I kind of want to write this one out
One of my favorite mental distractions these days is asking ChatGPT to outline novel ideas for me that I don’t have the self-discipline or skill to actually write. For instance, I’ll compile a list of characters inspired by all my old school friends, and then get ChatGPT to craft a murder mystery centered on them.
I’ve come up with all sorts of wacky narratives, involving time travel, aliens, and killer robots. I’m sort of tempted to write out the latest novel outline I’ve been working on. I probably won’t, but I find this alternative history especially interesting. Here’s the prompt I gave ChatGPT:
“The story is set in an alternate reality. In the 19th century, zombie outbreaks linked to the consumption of animal products became an increasingly common occurrence. Veganism became more and more mainstream. Initially, this was primarily due to public health concerns, but, eventually, an ethical opposition to animal exploitation became widespread.
Socialists of the 19th century incorporated demands for the abolition of animal farming into their political platforms. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 made Russia the first country in the world to outlaw animal agriculture. The rise of fascism in this alternate reality is connected not just to a fear of socialism, but a fear of mandated veganism.
Throughout the 20th century, socialist revolutions and electoral victories transformed the world. Most countries on earth had publicly owned economies and laws forbidding animal farming by the year 2000. Outline a multigenerational story about a Russian family that experiences these changes throughout the 20th century.
The grandfather is a butcher who is radicalized after his wife dies as a result of the zombie infection. He is an active participant in the Bolshevik Revolution. His daughter becomes a prominent researcher of cultivated meat. Her son works to spread the vegan socialist revolution in Latin America and Asia.”
And here’s the response ChatGPT gave me:
“Title: Bloodlines of the Revolution
PART I – The Butcher and the Beast (1900–1930s)
Main Character: Ivan Mirov
Ivan is a traditional butcher in a small Russian town, proud of his craft and heritage.
His wife, Anya, contracts a strain of the zombie virus from contaminated pork, dies violently, and reanimates. Ivan is forced to kill her himself.
Traumatized, he begins questioning the consumption of animal products, spurred on by early anti-meat activists within socialist circles.
He joins revolutionary groups, both out of grief and a growing ideological commitment. His butchery shop becomes a secret meeting space for vegan Bolsheviks.
In 1917, Ivan fights in the Revolution, helping to draft some of the earliest legislation banning animal farming in the new Soviet Union.
He raises his only child, Elena, with both a love of science and a deep mistrust of animal exploitation.
PART II – Fleshless Futures (1940s–1970s)
Main Character: Dr. Elena Mirova
Elena grows up in the shadow of the Revolution, deeply influenced by her father's convictions but choosing the path of science over politics.
She studies biology and becomes one of the leading scientists in the Soviet cultivated meat program. Her lab helps develop the first mass-producible lab-grown proteins, known as SinteFlesh.
Despite the Soviet Union’s ban on animal farming, black market meat trafficking and outbreaks persist in rural areas.
Elena is caught between her work and the ethical compromises of the bureaucracy she works under. She attempts to expose secret state-run animal testing facilities and is demoted for her efforts.
Meanwhile, she raises her son Lev, instilling in him both the revolutionary fire of her father and the scientific pragmatism of her own generation.
PART III – Red Roots, Green Flames (1980s–2000)
Main Character: Lev Mirov
Lev becomes an international activist with the Global Vegan Workers' Front, a revolutionary network aligned with socialist and environmentalist movements around the world.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he works clandestinely in Latin America, aiding indigenous and peasant communities in resisting pro-meat fascist regimes and building decentralized vegan economies.
He’s present during the fall of several meat-backed dictatorships and helps negotiate treaties outlawing animal farming in parts of Asia and South America.
Lev narrowly survives an outbreak triggered by a sabotage of a cultivated meat facility in Brazil, carried out by a meat-terrorist faction.
He retires to Russia in 2000, reflecting on the world he helped build — a world mostly free of animal exploitation, but not yet free of conflict. He takes care of his grandson, Niko, wondering what the next generation will face.
Themes & Elements:
Trauma as Catalyst: Each generation is driven by personal or collective trauma tied to zoonotic outbreaks.
Science vs. Ideology: Balancing ethical veganism with technological advancement and political control.
Intergenerational Struggle: Tensions between memory, revolution, and future-building.
Resistance and Reinvention: Revolution is not a single event but an evolving, imperfect process.”