieces, op. 59; Poème-nocturne, op. 61; Sonata no. 6, op. 62; Two poèmes, op. 63; Sonata no. 7, op. 64. The remarks below have no pretensions to system or completeness; they are merely observations based on initial study, and intended as a stimulus to others to examine the manuscripts for themselves.

In maturity, Scriabin took immense care with his manuscripts. Speaking to Sabaneyev, he compared the difficulty of writing down a conception in sound to the process of rendering a three-dimensional object on a flat surface. As a student and as a young composer, though, Scriabin was by no means ideally accurate or painstaking in his notation. This was the cause of Rimsky-Korsakov’s irritated response to the manuscript score of Scriabin’s Piano Concerto – the elder composer initially considered it to be too full of mistakes to be worthy of serious attention. Mitrofan Belaieff, Scriabin’s publisher, patron and mentor, frequently begged the composer to be more careful in correcting proofs. The original editions, particularly of the early works, contain many errors which originate in some cases from Scriabin’s manuscript and in others from poor proofreading – as far as we can tell; some early manuscripts are now lost.

We are indebted to the fine musician Nikolai Zhilyayev for correct editions of Scriabin’s music. Zhilyayev knew Scriabin well and discussed many misprints with the composer; others he detected by his own scrupulous and scholarly work and prodigious memory. As Scriabin’s harmony and voice-leading were impeccably systematic and logical at all stages of his development, those who have had to do with the old editions will know that is often possible to correct mistakes by analogy or knowledge of harmonic style.

 Zhilyayev was the revising editor for a new edition of Scriabin’s music, published by the Soviet organisation Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo muzykal’nyi sektor (State publisher, musical division – ‘Muzsektor’) from the 1920s on, each work or opus number being issued separately. These beautifully prepared editions are painstakingly annotated, corrections being indicated in two layers: those discussed with the composer and therefore beyond doubt, and those which Zhilyayev considered likely (and he was usually right). This work was the basis of the complete edition of the piano music published by Gosudarstvennoe muszykal’noe izdatel’stvo (State musical publishing house – ‘Muzgiz’) in three volumes (1947, 1948 and 1953). [2] Zhilyayev fell victim to Stalin’s terror; he was arrested in 1937 and shot in the following year. His name does not appear on this three-volume edition.

A new complete edition is appearing gradually under the imprint Muzyka–P. Jurgenson. The general editor is Valentina Rubtsova, biographer of Scriabin and head of research at the Scriabin Museum, Moscow, assisted by Pavel Shatsky. As in Rubtsova’s editions for Henle, full credit is given to Zhilyayev, and the annotations as to origins and variants are very thorough in this valuable new edition.

A  very  limited  number  of  Scriabin’s  manuscripts has been  available  in  facsimile until now. The collection of ‘Youthful and Early Works’ prepared by Donald Garvelmann and published in New York in 1970 by Music Treasure Publications [3] contains a facsimile of the early E flat minor sonata (without opus number) of 1889, a typical youthful manuscript of the composer, rather heavy in its style of penmanship. The manuscript of the op. 11 preludes (excerpts are shown in ill.1), though tidier, shows a similar style.

ill. 1) Extract of  Op. 11 Preludes manuscript

The Russian website ‘Virtual’nye vystavki’ (‘Virtual exhibitions’) [4] gives in facsimile the first page of the Etude op. 8 no. 12, with more fingering than is shown in the Belaieff edition, and also the first page of the manuscript score of the Poem of Ecstasy , providing a striking example of the change in the composer’s manuscript style. A facsimile on the site of the first two pages of the score of the Piano Concerto shows some of the copious blue-pencilling of Rimsky-Korsakov from the occasion mentioned earlier, and the site also reproduces Skryabin’s letter of apology to Rimsky-Korsakov apologising for the errors and blaming neuralgia. [5] Comparison of this letter with the one to the musicologist N. F. Findeizen dated 26 December 1907, also viewable on the site, gives another clear example of the change in Scriabin’s handwriting. [6]

