I was thinking of vampire characters. But I don't want to copy someone's vampire and started a fight. So about would make me own kind? Good or bad idea?
There are more takes on the vampire myth than I would care to count, and the market is totally oversaturated with anything vampire-related at the moment. That said, if you feel that you can create an interesting twist on a tired idea, then of course you should try.
By definition, there are certain things that all vampires have to have in common, or they're not really vampires anymore. There aren't really many truly original innovations in terms of the design of a vampire, so yeah, I think you can probably pick and choose which traits you'd like to use without any problem, especially if they're more widely used tropes. You might hit a problem if you decide to use a few of the more unique traits (like Stephanie Meyer's sparkly vampires), but with things like flight, telepathy, invulnerability, things that are pretty common in te mythology, you're fine.
I don't think it has all been done. Really all you need to make a vampire is to have a creature that drinks blood with fangs. From there, every other variable or detail you get to make up. Appearance Life span How they became a vampire what they hunt nocturnal or not sexual beings or not how they affect humans what their role is in the food chain rich or poor gay or straight strong or weak and on and on... Because of twilight, straight to video movies and Anne Rice everyone thinks that Vampires are over done, I think not. I think there is so much more to do with them.
I disagree. Vampires are definitely overdone. My local libraries fantasy section is filled with nothing but vampire stuff. =_=;
I'm having an awesome amount of fun writing a series about a vampire hunter who NEVER ever encounters vampires. It's awesome - he's expecting the whole cast of the "Dark Romance" shelves to come parading past for a staking, but keeps flailing wildly at new monsters I made up instead. Best way to write vampires is not to write them.
I can agree that more than ever there are more vamp books out there, some of them good, most horrid. But, how many of those books portray the stereotypical vampire? Most of them. Everything that can be done with vampires has not been done mainly because authors fall into the what a typical vampire is. Just because a bunch of authors saw $$ after twilight and flooded the market does not mean that an author cannot come up with a new take on the vampire and win hearts. Over done? Just because a library's cooking section is full of cook books does not mean a better cook book is not out there.
Well said Hopefully, someone comes up with a new take on vamps that is not all the same. No sparkles please.
First off I would suggest you do do some research into the various vampire myths. From my understanding from a bit of research I did it seems there is some form of Vampire in cultures all around the world. Alot of these vampire like creatures are far cooler then the ones that are depicted in fiction. I mean how cool is it that some can detach their heads and have them fly at their victims? But do your research into these vampire like creatures.
Are there too many detective stories? Too many stories about strong willed young women in the 1700's, or 1800's? Too many stories set on other planets? Heck no. A vampire is just a character, it's what you do with the character that makes the book fresh. I'd like to think that the vampire in my book is different enough to merit attention. And that the story is fresh enough to keep the experience entertaining. Aaron Geist isn't a suave, charming, sophisticated aristocrat. He's a monster who only uses human form because he must; a shape-shifter with a very, very bad temper. I tried to make the story fresh by setting the bulk of the book in southern Illinois in the mid-nineteenth century, and by running a dual timeline between the events of that time and the current day where two young men are used as unwilling pawns to free him from his entombment deep within a cave. It took a lot of work to make the story distinct from the formula, but with creativity and hard work you can make it work too.
I hope you post samples of this work later on because it just sounds awesome. This sounds like it coudl be full of gritty, dark humor. Back on topic, one of my favorite vampire stories is the fantasy series the Noble Dead by Barb & J.C. Hendee. It's fun because the MCs in the series are vampire hunters, but at the start of the first book they are actually frauds. One MC poses as the 'slayer' while the other MC plays the role of the 'vampire'. They rip off villages with their act until they decide to settle down. It's at this point when their reputation as vampire hunters comes back to haunt them and they become involved with real vampires and other undead.
I've never written a vampire story, but I agree with most of what Arron said, The 'interesting twist' is what stands out here for me. I'm not so sure about the tired idea part. An idea is only "tired" when it truly has been overdone, and everything coming out in that storyline is the same. That hasn't happened completely from what I've seen in the vampire lines. It's true that there are a lot of copies out there, but those original but Different vampire characters that pop up now and then are a truly refreshing to me and I don't mind reading a vampire tale that's different.
