I’m looking for some input as to what exactly it is about vampire novels that the public enjoys. I’m in the planning stages of attempting to write my own novel (based in the Vital-verse with some of my characters), and while I always have a strong sense of individual character plots and motives, I tend to fail utterly at attempting to write any sort of long term plot. (Translation: There’s more than one reason why Vital has more of a setting than any sort of side-wide plot. ;))

So! I have come to humbly beg you all for some inspiration. :heh: I do have a few starting points for a plot, but I would love to know what it is that you all love about vampire novels (or movies, even), in order to get a grasp of what sorts of themes I should be thinking about including. Be as specific or generic as you care to; even if you feel it’s something that’s over-done, plop it here.

Alternatively, what is it about Vital that you enjoy? What in Vital would you want to see featured prominently in a novel (other than your own characters :P)?

Thanks in advance. :)

Hmmmm...What I love about vampire novels/movies...

I love how they're kinda gritty. Like the Anita Blake series, it's got gritty action, it's sarcastic...Well I think I like imagining how the world would be if vampires existed.

I like how the Anita Blake novels are a mix of action, horror, and good old fashioned sex/love.

Vital...I love how I can let my imagination kind of go off on its own. I'm not exactly the most imaginative, but I feel more at home when RPing for some reason.

I think one of the biggest hooks is the inevitable tug between people and vampires. There's nothing more Romantic than the tragic hero, and that's kind of what vampires are. They're always (at least in modern literature) portrayed more like people than a whole different species, and they're always interacting with humans, trying to pass for humans. They kind of fill the archetypal role of mysterious outsider, no matter what the individual character is like, and something about the human psyche finds that really attractive.

The themes in vampiric novels are always a little abstract, I think. The characters always seem to be grasping at the unknown, and it's dangerous and it's sexy and it's darkly heroic. And it is a little typical, but it's also a tireless subject. Just like death--there are so many different interpretations and perspectives that it never gets old.

Does that help/make sense? :/

You've both been very helpful, thanks. :wub:

I can feel the creative wheels turning already...but of course I'm at work and without my notebook. :P

I think Myrth really hit it on the head there.

There is this whole tragic outsider/hero/ anti-hero mentality that vampire fiction tends to bring to the table, plus vampires are always a bit morally ambiguous, which is kind of fun and interesting to explore.

The conflict between what’s right and what feels right, what you believe versus what is reality, the questions of essentially what is good and what is evil; all of these things are something to explore.

I actually have an X-men original character that I’ve RPed a bit who is actually the mutant equivalent to a vampire. He gets into all kinds of interesting situations just based on what people assume of vampires and the preconceived notions they bring to the table with them.

Something that’s always fun is to play with clichéd aspects of the vampire and make them new and sometimes funny. We all do it on Vital a whole lot, sometimes without even thinking about it. Look at the Queen Bee vampire who’s a child, the vampire that’s afraid of blood, the vampire that isn’t exactly the suave creature of the night or the Victorian/Elizabethan noble.

That was I think my biggest gripe with Anne Rice, all of her vampires, while different and interesting with their quirks and character flaws, they all came from a single social class or somewhere around it. Reach across the world for your characters, across the ages, and even across the gender role and sexuality lines. I think that vampires are also kind of like an altered reflection of humanity. After all people create monsters, but they don’t just come out of thin air, indeed more often than not they come from the inside out. If you’re afraid of getting old or living forever, you bless/curse the monster with those things. If you’re afraid of being weak, your fear is of the strong, blood is symbolic usually of life and that's what vampires feed on really, life, without being alive. That's the terror that really got to people when the legends and myths originated.

I hope that was helpful, I get lost in my rants some times and can't tell. :heh:

I rather like that they show the true value, feelings and worth of the vampire, as opposed to making them out to be some sort of monster or demon whose life is better left unaddressed. To me, that is what is so alluring about them. That they can be beautiful and ugly beings just like humans.