Op. 53: Sonata no. 5

A facsimile of the Fifth Sonata has been published by Muzyka. [7] The manuscript of this work was presented to the Skryabin Museum, Moscow, by the widow of the pianist and composer Alfred Laliberté, to whom Scriabin had given the manuscript. This is a very different document from the early E flat minor sonata manuscript, and shows Scriabin’s fastidious and calligraphically exquisite mature hand. By this time both Scriabin’s music manuscript and his handwriting had developed an elongated ‘upward-striving’ manner. We might make a comparison with the remark of Boris Pasternak that the composer ‘had trained himself various kinds of sublime lightness and unburdened movement resembling flight’ [8] – the handwriting is expressive of this quality. Examples of Scriabin’s handwriting in letters to Belaieff in 1897 (ill. 2) and to the composer and conductor Felix Blumenfeld in 1906 (ill. 3) show the dramatic difference in handwriting style that developed.

ill. 2) Scriabin’s handwriting 1897

ill. 3) Scriabin’s handwriting 1906

The manuscript of the Fifth Sonata shows that, although Scriabin spoke French, he did not immediately provide a French text for the epigraph, which is from the verse Poem of Ecstasy . This poem was written in Russian at the same period that the symphonic poem was composed. There is a request on the manuscript to the engraver to leave space for a French version. The French text, which is the usual source of English translations, does not reflect the Russian with complete accuracy: the forces mystérieuses , ‘mysterious forces’, which are being called into life are skrytye stremlen’ya , ‘hidden strivings’, in the original. [9] In other words, it is open to doubt that any sort of ‘magical ritual’, in a superstitious sense, is being depicted in this work, a suggestion made (perhaps in a figurative sense) by the early writer on Scriabin Evgenii Gunst and elaborated upon by the composer’s British-American biographer, Alfred Swan. The epigraph may be regarded as an invocation of Scriabin’s own inner aspirations, the creative power which the composer equated with the divine principle.

Work on the Fifth Sonata started in 1907, at a period when a rift had developed between Scriabin and the publishing house of Belaieff. The committee running the publishers after the death of Belaieff had proposed a renegotiation of fees. It is possible that Scriabin was unaware of the preferential and generous treatment Belaieff had accorded him; certainly, he was offended by the proposals and withdrew from his agreement with the publishers. The Sonata was published at Scriabin’s own expense, but was taken into the publishing concern run by the conductor Serge Koussevitsky, Rossiiskoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo (RMI). Later still, Scriabin quarrelled with Koussevitsky too, and the composer’s last works were published by the firm which had brought out his very first published compositions, Jurgenson.

The main differences between the manuscript of the Fifth Sonata and most modern printed texts are:

1) a missing set of ties at the barline between  bars 98 and 99. These ties are also missing in RMI, and in the edition printed at Scriabin’s own expense. [10] Muzgiz adds the ties in dotted lines, by analogy with the parallel passage at bars 359–360. The commentary to the Muzgiz edition states that sketches of the work make use of an abbreviated notation at this point which could have led to this misunderstanding, as the editors describe it.  Christoph Flamm’s notes to the Bärenreiter edition are definite as to Scriabin’s intention not to tie over this barline, citing the repetition of accidentals in bar 99 as being conclusive proof. [11]

2) the movement of the middle voice in bars 122–123, 126–127, 136–137, 383–384, 387–388, 397–398  ( Meno vivo sections): the manuscript gives a downward resolution in the middle voice (d flat – c in the first passage and g flat – f in the second) whereas the printed editions give an upward resolution (d flat – d natural and g flat – g). It is as if only at a second attempt (as revised for the printed version) has Scriabin fully realised the implications of his own (then very new) harmony: the resolutions as printed resolve into the augmented harmony around them, whereas the resolutions in the earlier version do not. Knowing about this early version, moreover, adds point to the grandiose version of the same section at bars 315–316, 319–20 and 323–324, where the downward resolution is retained. One might think of the meno vivo sections as being potential states, and the grandiose version as representing a fully realised condition.