Can I give some advices? My english might not me best, so ask if you don't understand something. Okay so first I suggest that you look at other sites for information, and other fictions and stuff. Like here: http://vampirediaries.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire and here: http://trueblood.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire Those two links are from True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. You might want to check their vampires and take something for them. Then again you can make something up. But please, don't make them sparkly like Mrs. Meyer's because those were her original ideas and you could get in trouble. You can also look at the list of superpowers. Did your vampires have any powers when they were still human? Have they got their powers after they became vampires? Normal humans often have to drink the blood of another vampire, then die in order to become a vampire. You could make the vampire-turning thing some kind of a sickness. Maybe the experiment that went wrong and now people are turning into vampires because of some pills/medicine/food/water/etc. You get my point. You can also make something different. In one of my fictions where vampires are mentioned people don't have to die to become vampire-like. In that fiction I made that if a human drinks vampire's blood, their senses will heighten (I dunno if I spelled the word right) and they will become stronger. They will also grow fangs, heal faster and drink blood, but they would be able to control and they wouldn't go all crazy to get blood. They can also go into the sun. Of course, my full, real vampires have to hide from the sun, they're stronger, faster, heal better, have better senses and such. Those mentioned above are just half vampires and those are also weaker than full vampires. Of course, my real vampires are immortal, while those half ones can age and die like a human, and also be healed from the 'sickness' the vampire passed onto them by a healer. But in order for my half vampires to stay that way, they have to drink vampire blood or else they'll return to being human when vampire blood is out of their system. Of course, you don't have to make it that way. You can make something up, get from other sites, wikias and such. I just gave you an example. This was my opinion and nothing else.
Just throwing this out there, in my current book there is vampires. Pretty much in this world there was no such thing, until the humens arrived. The people with the disease porphyria (I think thats what its called) came into the new world, and with the new world came magic. Magic somehow caused the disease to rapidlly evolve into a more stereo typical vampire. Main traits include; need of blood, weakness, extened lives, uglyness, cant go out in daylight. But thats only in the first months. That my idea on vamps, its original and its still a vamp.
Thanks! I already know a lot so I did my resceach all time ago. So picking what I like is my best thing. No sparkle here. Thanks for all the ideas.
For a different twist on vampires, you could check out the Hellsing series. The main character is a vampire, and Dracula himself no less, but he is basically just a Lovecraftian horror that merely takes on human form because his master (The descendant of Abraham van Helsing) wants to exert at least some form of control over him. When he does release his potential, however... Well, see for yourself. It's an animé, and a gory one at that, but it has a truly dark twist on vampires, and, IMO, noteworthy for that exact reason. And yes, I mention it a lot, but it does have the best twist on vampires in pop culture that I have seen so far.
I tend to agree that the market, nay, the world is saturated with vampires. They're everywhere. Not just in movies but half the shows on TV. Even if you could re-invent the vampire, would anyone ever care?
Compare Twilight/True Blood type vampires to the ones in Hellsing (TV show), and the ones in the Legacy of Kain series (videogames). In my humble opinion, a vampire is best done when his (or her) character is distinct and powerful. When his character comes first, his 'condition' second. Being a vampire is an integral part of him, but not by any means all he has to offer as a character. But I'm biased - my muse is a vampire. (And a suave, sophisticated one at that.) It's funny how people here will say "write what you want to write", except if you want to write vampires. (I'm not criticizing, I understand why, but I do think it's a little hypocritical.)
I wrote a vampire story and just ensured that my Vampires characters didn't feed into the stereotype, but I kept with some traditions e.g can't see reflection in the mirror, can be killed by decapitation, silver bullet or stake through the heart. I think there is still a huuuuuuge market and demand for vampire novels-just check out the bookshelves in the supermarkets!
When you define yourself in opposition to a thing, that thing still defines you. My general advice: Do not to worry what other people's vampires are like. What draws you to the mythos surrounding vampires? Write the story that you want, with the element(s) of vampire mythology that assist that goal. Or that you just think are super awesome with sugar on top. Write vampires that you like, or your writing will suffer for it. To often people get caught up in "making it my own", and the characters suffer. I firmly believe you can take the cheesiest vampire ever and make it work if the character/plot is interesting. That said: I don't like scientific explanations for vampires or werewolves. They work better as supernatural creatures, not misundertood victims of diseases or some evolutionary offshoot of humanity. There are tons of different types of vampires from countless mythologies. Pick and choose based on what (if any) origin you have for vampires. I took several different types, streamlined them, and made each a different vampiric House founded when a particular demon possessed a human corpse (none of that virus bullcrap; vampires are monsters). Thus each "bloodline" has different traits though all feed off human life force (usually with blood as a medium). The life force thing was a worldbuilding concession. It let me include various chi or aura drinking vampires that don't necessarily draw blood AND ensured that it is super duper hard to be a friendly neighborhood vampire. Blood is just a medium some vamps use. They gain nothing from the blood itself. Even the kindest vamp eventually has to choose between starving to death or killing someone (or simply draining them over a longer time, which still kills them eventually). Thus natural selection ensures that most vampires are, by the standards of humans, total jerks. Kinder vamps tend to become judges of humanity, feeding off criminals and others they deem unworthy of life. It's that or die. And no feeding off vamps or other supernatural critters. They have to kill humans.
Some different ideas: Many stories are about the vampire who is trying to fit in or be good, or is simply misunderstood. Make your protagonist a bad vampire. People are simply cattle to him. But he's the MC, not the bad-guy character. Different twists on sunlight: maybe they keep out of light because it makes them more good/compasionate/moral? Makes them high, like the drug extacy? Maybe they are a lot larger or smaller than people. How about real bats, not people at all? They develop a hive mind.