Well first, before I say anything about the so-called 'modern' vampire genre, I have to go back to the old Dracula films. I liked the buildup of the horror in those, the anticipation, the tension...and then the sudden drama that ends up making you jump even though you know it's coming long before it actually does. I love that. LOL

But I think the modern vampire is even better. A good horror flick is awesome (and there aren't many I can call 'good' anymore <_< ), but drama is also good. As has been said already, most vampire lore now pictures vampires as mortals forced to walk the earth for an eternity. Some consider it a prison while other consider it newfound freedom. Some people are stuck in between those two, while others just do what they've always done and see vampirism as convenient - no need to eat, after all, though they do need blood and sleep; that cuts out the food bill though. Some people consider themselves Zorro or the Lone Ranger, y'know? They figure: "Well, I'm damned anyway, might as well take a few bastards off the street that should've been convicted back in court."

The beauty in vampire fiction as I see it is both the poetic nature of most graphic novels and the drama and personal conflict that's now portrayed almost everywhere you look. There are so many different personalities out there - over 6.5 billion of them in fact - and no two people handle a situation in exactly the same way. Even twins only occasionally do. Thus, it's quite interesting to hear how each person deals with the fact that they're essentially walking corpses. Also, it's interesting how they try to blend in.

For those of you watching the TV drama Moonlight, Mick St. John is a good example. He's hated what he is since the moment Coraline turned him, and now he's found himself knee-deep in something he still doesn't fully understand. His being a private detective has helped him branch out into humanity a bit, but he would kill to be completely mortal again.

*hugs her copy of Guilty Pleasure* I LOVE ANITA BLAKE!
Sarcasm is great and I agree, I like differnt vampires. Not just the normal sterotypes. I dunno what it is about modern day vampire novels. They're just compelling. Maybe it's b/c people think vampires are sexy? I don't know- All I know is that you can get really creative- like in Anita Blake, Vampires are citizens and have rights. I like that twist a lot. I love that they own their own businesses and have jobs. It's very contemporary and I like that.

and... *poke* you should put Nikki in your book *nudge* lol. j/k.
oh and if you write your book- make a lot of Jeff scenes. He's a really fun character.

Thanks again everyone. :)

I'm very familiar with the Anita Blake books. :) The trick is for me not to be too influenced by them. ^.^' Or Anne Rice, or Tanya Huff with her Blood Ties series. Love 'em all; need to work hard not to accidentally rip them off. :P

And if I thought I had any chance in hell of writing other people's characters as well as they do, I'd beg permission to do so, Nikki, but I know I don't. :heh: I'll try and work Jeff in though. ;) I had a few thoughts here and there of trying to make a mini-series centered around him, teehee.

In the words of my Ethics Professor: “Plagiarism’s just not cool, bro!”

:lol:

You're right though, Marcus it should be your own unique take and style, and I've no doubt that you can do it Boss Lady. Remember to have fun with the writing too, because sometimes it becomes a job and that's when you know that those things probably aren't going to be your best.

P.S. I'm tempted to rip off Karen Chance, that lady has come up with the coolest vampire feeding ability on the planet. Osmosis!

I'm a little late, but if you want the perspective of somebody who hasn't read the Anita Blake or Anne Rice novels... Well, whether you do or not, it looks like you're gonna get it. :lol:

Anyway.

What makes vampires cool to me is pretty much the same thing that makes superheroes cool. They're basically human, but then they aren't. They have these powers that humans can only dream of ('cause, you know, aren't we?) and they conquer the one thing humans can't--death. (Duh?) Plus, it's the whole 'party all night' thing. Vampires can debauch till the cows come home and it doesn't affect them. They can do all the things humans don't because we don't want to die. They can drink hard, smoke, do drugs, etc. without any fears.

Also, I like the evil aspect. You've got a creature humans can't stop... well, he can do whatever he wants, basically.

Anyway...