It should be remembered that the Sonata was composed at breakneck speed, completed in a few days, and revised afterwards; Valentina Rubtsova, editor of the facsimile, suggests that the manuscript provides a glimpse into the composer’s creative laboratory. She further points out that Scriabin uses double barlines to indicate structural divisions, whereas publishers’ house style often requires a double bar at any change of key-signature or time-signature. This has resulted in the insertion of a number of non-authentic double bars in some published versions of the Fifth Sonata. Double bars occur in the manuscript in the following places only:

            before bar 47 (beginning of main sonata exposition)

            before bar 120 ( Meno vivo , the second subject area)

            before bar 367 (indicating, perhaps a slight hesitation before this rising sequence)

            before bar 381 (parallel passage to bar 120).

The visual effect of the manuscript is therefore more continuous than that of the printed edition. It should be mentioned that the Urtext printed version given in the volume containing the manuscript is a corrected version of the RMI edition. This edition was prepared with the composer’s agreement and during his lifetime. The manuscript, though, is an invaluable source for the reasons given above.

A similar use of double barlines to that in the Sonata no. 5 is made elsewhere by Scriabin, including in the Sonata no. 6 (see below) and the Sonata no. 8. It can be said, from these examinations, that Scriabin uses double barlines structurally or even expressively, and that they often should be made audible in some way, in sharp contradistinction to the purely ‘grammatical’ double bars referred to above. The definition of ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’ is a non-scientific one and comes down to the player’s own interpretive insight, but where there is a double barline and no change of time- or key-signature, the double bar clearly has  structural significance.

The addition of a double bar by a publisher can confuse the interpreter. For example, Bach’s engraved edition of his own Second Partita has no double bar, in fact no barline at all, at the beginning of the third section of the Sinfonia (ill. 4.) The insertion of a double bar at this point, even in some ‘Urtext’ editions (because of the change of time-signature) leads many performers to treat the final chord of the middle section like a ‘starter’s pistol’ for the quicker final section, which, as consideration of the musical content will quickly demonstrate, starts on the second quaver of the bar with the fugue subject.

ill. 4) Manuscript of Sinfonia from Bach’s Keyboard Partita no. 2

The notes by Valentina Rubtsova to the facsimile of the Fifth Sonata mention Scriabin’s differing use of rallentando in its full version and of the abbreviation rall. , and the possible implications of such usage for performance:

[…] in b. 382 Scriabin indicated molto rallentando , while in b. 386 and 390 he confined himself to [a] shortened and somewhat careless rall.  It seems that the theme sounded to him just like that: with a more substantial broadening in b.382 and in a somewhat generalized manner in b. 386 and 390. [12]

A related expressive function of details in the writing of performance directions will be noted below in the case of the Poème-Nocturne , op. 61.

Now we move to a group of Scriabin’s manuscripts, recently published on line by the Juilliard School of New York. The works with opus numbers 52, 53 and 58 to 64 were published by Koussevitsky’s firm, RMI, mentioned above. (The Poem of Ecstasy , op. 54, was already contracted to Belaieff, as were opp. 56 and 57; there is no work with the number 55.) Opp. 59 and 61 to 64 (op. 60 is an orchestral score, Prometheus ) were bound together in one volume at some time. Koussevitsky’s archive went with him when he left Russia in 1920. The majority of the archive is now in the Library of Congress, but this volume somehow came onto the open market, and was sold at Sotheby’s in 2000. The purchaser, Bruce Kovner, businessman, collector and philanthropist, generously donated his entire collection to Juilliard School in 2006, and Juilliard have made the contents of the volume he purchased available in excellent facsimile online [13] – a huge step forward in making Scriabin manuscript facsimiles available to the musical public. The Sonata No. 7 has also been published in an equally excellent facsimile by Henle with informative notes by Valentina Rubtsovsa. [14] Some observations on these manuscripts follow.

