Okay, in my last entry I disclosed I was working on a vampire novel. Now this is a genre that has been done and redone so many times it’s unbelievable. And almost every time there are new twists and turns added to it that they barely seem to resemble the traditional vampires that Bela Legosi and Christopher Lee made legendary in Hollywood. Today we have vampires that just totally ooze sex appeal, can sparkle in daylight instead of turning to dust, can have sex and produce offspring, are either monsters or saints, etc. And they are still as popular as ever in spite of all the changes to the original legend.
Now I’m not just talking about Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. That was not the first vampire story. There were many others. If you ever get the opportunity check out “The Penguin Book Of Vampire Stories” and you’ll see ones that predate Mr. Stoker’s work by quite a few years. But in that collection you’ll also meet other kinds of vampires: snow vampires, ones who hide inside portratis, aliens on different planets, etc. In this collection there are creatures of all sorts and shapes that are still called vampires.
This brings me to today’s subject. How can you breathe new life into a genre that has been written about so many times over? Well that’s up to the writer. As in the case of Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer and others, they tweek the original vampire concept to suit their story ideas. Sometimes they provide and explanation about why their creations don’t adhere to all the old legends, sometimes not.
So, you may be thinking, “Okay Allan, how are you going to ‘tweek’ the vampire concept and make it fresh and different? What changes are you going to make to the traditional weaknesses and rules?”
Here’s my answer. All the traditional rules of garlic, being welcomed into a place, avoid sunlight, shape-shift, control minions, etc. will be in effect. So where am I making the change? Simple, my vampire is NOT undead.
At this point I’m sure a number of you are thinking if he’s not undead then he can’t be supernatural. So how can all those limitations and vulnerabilities still apply to him? That’s where the creative writing process comes in. All of these things will be addressed in the story. And it won’t just be about a biography about my vampire. There will be dangers. The internet allows people access to a lot of information. And this story will be taking place in modern day. So there will be suspicious townspeople, cops on the hunt, the threat of discovery, a ghost, and villains (human and otherwise) to be battled.
So there you have it. A new take on a much used subject. But instead of changing all the rules, I’m working with them and making new reasons for why they apply. And in doing so, I’m hoping that a number of you are already really intrigued and are looking forward to checking the story out when it’s ready. If this is the case, then I’ve succeeded in breathing new life and interest into a genre that has been worked and reworked many times over. And it can be done with so many other genres such as fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, you name it.
So what genre or legendary creature/being have you thought about working on? Is there one close to your heart that’s been done a lot already? If so, how can you make it new and interesting? Are there rules for how it behaves or can be dealt with and what are the explanations behind it? Is there a new way to approach these things? Give us a new spin on it that still makes sense and intrigues us.
I’d love to hear from you and so would other people who read this blog. Leave comments below and tell us a little about what you are working on or have in mind. Be careful not to give your whole idea away. Just leave tantalizing hints that will get us revved up to check your work out as soon as it’s ready.
Until next time, keep writing.
What about the inability to cross running water?
That’s the difficult one, not just to explain, but even to apply in some passably consistent fashion.
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Oooo… I’d forgotten that one. I’ll have to think about that one. Thanks for bringing it up.
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My wip has vampires currently subdued while living in a parallel universe. With luck (good for them and bad for us) they will rise up again and cross into our world to begin their quest for domination.
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Excellent! Looking forward to seeing your work when it comes out. Nice new angle on the vampires by putting them in a trying situation. Well done.
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Uhm… my trilogy contains nearly all overmagical creatures EXCEPT vampires. LOOOOL
I don’t think it’s bad I left them out. They do deserve their own stories.
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Glad to see other magical creatures getting the spotlight. A number of them get neglected or overshadowed by vampires in novels. This is another area I’m going to be exploring in upcoming entries. The neglected beings, or overlooked, beings that are available from legend.
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The vampire hunter is also part of the undead universe that seems to have been tweaked and reworked in any number of ways. I’m working on a vampire hunter character I actually created before there was the current crop of them, seeking a way to make him a bit differerent. It seems most of the recent hunters had a supernatural aspect to them…mine is human, but so driven by his hatred of vampires (he won’t even call them vampires, undead or any “nice” names), he sometimes takes the monster role, almost. Still working on the details, he seems to keep adding new facets to his character that I hadn’t realized he possessed before, so I guess I’m letting him do the talking.
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That is great to hear. This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. Way to go Tim! Keep us posted on how the book is coming along. This sounds really intriguing.
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