seriousfic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seriousfic) wrote2012-10-26 05:10 pm
seriousfic) wrote2012-10-26 05:10 pm
Entry tags:
Writing update 10/26
So here's how I'm doing vampires. Since the story isn't really about vampires, and I have no desire to dig through all the tropes, I'm going to see about something slightly original. What the story is about, in a comic-y way, is light gods and dark gods fighting, on Earth and elsewhere. Since vampires didn't show up in early drafts, I kinda wrote off the slight resemblance of vamps to the gods (heart-based vulnerability, some allergy to natural sunlight) as vampires being fictious and some of the mythology getting tangled up in the world of the book. But I don't even have a fun one-liner to go with that, so we're not doing that anymore.
What I'm doing is taking the idea of vampires as a biological pestilence (you know, this shit) to its natural conclusion. Vampires are, pretty much, the equivalent of AIDS popping up from someone fucking a monkey. Gods come to Earth, do the Zeus thing, and not everyone gets to be Hercules. Some people just a kind of Clap that makes them suck blood and sleep during the day. Given the story's themes of cycles of abuse and legacy, you can see how an entire race of illegitimate children can only make things interesting.
The vampires themselves show up as two minor antagonists, another pair of father-son surrogates for lovely lovely thematic resonance. These two are basically serial killer and apprentice, abducting women and keeping them imprisoned while they're drained dry. But, you know, not as dead-woman-y as your average episode of Criminal Minds.
Old draft was a ghoul who'd made a deal with the Devil for eternal life, but so much eternal youth, so he was obliged to steal 'parts' from people. Oogy, but maybe not conceptually strong enough. Feels Frankenstein-y, doesn't it, and if you're going to go Frankenstein you might as well go full neck-bolts.
But now, lots of meaty stuff with the fucked-up "mentorship" going on between the vampires and the heroes' own semi-responsibility for their existence. Now I just have to fit in werewolves and I've got a real urban fantasy novel.
Also, I thought that instead of the vampires burning up in sunlight, they could sparkle. Hopefully no one's used that already.
What I'm doing is taking the idea of vampires as a biological pestilence (you know, this shit) to its natural conclusion. Vampires are, pretty much, the equivalent of AIDS popping up from someone fucking a monkey. Gods come to Earth, do the Zeus thing, and not everyone gets to be Hercules. Some people just a kind of Clap that makes them suck blood and sleep during the day. Given the story's themes of cycles of abuse and legacy, you can see how an entire race of illegitimate children can only make things interesting.
The vampires themselves show up as two minor antagonists, another pair of father-son surrogates for lovely lovely thematic resonance. These two are basically serial killer and apprentice, abducting women and keeping them imprisoned while they're drained dry. But, you know, not as dead-woman-y as your average episode of Criminal Minds.
Old draft was a ghoul who'd made a deal with the Devil for eternal life, but so much eternal youth, so he was obliged to steal 'parts' from people. Oogy, but maybe not conceptually strong enough. Feels Frankenstein-y, doesn't it, and if you're going to go Frankenstein you might as well go full neck-bolts.
But now, lots of meaty stuff with the fucked-up "mentorship" going on between the vampires and the heroes' own semi-responsibility for their existence. Now I just have to fit in werewolves and I've got a real urban fantasy novel.
Also, I thought that instead of the vampires burning up in sunlight, they could sparkle. Hopefully no one's used that already.