Op. 59 no. 1, Poème

b. 15: an accidental is missing before the r. h. d sharp, third quaver of the bar. This mistake, as well as the missing accidental in b. 13, was reproduced in the first edition, but corrected by Zhilyayev.

b.19: the fifth quaver in  r. h. is spelled in the manuscript as b double flat, harder to read than the a natural printed in most editions, but consistent with the d flat bass of this bar and typical of Scriabin’s fastidiousness in his choice of accidentals. The spelling was reproduced in the first edition, but altered without comment by Zhilyayev, who did not have the manuscript available. (This manuscript was also not available to the editors at the time of preparation of the Muzyka-Jurgenson edition.) Subsequent editions, including Muzyka-Jurgenson, followed Zhilyayev’s reading. The ‘spelling’ of a note may well have an effect on the player of a wind or string instrument as regards actual pitch, and Sabaneyev discussed this with Scriabin. But a good pianist will often respond by minute adjustments of touch to the difference of inner hearing caused by enharmonic differences of spelling. [15]

b. 23–25: there is evidence in these bars of erased octave doublings in the right hand phrases, though the lower octave to the initial a, r.h. second quaver of bar 23, has not been erased – a mistake rightly queried by the editor. Here, the texture is delicate and transparent, but it will be remembered that Scriabin often preferred single notes to octaves in passages of powerful sonority where an effect of brightness was desirable (e.g. final climaxes of the Fifth Sonata and Vers la Flamme ). Sabaneyev criticised the composer for scoring his orchestral music with doublings at the unison rather than the octave, but this seems to have been Scriabin’s preference in many places.

b. 28 and 30: The three r.h. quavers which continue the middle voice at the end of these bars were first written by Scriabin in the upper staff, but then erased and put into the lower staff, clarifying the voice-leading. This is an example of the care taken by the composer in the optical presentation of his voices.

b. 34: the manuscript and the first edition have d natural in r.h. upper voice, second, fourth and sixth quavers. This error was corrected by Zhilyayev, who changed these notes to d sharps, noting the analogy in bar 6.

b. 36: the tie between third and fourth quavers of the bar in r.h. is missing in the manuscript, but was supplied in the first edition – possibly a correction in proof by the composer.

b. 38: the acciaccatura at the beginning of the bar for both hands was written by Scriabin with a quaver tail without the customary cross-stroke. This seems to have been the composer’s usual habit – compare the beginning of the Sixth Sonata, written in the same way, as well as other instances – and, in the case of the present Poème, the notation was altered in the first edition. The RMI edition of the Sonata, however, shows the acciaccatura with a quaver-type tail, though many later editions add a cross-stroke. It may be felt that in both cases Scriabin’s notation may suggest a more deliberate execution of the acciaccaturas.

b.39: note the beautiful and unusual notation of the final sonority, a single stem uniting sounds many octaves apart and played by two hands. It is suggestive of the deep and strange sonority of this ending. It is given by most editions, but not by Peters, who ‘normalise’ the notation here. [16]

  Op. 59 no. 2, Prelude

A number of errors in the manuscript were correctly questioned by the editor, and further inconsistencies were corrected by Zhilyayev.

The rhythm at the beginning of bar 40, though, (marked avec defi – Scriabin omitted the acute accent on the second letter of défi ) written as three even quavers, was retained in the first edition and subsequent ones despite having been questioned by the editor. Muzgiz, following Zhilyayev, queries whether it should be made consistent with the dotted rhythm of other similar bars. The Peters edition by Günter Philipp adopts this suggestion. [17] The present writer is of the opinion that the three even quavers help to express Scriabin’s suggested ‘defiance’.

Intriguingly, a slip of paper was pasted over the original manuscript at bars 26–28. This is at the position, characteristic of Scriabin’s short pieces, where the opening material begins to be repeated in transposition. The repeated chords on the paper slip, which anticipate the coda from bar 54 to 57, may have been a late compositional addition by Scriabin. (Other paper slips are observable, pasted into the manuscript of the Sonata no. 6.)

Op. 61, Poème-Nocturne  

(The manuscript of this work was also not available to the editors of Muzyka-Jurgenson, who were, however, able to consult a rough draft, as in the case of op. 59.)

Space will not permit a detailed analysis of longer works such as this, but some interesting features present themselves. The first page of the manuscript is written in two inks, blue and black. On the first system, the clefs and the r.h. phrase from the downbeat of bar one are written in blue, whereas the upbeat is written in black. A list of incipits for projected works by Scriabin exists in the Glinka Museum archives, and has been examined by the present writer. This list corresponds to a description by Sabaneyev of a collection of thematic material ‘for sonatas’. In the list, the Poème-Nocturne theme lacks its upbeat. Perhaps the addition of the upbeat was a late inspiration, like Beethoven’s last-minute addition of a two-note upbeat to the slow movement of the Hammerklavier sonata. At the recapitulation, b. 109, the theme starts on the downbeat.

