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/lit/ - Literature

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2386602 No.2386602 [Reply] [Original]

Do you think it would be possible to write a vampire romance that wasn't shit?

What would have to be done for /lit/ to be convinced it wasn't an attempt to cash in on the Twilight craze?

>> No.2386603

Vampires are an instant dead-end. There is no way around this.

>> No.2386605

>Do you think it would be possible to write a vampire romance that wasn't shit?
Possible? Yes. But it would take a lot of effort, and a lot of people would still claim you were just trying to make bank from Twilight.
>What would have to be done for /lit/ to be convinced it wasn't an attempt to cash in on the Twilight craze?
Me, personally? Make vampirism a curse as well as a boon. Make vampires romantic, sure, but also terrifying. Read a lot of the vampire horror stuff. Dracula, Carmilla. And a lot of non-vampire, classic romance and gothic works. Jane Eyre, for example. Read horror unrelated to vampires, and figure out what makes a scene truly frightening. Put some of those in there.

For a nice mix up, make the human male and the vampire a female. Then tell it from the POV of either. If the male, have him terrified of her at first, then seduce her. If the female, have her see him as prey at the beginning... and toy with him like a cat does a mouse. But somehow he melts her heart, just for a moment, and she spares him.

>> No.2386607

>>2386605

LOL JUS COPY ANN RICE XD

>> No.2386609

Make their lives utter shit. Like they had to get their fangs surgically removed with an illegal operation to blend in to general populace. They now have to inject blood intravenously, which is a hassle because it's hard to come by. They can also only work shitty nightshift jobs and have no chance of making a lot of money. They have no superpowers, they're just bloodfiends.

>> No.2386610

>>2386607
There's very little scary in any Anne Rice stuff I've read. Also, isn't most of her shit vampire on vampire?

>> No.2386614

The problem is writing a romance that isn't shit. Everything else is just window dressing. So read some good romance stories, then just add vampires.

>> No.2386615
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2386615

My whole problem with the notion of a vampire relationship is that the human is just a pet to the vampire.

The life span of a human is but a spit in the vampires time. I think any seasoned or long living vamp would bore of the idea of love.

Any that didn't were probably with some serious denial issues and might be good to show it as a drug or disorder the vampire would have.

Otherwise it would just seem a pointless toying with their dinner.

And don't have them change the human to a vamp to be immortal lovers. Cuz they wouldn't. It also makes it that one or the other has to concede their existence to the other and that's just a bad message that woman have propagated to the point of down right vulgarity.

Also immortal lovers are going to tire of one another. People have a hard time staying together for a few years. What, fucking eternity going to be like?

Find a way around these.

>> No.2386619

>>2386615
>And don't have them change the human to a vamp to be immortal lovers. Cuz they wouldn't.
HEY EVERYBODY. LISTEN TO ME. I KNOW WHAT IMMORTALS WOULD DO BECAUSE I HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH LIVING FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

>> No.2386621

>>2386619
Would you invite a black person to your house?

Better yet, lets take the race out. Would you invite a Muslim?

Let take away the religion.

Would you reason with your dinner?

Its logic fuck face.

>> No.2386622

>>2386615

I think you're actually on to something here. How would immortals deal with monogamous relationships? I agree that 'till death do you part' is a rather tall order for them.

>> No.2386625

>>2386621

I'd reason with my dinner if it were capable of such an act. We don't anything smart enough for that.

>> No.2386628

>>2386621
>Would you invite a black person to your house?
Yes.
>Better yet, lets take the race out. Would you invite a Muslim?
Yeah.
>Would you reason with your dinner?
If my dinner were self aware? Possibly. Especially if I could drink some of their blood without killing them, which is an option that most vampires in literature have had.

>> No.2386629

>>2386622
Monogamy is a fiction made plausible by short human lifespans, especially back in the day when people died when they were that we now call middle aged. Now that we live longer and are less scared by institutions, divorce is rampant.

