Mods please move it if not the correct place. I started my story with vampires as primary baddies. However, I've come to realize that it's not necessary that my baddies are vampires at all. It dawned on me that, if I wrote vampires, I would be jumping on a bandwagon, as well as being restricted to a myth and all its implications. If I invented my own creatures, even if vampire-based, it would stand out from other books. My baddies drink blood of humans, but they might just as well sustain themselves with other things if I wanted them to. Although the blood of someone is the main ingredient of the story, it doesn't force me to treat the baddies as vampires. The problem is that I think some of the vampiric traits such as immortality would be cool to have. But, I don't want people to say I wrote vampires when I named them, say, "joes". Another problem is that I've already built a few characters with their vampirity in mind, so eliminating vampires would force me to change them, some slightly, some more. How to get rid of this dilemma? Should I just go with vampires or attempt to create a different, although similar, creature?
You decide. You have the power, and you have the responsibility. And you have the proofreading/revision process to get everything to hang together properly.
I suggest that you create something similar to the vampire but not exactly like vampire in order to differentiate your book from popular vampire novels. Readers might get the impression that your book is just another version of vampires novels that copied the characters of the popular vampire diaries and Twilight saga. Creating a slightly different character will give readers something new to imagine. You don't have to change the skills or superpowers that you intended to give to your character. You can just change the character and retain the special powers want them to have, noting that your character can have this skills that people think only vampires can have. But of course, you should also develop other superpowers that will not classify your character as a vampire.
There are only so many archetypes in the world, so you’re bound to bump into one sooner or later. Just make them what you want regardless of the bandwagons. Vampires aren’t a pure concept anyway. Just don’t tell the reader ‘they’re vampires’ and be done with it. Elaborate on it, you already seem to have an idea of what you want. The people who might say ‘aren’t those just vampires?’ will be satisfied by the clarification. The people who ride that bandwagon will like it anyway. And think about who you’re writing this for. Your own passion should drive the story, write about what you enjoy. You like vampirey stuff? Cool, use em. But don’t worry about what haters will say. Spoiler It’ll probably be hateful.
You have to choose which would be best for you. If your book already focuses around vampires too much, you may have a lot of editing to do if you switch. Although, I do think that vampires are seriously overdone.
Thanks for the input. I personally don't think vampires are overdone, it's a genre in its own right. Once it's established as a genre, it becomes perennial, and there's always vampires going on in fiction. The problem I faced was that, for example, a vampire novel has a heavy reliance on vampirism and its myth. In my story, I don't need to have the vampires, they could be different stuff, so why not experiment with different things. This way, my characters could walk in sunlight (not sparkling though!), have offspring, and so on.
I wouldn't try to get rid of vampires just because you feel that you are jumping on a bandwagon. I am currently writing something about them too. I struggled with the issue when developing my idea. I don't want people to think I had the idea because of Twlight. But I have been interested in Vampires long before Twilight, I think my first interest was because of Interview with a Vampire. I believe the idea of them offers so many places to go in the world of fiction and basically an escape of a lot of boundaries that regular life presents. My current writing is the only one I have ever wanted to do with vampires, everything else is just regular life. I actually wouldn't have them in this particular story if there wasn't a moral issue that only a vampire issue would present for my character. I have tried to think of a non-vampire reason for it and it just doesn't have the same affect on the characters. But the idea of vampires has been around for a very long time and probably will be around longer than anyone will remember Twilight. To fight against something just to be different seems pointless, but if you really are wanting to do something different from a creative point then I understand. I agree to definitely change up the vampire characteristics, especially the sparkling thing... at that point you would be jumping on a band wagon. No offense to Mrs. Meyers, but really sparkling vampires? I really would like to know the publishers feelings when they first read that.
I'd stick with the vamps, for the sole reason that if I was reading a book in which there were monsters who were very much like vampires, but not quite, I would think: "Ah, this is clearly a vampire novel, but the author is trying to be original by calling them something different and changing a few small details. How unoriginal." Alternatively you could make them completely different... but I think if they're drinking blood, it'd be hard to shake the "vampire" thing.
Don't listen to that nagging voice that tells you you are jumping on a bandwagon. Everyone who is writing anything, crime, romance, historical fiction, satire, is technically jumping on a bandwagon simply because it is enduring genre. Vampires are an enduring genre and even though I am extremely picky with my vamp fiction, I am always exhilarated when I get my hands on a new good one. I am hugely annoyed with people who keep shaming anyone who wants to write a vampire novel just because we recently had a few popular vamp novels. Don't listen to them because they are simply wrong. Write your book and call them vampires, dammit!
I read a very,very intresting but absolutly stupid bit of writing about fluoridation effecting the pineal gland i had no idea what the pineal gland was till i read it.Now i thought wow wouldn't it be cool if a group of vampire like people where killing people and eating there pineal gland.Okay i admit i do live in a wibbly wobbly world of my own but maybe you could get off the tired old vampire path and have a bunch of pineal gland chomping aliens instead?. Just a thought.
@Terry: There was an X-files episode like that. The creature wasn't a vampire but a mutant, but yeah, if you want look it up, it's one of the good ones
Hi, Just a thought, but why not switch to another similar established creature like a ghoul, with less mythos attached to it? Then you can rewrite a ghoul to be more vampire like but different in some key elements. Cheers, Greg.
Thanks again for the ideas. I'll go on with the vampires, I have an idea of working things out, not sure if I'll fit it all in a book, hopefully if I get published, I make success and work on a second one.
yay for vampires The concept just screams cliche at me but its also a challenge to make it your own cliche, if you get what I mean. i'm working on that now, I'd love to get it published, that is when I actually finish writing it lol ---> first two chapters. I think you should continue, good luck.
Create them and develop them exactly as you want, except don't refer to them as Vampires, and name the book: "Not About Vampires" In all seriousness, the others are right when they say it's your decision. But I think you're looking for other opinions more than anything with this question, so here's mine: Look into Vampire mythology and find a suitable "role model". Rather, any mythological creature. Lots of them drink blood (or certainly can do if you want them to) and most mythological creatures are considered to be nigh on immortal anyway. Find an appropriate creature. But don't stick with it - change it around so that it becomes the creature that you WANT to write about. You should not only feel very interested in this creature, but you should also be happy with its potential. This is only a suggestion IF you want to stray away from vampires. Personally, I'm fine with using vampires, because it's just one plot element in the entirety of the story. Everything's a cliche. Vampires have been talked about and written about for a very long time, but probably not the kind of vampires that are in YOUR story.
If you want to create your own supernatural creature, really conceptualize them before you start writing, or else you'll run into all sorts of untidiness. From what I've read, your creatures are very vampire-like, and most likely if I read your story without this, judging by what I just read here, I'd think them vampires. Vampires are fine, and while they have been diluted via Twilight, there's still a long tradition of dope vampire stories (Salem's Lot comes to mind). I'd go with maybe demons that feed off of souls, but I've always had a soft spot for them, and that might be really hard to fit into your story. From what I've read, it seems the easiest would be to stick with vampires (and it's not like you can't create your own unique type of vampire, imbue them with some personal touches to separate them from Stephen King's/Bram Stoker's, but if they're as vampire-like as you say, then people will just view them as thinly-veiled vampires, despite their different name.