In bar 3 and the corresponding passage, bar 110, Scriabin writes the   molto più vivo directly over the l. h. figure on the second beat. This is placed too late in Muzgiz, but correctly in Muzyka-Jurgenson.

Scriabin’s usual practice is to write his performance directions or remarki in lower-case letters, but in the Poème-Nocturne and some other works this practice is departed from in certain places. The new ideas at bar 29 and 33 are marked in the manuscript Avec langueur and Comme en un rêve – suggesting, perhaps, that the arrival of these new ideas should be ‘shown’ by the player in some way, possibly by a very slight elongation of the rests before them, as with the start of a new sentence or paragraph in a text which is read aloud. The same thing happens at Avec une soudaine langueur  ( sic ) in bar 52, and Avec une passion naissante and De plus en plus passionné in bars 77 and 79. The first edition reproduces this peculiarity, but not Muzgiz or Muzyka-Jurgenson. It has not been possible to determine whether they are following Zhilyayev, as seems likely. [18]

The addition in printed editions, including the first, of a poco acceler. [ sic in RMI] over the barline of bb. 46-47 is clear evidence of intervention by the composer at proof stage.

The long slur at comme un murmure confus (bar 103 to 110) is correctly reproduced in the editions known to this writer, but seeing it drawn so clearly and with such certainty in the manuscript is a reminder not to yield to the temptation to ‘explain’ the structure of this mysterious passage, and especially not to render the arrival of the recapitulation in bar 109 with any excessive degree of clarity. The piece reflects Scriabin’s exploration of states of consciousness on the borders of sleep, as he explained to Sabaneyev. On the other hand, the remarka at the point of arrival of the recapitulation ( Avec une grace [sic] capricieuse [19] ) does have the capital letter we have come to expect in this work when important thematic ideas are presented.

Op. 62: Sonata no. 6

This work is so successfully suggestive of dark areas of the spirit that a listener once suggested to the present writer, after a performance of the Sixth Sonata, that the music was evidence of psychosis in the composer’s own mind. The listener was, of course, making an error like that of Don Quixote at the puppet show – mistaking dramatic presentation for reality. The lucidity of the manuscript, as well as the highly organised and disciplined musical structure, show that Scriabin knew very well what he was doing.

Towards the end of the work there is a notorious high d written, which exceeds the range of the keyboard (bar 365). This note has also been quoted to me by music-lovers as evidence of Scriabin’s supposed delusional condition. Firstly, it should be pointed out that the d is dictated by analogy with bar 330. We can make a comparison with Ravel in this case. In the climax of Ravel’s Jeux d’eau there is a bottom note which, harmony dictates, should be G sharp, but as the note does not exist on most keyboards, Ravel wrote A. [20] Similarly, Ravel ‘faked’ octaves at the bottom of the piano in the recapitulation of Scarbo by writing sevenths. Scriabin, ever an idealist, preferred to write the pitch required by the music and to leave the solution to the interpreter. [21] Furthermore, the whole phrase from bar 365 to 367 is written an octave lower in the manuscript than in the first edition, thus bringing the d within the keyboard range. [22] An explanation for the late change between manuscript and first edition, which transposes the phrase up an octave, may be that Scriabin never performed this very difficult work – the premiere was entrusted to Elena Beckman-Shcherbina. Perhaps, in working on the piece with her and hearing the passage played up to tempo, Scriabin suggested that she try the phrase an octave higher, as the analogy with bar 330 demands, and realised that the chord flashes by with the substitution of c for d as the top note practically unheard. In her memoirs, Bekman-Shcherbina describes Scriabin’s detailed work with her on his compositions, but, alas, gives no details of the work which must have taken place on the Sixth Sonata.