*skulks away*

It'll never be too late to post in this thread, Rommie. :lol:

As with the others, I greatly appreciate your input. :) You'll all get mentioned in the dedications if this book does ever make it to print, I promise. :wub:

*Squeals.* You've got a Dean Winchester avvie!!!!!!! O.O *Loves you all of a sudden.* I sooo want him, the sexy biatch. :suave: :love:

My thought on the whole matter is not to make it too far-fetched or it might not get to the people you're trying to write to. Like if you're thinking about gothic teens when you write the story, you probably won't want to do a futuristic novel in which vampires are all the rage and all over the news and such. Something like this Anita Blake person might be good if you spin it right, but make it too flashy or too off-beat and it might not get read much, or it might reach a totally different audience. :/

But yeah, put Lisa in if you want. The world can always use a mortal girl who's so broken up over her boyfriend leaving her for her best friend that she ends up getting drunk and taking strange men home every night. ^_^

Late to the party as always, though as of late I've just been looking at the party from the street, but I might as well toss my bit in with the others.

I've always liked vampires because of their tragedy. The fact that I can't even fathom of what to do in one lifetime and yet they've an eternity to spend in this perpetual limbo. Even more then that though I like to see them struggle to grip with what life is now, and how while in "life" they may have actually been religious, like the revamped Gabriel which was never used, and now in "death" they're forced to question what happens now and why it is that they're still alive. For if you need no food, no warmth, no shelter, and you've given up on love...what is there left to live for?

To me it's all about them being forced to look in through the window, having all this power, but never being able to use it and always being forced to just watch as the world takes one step closer to ruin.

Anyways, that's just my take on the subject.

...

Well, crap, I had this huge thing all written out and then my internet crapped out on me, so I'm going to write this in word and then come back.

...

What I love about vampire novels is that they allow me to imagine my complete antithesis. Carl Jung said that we all have an archetypal “shadow” – the things about ourselves that we don’t want to admit. That’s essentially what vampires are, isn’t it? A personification of all our deepest, most animalistic desires placed into a perfected version of ourselves. It allows us to see these parts of ourselves reflected, to imagine what it would be like to immoral, amoral, or simply hedonistic. They are, essentially, a romanticized version of everything we, as humans, don’t want to admit to feeling – blood lust, hate, sadism, masochism, etc. etc.

There is, also, the aspect of immortality. It’s something that everyone cleaves to, this idea that we can cheat death. Death is, after all, the only certainty. Nobody knows precisely what comes after. We may claim we know, but nobody has ever come back to tell us it’s so. Vampires have, in a way, become the new afterlife.

Also, because I strive to be somewhat of a polymath (and fail, somewhat), the idea of the knowledge that could be accumulated during such a long life is what draws me towards them. I’m a knowledge junkie, and I know it. I’m not even talking simply about written information, but even just about the information. Imagine the differing perspectives one could have on the universe!

My suggestion to you would be that maybe, since individual plots and motives are your specialty, perhaps consider weaving a book wherein these different plots somehow cross? It wouldn’t have to involve any sort of huge crisis (although it could), but it could consist of varying viewpoints that mingle in some way. I’m suggesting this mostly because of a book I just finished reading, wherein the plots were nestled into each other like those Russian stacking dolls. While they were at first completely unrelated, one or two little details in each of the little vignette-like chapters linked them inextricably to each other. (The book, by the way, was called Cloud Atlas, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good novel that has just a twist of sci-fi, mystery and romance.)

In keeping with the above, however, I will say to write what you know, and to play on your strengths. If the individual characters are what you do best, don’t try to write something that takes you too far from that (unless that is your ultimate aim). I’m not saying that you have to do an Anne Rice-esque novel focusing on every aspect of a single character, but perhaps something more character-driven and introspective might fit you better than something that’s action-action-action?

That’s my very long two cents.


(P.S. I don’t know when I’ll be talking to you next, Kira-love. Pop me a line about what you want as a souvenir. I need to start making lists of what to get people, and I want you to be on that list. :3)