Immortals would have probably accepted this as a truth and don't grieve it (anymore). Also, they would probably have a very different experience of time.

>> No.2386630
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2386630

>>2386625
The point being is that birds of a feather flock together.

People have a hard time getting around things like Skin color and religion, political stances.

How's it going to look to a vampire from a social stand point trying to have an emotional connection to a being that doesn't know the vampire saw Abraham Lincoln shot at Fords theater? The emotional gulf between them is like Earth to Mars. Sure you can reach the red planet, but not without a billion dollars and a hundred-thousand people.

>> No.2386631

>>2386622
What about polyamorous vampires, or vampires who have a few primary partners but fuck around and none of them is bothered by it? You have humans for sex and food, and other vampires for sex and emotional connection.

>> No.2386632

>>2386630

>People have a hard time getting around things like Skin color and religion, political stances.

You're projecting.

>> No.2386633

Hey guys, vampires reproduce by siring. I'm not sure they're capable of sex.

>> No.2386634

>>2386632
Don't even be so fucking naive.

>> No.2386637

>>2386631
This could work, actually. And a vampire starts to feel for a human. So wat do?

>> No.2386638

>>2386637
You get TrueBlood.

>> No.2386643

Try "Path of the Eclipse" or "Blood Games" by Chelsea Quin Yarbro

>> No.2386645

>>2386643
Either of these have hot vampire women getting together with human males? Because do want.

>> No.2386648

A good writer can surely write a vampire romance that isn't shit. I don't really care about genre - if it's good, I'll read it, but it will have to be interesting.

What would your vampire novel offer that others haven't offered already? Whose point of view are you going to take and who are we supposed to relate to? For inspiration, I recommend the very melodramatic movie, "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (directed by Francis Ford Coppola).

I always think it's more interesting when the POV is from the vampire, because whenever I read these kinds of stories, I always want to know more about the vampire, not the bland human he (let's just say he, as an example) is trying to seduce. You could make the vampire a hopeless romantic, maybe nearly driven crazy by his immortality and desperate for comfort. The human could be frightened at first, but then turns out to be an abusive bitch who merely uses the vampire for her own good. Maybe the vampire realizes this, but sticks around anyway, because it could be that vampires are either extremely rare or very elusive, making it hard to find others to talk to. Add something interesting, like, maybe he got transformed during the Crimean War or something and has painful memories of that.

I'd be interested in reading it if the book was focused on the tragedy of loneliness, the frailness of the human mind and the futile strength of the feelings that drive vampires even after death. Sure, they can be insanely powerful and maybe even beautiful, if that's your thing, but they are always more interesting creatures if they are severely flawed without going total woobie. Experiment.

>> No.2386650

>>2386645

Kinda vice versa

For that you want "A Flame in Byzantium" and "Crusader's Torch" by the same author.

>> No.2386651

>>2386650


oh, and Sabella by tanith Lee

>> No.2386653

>>2386637
Alright I'll throw you a bone.

You biggest obstacle is going to be getting around the emotional connection with the Vampire. They're the one that has to make contact as they have all the control.

Then you have to ask; is this a platonic love or a sexual desire. Vampires are typically a sex driven story element, but that's really up to you in the end.

Its easy for a human to be anamored with something unusual, but what is so unique about this person that draws the Vampire? A vampire is likely to see and meet THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of people in their life time. They could write better books on psychology the we could. So their has to be something shinny and new for your Vamp.

>> No.2386657

Hey! "Some of Your Blood" by Theodore Sturgeon

Best Vampire romance ever!

>> No.2386686

Maybe your human character should have a huge dong and can womb fuck the vampire chick.

>> No.2386694

You know how time speeds up as you get older?

If you're a vampire living for practically an eternity, then a gold anniversary marriage is practically the same as a one-night-stand.

I would enjoy reading a novel in which a vampire marries a human and just unapologetically eats her.

Of course, I can't imagine how such a novel could be structured.

>> No.2386698

Good vampire novels/poems were written in the Romantic period and never shall be written again.