The composer’s notation of the acciaccatura which starts the Sixth Sonata has already been mentioned (see above, Poème op 59 no. 1.) As in the case of the acciaccatura which sets off the Sonata in A minor by Mozart (K.310), this opening should not be played too glibly, but with a certain weight. Indeed, for a player whose hand cannot stretch the initial chords, it is a help to know that this arresting opening should not be hurried over. More importantly, an execution on the slow side helps to emphasise the sombre, unyielding severity of the opening sonority. It is perhaps unfortunate that publishers’ ‘house styles’ lead to a routine ‘correction’ of Scriabin’s notation of the acciaccatura.

‘House style’ has also led to the omission in some editions of the Sixth Sonata of a number of ‘structural’ double bars provided in the manuscript by Scriabin. Scriabin wrote double bars  before b. 92 (coda of exposition), 124 (beginning of development),  206 (recapitulation), 268 (end of recapitulation of second subject. As this last-mentioned place involves a change of time signature, the double bar is technically required, and is reproduced in printed editions, but there is a definite break in the atmosphere here.) The calligraphic beauty and clarity of b. 244–267, a notoriously complex passage, repays study.

Op. 64: Sonata no. 7

The manuscript of Sonata no. 7 is commented upon in detail by Valentina Rubtsova in her notes to the facsimile published by Henle, and these notes are published online. [23] They repay careful study, and Rubtsova gives an account of the other manuscript versions of the Sonata, one of which the present writer has examined in the Glinka Museum. The existence of this text, with its many alterations and differences from the finished version, calls into question the accusation, made by Sabaneyev and since repeated, that Scriabin established a ‘scheme’ of empty numbered bars and proceeded to ‘fill’ it with music. While numbers were clearly important to the composer in establishing a ‘crystalline’ form, the procedure of composition was far more complex than that, as the painstaking work shown in these manuscripts reveals.

Ill.5 is a reproduction of the first page of Scriabin’s earlier draft, with the remarka ‘Prophétique’ for the opening ‘fanfare’ motive. This marking, later rejected, gives a sense of the gesture of this musical idea, which is essential to the close connection of the Sonata with Scriabin’s idea of the ‘Mystery’, something he discussed with Sabaneyev. While visiting an exhibition in London’s Tate Gallery of paintings by the English artist George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), the present writer was struck by the convulsive, ‘prophetic’ gesture depicted in Watts’ ‘Jonah’ (1894), a painting which is reproduced online. [24] The performance of these opening bars needs to be as striking and dramatic as Watts’ painting.

ill. 5) 1st page from manuscript of Sonata 7

Op. 63, 2 Poèmes

In the second of these short works, some l. h. notes in the chords in b. 6 and 7 have been erased; these notes are relocated to the upper stave, where they belong musically, and marked m.g. (The m.d. in bar 7 is a characteristic slip, rightly questioned by the editor). The top note of these chords is shown in the manuscript as f natural and was so published in the RMI edition. Zhilyayev, who had discussed this passage with the composer, corrected this to f sharp. [25] The first notation shows how essential the gesture of hand-crossing was to Scriabin’s conception of the sonority here. Some pianists make the simultaneity of sounding of notes into a priority, but a letter by Scriabin to Belaieff which has been dated to December 1894 shows that spreading of chords was essential to his conception at times (such spreading was, in any case, far more prevalent at that period than now). In this letter, Scriabin writes that the ‘wide chords’ in bb. 9-10 of the Impromptu op. 10 no. 2 ‘must be played by the left hand alone, for the character of their sonority in performance depends on this.’ [26]

The Scriabin facsimiles which have been made available in Russia and America are invaluable sources of information and inspiration, and studying them brings us just a little nearer to the composer. It is hoped that the notes above will encourage players and music lovers to investigate them, and also that more facsimiles may follow in the future.

Simon Nicholls, 2016.

[1] http://juilliardmanuscriptcollection.org/composers/scriabin-aleksandr/

[2] This edition was the basis of those of the sonatas, preludes and etudes reprinted by Dover, though some of the editions chosen for reprinting contained errors not present in the complete edition. Dover did not reproduce the essential information that nuances and rubatos given in brackets in these editions, notably in the op. 8 etudes, were from instructions given by Skryabin to Mariya Nemenova-Lunts while she was studying with the composer.

