Thread: Vampires - Stuck on a plot

I have been wanting to write a vampire romance for a long time now, but now that Twilight has taken over the world, I am concerned that it will be seen as "just another vampire love story".

I am not really sure about how to get around this, as the concept of a human falling in love with a vampire has been so popular.

Any advice?

Originally Posted by Jinxi

I have been wanting to write a vampire romance for a long time now, but now that Twilight has taken over the world, I am concerned that it will be seen as "just another vampire love story".

I am not really sure about how to get around this, as the concept of a human falling in love with a vampire has been so popular.

Any advice?

One of the simplest and most effective ways you could distance your work from Twilight is to make the vampire...an actual vampire! A cursed, scary, pained creature of the night. Twilight is a massive cop-out. The vampire is a great looking, sparkly super-hero with few downsides except overt angst and a tendency to whine.

If your heroine and her dark lover (or vice versa) are both damaged, abnormal and perhaps in some form of co-dependancy, you'll not only have a much more interesting story than the least common denominator garbage that is Twilight, you'll have a work that bears no resemblance to it.

Best of luck!

Hi Jinxi, absolutley forget Twilight. I hve been posting Eternal my romantic vampire novel set in Paris 1927 and the idea behind it is all vampires are humans who drink blood, but only a lucky few can become Eternal. It's all about the psychology of a vampire and is mainly set in an asylum. Lots of psych stuff which I don't think has been done before. That's the key - be different.

I'd say the same thing, be as original as you can. Do vampires differently than people have seen. Maybe the girl can be a competent adult rather than an angsty high-schooler with no ambition. Whatever you do, please don't make the vampires sparkle.

Thank you so much Leyline, mockingbird and caelum. I really appreciate the advice. I was doing some research at work yesterday on some of the vampiric folk lore and the different "breeds" of vampires that were believed to have existed. I think it would be a good thing to take one or two of those and work around them, as opposed to the sparkly excuse that was The Cullens.

Whatever you do, don't treat it like a standard romance story.

I hate to say it, but vampires or no, Twilight is little more than the standard "Boy meets girl and falls in love, but there are dumb and overblown reasons they can't be together and so they have to spend a bunch of time pining for each other's hot bodies before they figure out that their problems weren't really that big to begin with."

Writing a realistic relationship between two adults (not angsty teens in adult bodies) can be tough, but if you can get it even halfway right, then the story should focus on the relationship rather than all the silly mellow-drama.

In the end, just don't make it all 'oh my gosh he's a vampire and I totally can't be with him because he'll eat me!' Treat it with some maturity.

Your research into true vampiric folklore probably revealed that vampires have never been considered sexy hearthrobs. A more unconventional take on your tale could have the romance be between humans, with a truely evil vampire threatening to rip it apart. Vampires of legend and folklore are soulless things who use their superficial resemblance to humans like a cameleon uses its camoflage, to hunt and hide.

I think a vampire/therapist combo would be intriguing. Mental health professionals can't violate confidence clauses, so criminals (and also, therefore vampires) could talk to them and even develop friendships.

You'll want to figure right off if your vampires are a separate, living born-that-way species or if they're just humans with an add-on template of cool abilities.

Romances are also overdone. Why not write Ole Yeller with vampires? How about a bromance or coming-of-age story?

I would definetely try and write a vampire story but instead of romace I would try it out more as a action. Make a proper story line, my god the story in Twilight was so predictible. Try making it a civil war perhaps, you know elders vs low lifs and one of them falls in love (still predictable though......).