HOW TO CREATE A VAMPIRE
Vampires are among the most versatile of creatures to create a story
around. They can be horrendously evil villains or they can be
sympathetic heros. They can be magical creatures or space aliens. It is
absolutely amazing how many different kinds of vampires there are. For
some writers, the vampires are carefully thought out, a unique and often
very detailed world is created. For others, they basically use a generic
vampire without going into great detail. Perhaps the story or the
romance are more important than the creatures themselves. Some authors
try to include everything, while others focus on only a few
characteristics.
Let’s take a look at the generic vampire.
Most people consider Bram Stoker’s Dracula as the ultimate vampire
role model, but in many ways it is the image we have seen on the movie
screen rather than what is actually in the book that has colored our
perception.
Let’s see, vampire, black cape, dark hair, usually a widows peak,
pallor, fangs, afraid of garlic, crosses, holy water, and sunlight.
Killed by stake through the heart and decapitation. Hypnotic power.
Power to control animals. Power to change into a bat, wolf, or turn into
a mist. Must sleep on home soil in a coffin. Victims turn into vampires,
mindless ghouls.
If you are going to write a vampire romance or horror story, then you
want to avoid some or all of the above conventions. Or put a new twist
on them.
So where do you start to create your vampire? You start by answering
some questions for yourself.
The first question you need to answer is whether or not your vampires
will be magical or rational creatures. You might think that vampires by
their nature are magical creatures. That’s true. Vampires are by
definition fantasy, unless you choose to copy the news stories and write
about a human serial killer who behaves like a vampire, such as Patricia
Rasey does in her books DEADLY OBSESSION and THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN.
So you have decided not to use human vampires, then will your
vampires have a magical or rational explanation? Dracula is a basically
a magical creature. He has magical powers without any attempt to give a
rational explanation for those powers.
My own Darkhour Vampires fall in the category of rational. They can’t
change into bats or mist, mirrors and crosses don’t bother them. They
are the vampires living next door, very much in the real world. There is
a basic scientific explanation for their vampirism; they are part of the
5% of the human population with the genetic make up to survive the
transformation and had three blood exchanges.
Answering the question is really about mindset. Do you want to create
a magical, unexplained world? Or do you want to create a world that is
rational and believable and to a certain extent explainable?
Do you want your vampires to perform feats of magic or do you want to
limit them and give a rational explanation for their powers?
You may do so in varying degrees, combining magical and rational.
Kate Hills series, which includes THE DARKNESS WITHIN, THE
IMMACULATE, and GOD OF GRIM is one of the few that definitely tries to
blend both rational and magical into one. Her vampires were originally
space aliens, one of her main vampire characters is a real medical
doctor, but there are also witches and magic.
Jenna Kay Francis in her GIFT OF BLOOD and Angelique Armae in her
COME THE NIGHT have created complete fantasy worlds in their books, full
of fantasy style magic. Karen Koehler has created also a magical vampire
despite the stories being set in urban grunge.
On the other end is Margaret L. Carter’s vampires which started
with DARK CHANGELING are definitely logical. These are some of the most
unusual and well thought out vampires around. She has carefully
explained all the different elements we associate with the vampire
legend, such as turning into a bat or hairy palms, by making them a
completely different species.
I consider the Alternative History stories such as Laurell K.
Hamilton’s ANITA BLAKE series and Kim Newman’s ANNO DRACULA as
rational as well, because they basically set up their stories to follow
a history in where vampires are real and accepted.
How you apply the rational versus magical to your vampires and their
world greatly affects the story that you are writing.
Next time, I look at how the origins of your vampires affects your
story.
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