[3] This edition was republished in limited numbers by the Scriabin Society of the U.S.A.

[4] http://expositions.nlr.ru/ex_manus/skriabin/index.php

[5] The letter is dated ‘19 th April’ by Scriabin and dated to 1896 on the website. The edition by Kashperov of Scriabin’s letters (A. Scriabin, Pis’ma , Muzyka, Moscow, 1965/2003, attributes it to 1897 (p. 168–169, letter 144.)

[6] This letter is given by Kashperov ( op.cit. ) on p. 492–3, letter no. 545.

[7] Scriabin: Sonata no. 5, op. 53. Urtext and facsimile. Muzyka, Moscow, 2008.

[8] Boris Pasternak, An Essay in Autobiography , trans. Manya Harari,  Collins and Harvill, London, 1959, p. 44.

[9] I am grateful to the distinguished scholar of Russian literature Avril Pyman for pointing this out (private communication). The French text was added by hand by the composer to the proofs of the first edition (information from the notes by Christoph Flamm to Skrjabin: Sämtliche Klaviersonaten II, Bärenreiter, 2009, p. 43), but perhaps we should trust Scriabin’s Russian, his native tongue, rather than his French in this case.

[10] Ibid. ,  p. 44.

[11] Muzgiz, vol. 3, commentary, p.  295. Christoph Flamm, loc. cit. The printed version supplied in the Muzyka edition of the facsimile adds the ties in dotted lines, following Muzgiz. It is certainly tempting to make the ‘correction’: most pianists play the tied version, which persists in many editions. But such bringing into line of parallel passages should not be done automatically.

[12] Valentina Rubtsova, notes to facsimile of Scriabin Sonata no. 5, p.57.

[13] Cf. n. 1, above.

[14] Alexander Skrjabin: Klaviersonate Nr. 7 op. 64. Faksimile nach dem Autograph. G. Henle Verlag, Munich, 2015. The foreword is also available online: http://www.henle.de/media/foreword/3228.pdf

[15] Cf. Paul Badura-Skoda, Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard , trans. Leo Black, Barrie & Rockliff, London, 1962, p. 290 for a brief discussion of one example of this problem. Brahms wrote against any attempt to improve on Chopin’s orthography at the time of the preparation of a new complete edition of the Chopin piano works (letter to Ernst Rudorff, late October or early November 1877, quoted in Franz Zagiba, Chopin und Wien , Bauer, Vienna, 1951, p.130.) All this comment is made about a single accidental because the orthography of Scriabin’s late music is such a wide-reaching, fascinating and important topic, perhaps seen by some students of the music only as an irritating difficulty of reading, and this is one small example of it. For a discussion of Scriabin’s orthography and its significance see George Perle, ‘Scriabin’s Self-Analyses’, Music Analysis, Vol. 3 no. 2 (1984), p. 101–122.

[16] Skrjabin, Klavierwerke  III , ed. Günter Philipp, Peters, Leipzig 1967.

[17] Ibid . Philipp notes the variant in an editor’s report, p. 98.

[18] Christoph Flamm discusses Scriabin’s remarki , and comments that the composer accepted with indifference the publishers’ treatment of his upper or lower-case letters ( op. cit. , p. 42). Nonetheless, these small ms. differences can be infinitely valuable suggestions to the performer. Flamm points out that even the size of the letters in which a remarka is written can be of significance for the performer.

[19] Scriabin spoke good French, but accents sometimes go missing in his writing. This circumstance could perhaps be compared with his tendency to miss out accidentals.

[20] The present writer has read a gramophone record review in which this famous bass note was described as a ‘wrong note.’

[21] The Austrian piano firm Bösendorfer added a few bass notes to the range of its largest instruments. Apart from making Ravel’s bass notes possible to ‘correct’, the bass strings add to the resonance of the piano. No such advantage attaches to an addition to the top of the keyboard.

[22] Noted by Darren Leaper.

[23] Cf. n. 15, above.

[24] http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/watts-jonah-n01636

[25] Muzgiz, vol. 3, commentary, p. 296.

[26] Kashperov, op. cit. , p. 87.