I'm wanting to change my story Autumn Raye into a fantasy novel instead of whatever it was turning into. The problem, I want to be original. As much as I love vampires and vampire novels... I don't want a story like all the others. I need some originality to it. Since I am new to this genre (this will be my very first time attempting to write fantasy) I need some help. Hope to hear from some of you! =]
Why don't you abandon the typical 'Western' vampire and go with another? Take an idea that everyone has used, and put it into a context that few people know.
You're probably lucky that you've new to the genre - you can approach the vampire myth without the baggage of someone well-versed in its history and might end up stumbling onto some novel new way of depicting them. Asking other people for help is a sure-fire way of making your novel less original, though. It means all the ideas are at least second-hand.
You need to do what many authors before you have had to do,look at the characters and find a way to make them your own. The vampire legends are many and varied. Modern vampire culture is even more interesting than the undead, walking corpse stuff. Take a real, hard look at both legend and modern culture. Keep what really appeals to you and make the vampires your own. ~R
Invent vampires you think are dope. The chances are others will dig them, too. How about nordic vampires, like Irish or Scottish, that have survived for centuries and are now starting to make themselves known. Nordic mythology gives you a few things to work with. Japanese vampire lore is cool, and you usually only see it in Anime.
I agree with the other posts. If you're going to write about vampires then make a new twist to them. Do you want to use vampires though? In your post it kind of seemed like you were just pulling vampire out of the air. Unless you are set on using vampires, why not research some other creatures that aren't really used in stories? For example, a mythical creature that really fascinates me, but I rarely see them in stories is the Kelpie. Kelpie's are water horses who can emerge from the water looking like attractive men and women. They lure unsuspecting victims into the water and drown them. I think I've only seen them in one book so far, but I haven't read young adult fantasy in a while so I could be wrong. Either way, no matter what creature you use, it's going to be hard to be completely original. So I would say just try your best to make them your own.
Forget everything you know about vampires and make them your own, everyone has seen the traditional stereotypical vampires and the different variations on this, but why not do as other have suggested and find other versions from other cultures? as research i woudl reccomend the last vampire series by Christopher Pike, who links his vampires with Hindu gods and religion or Drawing Blood by Poppy z Brite (not really for the young squeemish or easily disturbed reader) which is about a group of geniune real life "vampires" (as in the type of people who file their teeth and attend underground nightclubs with a fetish for blood rather than the supernatural undead)
Because every genre carries a set of generic expectations that your novel will be expected to conform to. A publisher will expect a recognisable genre so that they know how to market the book, and readers of that genre will expect certain things from you based on the genre. So there are all these pressures on you based on what genre you're trying to write that can be limiting.
