grammar this. grammar that. sometimes 'grammatically correct' just doesn't hit the spot. the vibes are telling me to laugh in the face of the english language and that's exactly what I'm going to do, one incorrectly structured sentence at a time.

They're always messing around

"The shift from the Afro-Caribbean zombie to the U.S. zombie is clear: in Caribbean folklore, people are scared of becoming zombies, whereas in U.S. narratives people are scared of zombies. This shift is significant because it maps the movement from the zombie as victim (Caribbean) to the zombie as an aggressive and terrifying monster who consumes human flesh (U.S.). In Haitian folklore, for instance, zombies do not physically threaten people; rather, the threat comes from the voduon practice whereby the sorcerer (master) subjugates the individual by robbing the victim of free will, language and cognition. The zombie is enslaved."

— Justin D. Edwards, "Mapping Tropical Gothic in the Americas" in Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture.

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

The ultimate horror of the zombie, originally, was that an enslaved person could not escape bondage even in death.

Small fantasy worldbuilding elements you might want to think about:

• A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin
• A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans
• A clock that isn’t 24-hours
• More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know
• Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain
• Multiple moons/no moon
• Planetary rings
• A northern lights effect, but near the equator
• Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks
• Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals
• Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands
• The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage
• No concept of virginity or bastardry
• More than 2 genders/no concept of gender
• Monotheism, but not creationism
• Gods that don’t look like people
• Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats
• Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot
• Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom
• “Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls
• A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language
• A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)

I’ve done about half of these myself in one WIP or another and a little detail here or there goes a long way in reminding the audience that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

...Like a proper writer, I suppose