I've been fasinated by Vampire fiction and non-fiction since I was about 12 years old. I'm always looking for decent Vampire stories, and sometimes it becomes hard. It becomes samey and cliche with a gorgeous male Vampire meeting a plain or 'average' woman who he falls in love with. I want to write Vampire fiction without cliche and convention, but I also don't want my audience to feel that I'm being different just to be different. I recently read the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. While it was cliche and full of Mary Sue's and Gary Stu's, it was worth the read and I actually enjoyed it.
Just make your vamps uniquely yours, and you should be fine. We're just sick of the Twilight-esque vampires.
I think you're right, the 'beautiful vampire man meets beautiful human girl' thing has been done, and then done again. That being said, I don't really care about that if there are enough differences to make it really good and interesting. I also like the idea of switching the roles. What if the strong one was the girl? What if, unlike most female vampires (that I've read of, or seen), she was a KIND, less blood thirsty girl. Obviously, characters need flaws, but I'm thinking more along the lines of the character of Rebekah in The Vampire Diaries (which is in the show rather than in the books).
To be honest, I'm sick of sexualized vampires. Twilight isn't even to blame, though it often is because people don't like it. Sexualized vampires seems to have came to prominence with Anne Rice, before that there was just one novella by Lord Byron's mate and the hot female vampires in Dracula where Vampires were not seen as ultimately repulsive monsters. Give me Nosferatu!
I think vampires are interesting if done right. For example, the House of Night young adult series by the Casts. They have a lot of typical cliches, but they also have explanations for it. Vampires are Marked, which turns them into fledglings. The fledglings have to be near other vampires until their change is complete or the change won't take and they'll drown in their own blood. So they go to a vampire "finishing school" where they learn vampire history and whatnot. Vampires are also described as being way more talented than humans, and they sexualize the blood drinking. But it's still interesting. Vampires can become bound to humans if they drink their blood, which makes the human completely obsessed with said vampire. Anyway. It's pretty hard to read sometimes because it's very teen, but you could probably look up the general points. I like the way the authors played with vampire stereotypes and gave a reason to them. It was different and refreshing.
Overdone? Yes. But do it anyway. Seriously. If you have a good vampire story - write it. Find a different angle. Do what you want. Make it yours. Heck, I got into a brainstorming discussion with another vampire writer on this forum about putting vampires in historical fiction and writing in the middle ages - I threw out the idea of eploring how Dracula's ancestors arrived in Transylvania and explaining how they got there and where they came from...I hate vampire premises, think they're overdone, but I'd read that. If you want you can take that free of charge because I'm never writing it. Either way - if you want vampires write vampires. Just make sure they're interesting vampires.
The last entertaining vampire story I watched was Let the Right One In. Otherwise, tired of the same ole vampire drama.
Well the beautiful man meeting the pretty girl(Vampy or not) is of course over done. Why? Because it is a good story. People want love and as such they want a love story. To write good vampire fiction as with any good writing requires time effort and good character development. I don't care if you have the coolest idea EVER! if your characters suck(anything beside blood) then I personally just don't care. High tension is impossible without effort. Its the effort to focus on. It is true a lot of conventional stories skip this effort instead relaying on the cliche to carry there work. They suck(not blood). So as for new concepts? Go for it! but don't think it can allow you to skip out on effort and good development. Vampires don't matter when it comes to over done. Cookie cutter stereotypes! That is what is over done(Like a vampy in the sun) Okay one more vampy pun is going to be like a steak to my heart!!!!! lol
Dracula and Nosfertu are obviously the godfathers of Vampire fiction. I read a few books in The Vampire Chronicles, but alays found them too flowery and boring. Vampire Academy stuff isn't so bad -- for teenagers, of course. I can deal with YA fiction sometimes as long as the plot is engaging enough. Favourite Vampire things: Near Dark Being Human (UK) Vampire: The Masquerade (game) Underworld (sort of....it's fun now and then) Blade Dracula So perhaps classic, with a noir or neo-gothic twist. Whatever the genres are called.
Godfather? No way! Lord Byron, would be the Godfather - Dracula, Carmilla, la belle dame sans merci now that I think about it, and Coleridge's Christabel, and Nosfertu are more like the fathers and mothers of modern vampire fiction.
I believe a great man once said "Stories about any one thing are 'over done.' Good stories about all of those things are under done" ... but I don't remember who
I had forgotten about his Lordship, but I do like some Carmilla. I'm sure there's a webseries based on it, which I must get to watching soon. Basically, I want a lot of gore and Vampire violence. Maybe a bit of romance. Spiritualism. The occult. Living in darkness. No going out in the day.
Well you sound like you're already out of the Twilight lane and more toward traditional vampire myth. Maybe plqy games with setting or time period. Find a place people don't think about vampires and put vampires there. Maybe take it out of Europe into Africa or Asia? Or get rid of the aritocratic Dracula and give us blue-collar vampires in 1970s Detroit. Those are examples but the larger point being that you can probably do traditional vampire horror but play games with the wheres and whys to get a different view of the narrative.
I think if you've got a story to tell, tell it! The best thing to do is try to avoid the cliches that people are getting sick of. Of course it's vampires so you're going to have to put some of them in or they just aren't vampires! But you can put your own spin on them. As far as being different for different's sake, I say be as different as you want to be. Don't stick to other people's rules, invent your own! Can't wait to see what you come up with if you happen to post anything on the forum
You just need to come up with your own unique twist on vamps and then suddenly they're good to go. True Blood made vampirism a civil rights issue with the "coming out of the coffin" angle. Twilight (may its pages rot) decided that vampires needed to sparkle. Me? My vampires piss. Seriously. Ever notice that any time two vampires come into conflict, they hiss like a couple of stray cats? Got me thinking, which is never a good idea. So now my vampires are constantly pissing all over everything, marking their territory like aggressive felines and generally stinking up the place. And there is nothing that smells worse than vampire piss.
"I must preface this by saying that there is nothing, not in all the infinite worlds nor the Seventeen Screaming Hells, that smells worse than vampire piss." Vampire piss is sometimes bottled and used as a stink-grenade by anyone who doesn't mind committing a war crime. The stink lingers and it's so bad that vamps can't sneak up on anyone. Instead they walk up to you on the street, try to strike up a bit of small talk before politely inquiring after a bit of your blood. "Dude, it's only weird if you make it weird."