>> No.2386715

Also just for giggles include a woman that got turned into a vampire when she was at the height of pregnancy. Now both she and her baby are vampires and she must drink more blood than most because of this, all the while being a complaining wobbling pregnant woman. She's been doing this for centuries.

>> No.2386767

A while ago I had an idea for a story that involved a vampire biting a person with AIDS and getting the disease himself, and then unknowingly spreading it around the community during their vampire orgies.

But then I was all like, "nah"

>> No.2386774

>>2386694
challenge accepted.

lol guiz, vampyres aren't real, surely they can be exactly however you choose to write them? xd

>> No.2386776

>>2386767
I'm not sure an undead persons auto-immune system is going to be up to much anyway... just saian

>> No.2386782

Go search for Limyaael's rants on romance and vampires, maybe can find some good advice there.
1) Give any mortal character an extraordinary reason for wanting to turn into a vampire/fall in
love with one. The only situation under which I find either of these remotely plausible is when the
mortal character falls in love with the vampire under some kind of mind control, or possibly before
realizing what the vampire really is. I don't think the following reasons make any kind of sense on any
kind of world under any kind of moon:

-"Vampires are so sexy!" (Into necrophilia, are they?)
-"I'm psychic/special/chosen/a witch, so I must be a vampire's mate!" (Why? And see point 2).
-"I know I am a vampire in my soul!" (This could work with someone who, essentially, has a predatory
nature. But it's always the wide-eyed girl who cries at the death of Bambi's mother who announces
this).
-"Vampires are so much more special than ordinary people!" (Oh, look, there goes Abused Teenage
Protagonist #6548854 down the road to her destiny...zzzzz).

Remember that, most of the time, vampires are represented as predators on humans. Even the ones who only feed from willing humans are. Mice don't stand around admiring the shine of the cat's teeth. Deer don't swoon for the love of the wolf. You can make a mortal's attraction to vampires understandable,
even fascinating, but it requires more work than just declaring that they're in love with a vampire/want

>> No.2386810
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2386810

>>2386782
>-"Vampires are so sexy!" (Into necrophilia, are they?)
This IS sexy.

>> No.2386814

>>2386810
Into necrophilia, are you?

>> No.2386866

>>2386810
>This IS sexy.
If by sexy, you mean disgusting, then sure.

>> No.2387153

>>2386810
jesus wow, do you have moar?

>> No.2387180

>>2386782
What if you write a vampire story as a hardcore D/s relationship, where the mortal knows fully well what the vampire is but still gives themselves up because they want to be used or owned? It's fucked up, but it would be a hell of a lot more interesting than just "oh he's a vampire I love him now".

>> No.2387212

I had an idea to pander to the doomsday prepper crowd and start writing more about post apocalyptic survival scenarios. Probably wouldn't be too hard to get published if you marketed yourself right.

>> No.2387313

theres actually a vampire romance that nabokov wrote under a pen-name

>> No.2387326

>>2387180
That's been done a few different times before, actually. It never turns out that well.

>> No.2387381
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2387381

>> No.2387401

Yes. Write it where the vampire is clearly not good people, and taking advantage of a naive girl. But have her eventually realize he's bad and kills him herself.
Make it a metaphore for being your own person and realizing reality isn't safe to view in rose lenses.

>> No.2387421

I'm surprise Let The Right One In hasn't been mentioned, so I'm going to.

>> No.2387485

Are there any good vampire books at all?

Not romantic.

>> No.2387486

>>2387485

if you like stephen king at all salem's lot is one of his better novels

>> No.2387607

Write it from the perspective of the vampire (young female. Your audience will always be young adult.). Don't give away that it is a vampire until deeper into the story. In fact, never outright call it a vampire.

>> No.2387623

>vampire romance

The very idea shits all over the established law. Seduction is just a tool, a power, that they utilise.

>> No.2387624

yes. write it from the perspective of a young vampire with downs syndrome who falls in love with a doorknob.