Young Writers Society

First off, if you're going to write about vampires (or any mythical monster) Do your research!And yes I mean some very extensive research. You must know what makes a vampire a vampire. When you read a vampire myth think about why it's a vampire myth. Such as fangs, the vampire's need their fangs to puncture blood vessels when they bite.

Now remember that vampires are mythical monsters. Medieval vampire stories terrified people. They didn't make girls swoon they made people scream and run. Don't make them all pretty and perfect to make the 'ideal' lover boy image, that just irks a lot of people.

If there is romance in your story make it believable. Don't have people falling in love when they first meet. Relationships take time to build and effort to last. Also when and if they fall in love have them concentrate on personality more than looks because obsessing over some ones looks is lust not love.

Hope that helps feel free to pm me if you want anymore help

I like vampires. At least, I admired Bram Stoker's kind of vampires. Today's mainstream has really killed almost all of my interest in vampires. Thank you, Twilight.

I just don't like that it's all getting very same-y. The genre is stagnating, and it's current popularity is just adding to this. Experiment. Do something different with with it.

I'm speaking to you "don't deviate from the established mythos" people too. The established mythos is boring.

Also, I'd actually argue there is no such thing as an established mythos for vampires - for example, Cheshire-Writer mentions above that vampires are meant to have fangs, but did you know that the whole 'fang' concept was invented by Hollywood? It's not apart of the original myths, nor any of the original stories. So then, do we consider it to be apart of the vampire canon, or not? (The answer: it doesn't matter. Do with the vampires what you will.)

Sureal wrote:I'm speaking to you "don't deviate from the established mythos" people too. The established mythos is boring.

If you don't use established mythology then how is the vampire a vampire? I'm saying that a vampire should be a vampire, not something else. Lets say you write a story about mermaids but you call the mermaids Sirens, it doesn't fit because Sirens are half bird half woman creatures from Greek Mythology. Mermaids are half fish half women.

That doesn't mean you can't put a twist on it, but you need to realize that if you are using an established mythologic creature you have to pay attention to the mythology.

The fang thing was just an example because it has been with the vampire myth for a long time. Some authors have changed it a bit, some vampires have retractable fangs while others have their fangs showing all the time, that's how the authors twisted the myth in their story with out completely ignoring what was established.

Personally I think there are too many vampire stories, so yes they bore me to, that's why I created my own creatures instead of using established ones.

Krupp wrote:I like vampires. At least, I admired Bram Stoker's kind of vampires. Today's mainstream has really killed almost all of my interest in vampires. Thank you, Twilight.

Yes, thank you Smeyer you ignorant prat.