# Vampire/werewolf stories, overdone?



## Gavrill (May 9, 2009)

What's your opinion on vampire and/or werewolf stories? I honestly still enjoy reading some of them, but after Twilight...well.

I'm currently working on a vampire-werewolf novel, and I was wondering who would be likely to read it? I want to write it and I will, it's just discouraging when no one else is reading it.

So, in short: how do you feel about these stories? Would you read them? Do you write them?


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## Ð˜Ð²Ð°Ð½ (May 9, 2009)

There are very few good vampire/werewolf stories out there. Very, very, very, very, very, very, very few good ones. 

The few good ones are bound to be swept up in the sea of terrible ones, and passed off as either generic horror fluff or another Twilight wannabe. It's hard to write to vampires or werewolves because there's just so little that hasn't been done.

So if you want it to be good, try and do something truly and honestly original... Or if you're treading familiar ground, tread it well.


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## Gavrill (May 9, 2009)

Easog said:


> So if you want it to be good, try and do something truly and honestly original... Or if you're treading familiar ground, tread it well.


On the flip side, as we've learned from Twilight, don't try to be _too _unique. Sure, it was popular, but to most avid readers, vampires still don't sparkle.


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## nybx4life (May 9, 2009)

SHENZEBO said:


> On the flip side, as we've learned from Twilight, don't try to be _too _unique. Sure, it was popular, but to most avid readers, vampires still don't sparkle.


 
Yes, it's quite disturbing to know you're your own signal.

But yeah, I've written a vampire story, and working on a werewolf story. I guess the idea of it is if you want to go a different direction of Twilight, try not to focus on the romance. 

It all depends on your style, really.

Anyways, I wouldn't mind reading it. If you have it posted up on FA, I'll share my thoughts on it.


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## Xipoid (May 9, 2009)

No matter how overdone, you can still make a good story out of it. I personally wouldn't read a vampire/werewolf story simply because it would not interest me. Horror stories never really do.


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## KatmanDu (May 9, 2009)

I write werewolf stories; don't have much interest in vampire stories. I'd like to think what I'm writing isn't overdone; but I guess that's up to the reader to decide if I had a fresh enough spin on it. I haven't read/seen Twilight, so I dunno if it falls into that category or not...


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## M. LeRenard (May 10, 2009)

The thing about vampire, werewolf, mermaid, or anything else stories that center around mythologies of one type or another is that you can't give them too much of a spin without straying far enough from the beaten path that avid readers of such material would no longer consider what you're writing to actually be of that genre. (Boy, did that sentence make any sense?)
In other words, a lot of readers of Twilight don't read them as vampire stories, because the 'vampires' in them can go out in sunlight, are vegetarian, and have romantic relations with human beings.  A far cry from Count Dracula, the mysterious seducer holed up in his castle all day.  Vampires and werewolves have their own associated mythologies that you have to consider when writing about them, right?  So you can't ever be truly original if you pick this as your subject matter.
That said, you need to find some other way to get peoples' attention.  What would I suggest?  Don't make the story CENTER around the werewolf/vampire.  Have them be present, but make it a whole different story.  In other words, no vampire/werewolf hunters, no forbidden romance between vampires/werewolves and each other/humans, no secret society of vampires/werewolves, etc.  Simply make them a working part of the world as it is and go with that.
And bring the horror aspect of it back.  Modern such stories always piss me off with their brooding romanticism and total lack of people getting their blood sucked out of them in the middle of the night.  These kinds of stories started during the Middle Ages in small farming communities, told during religious festivals when no one had any work to do, and when they would sit around a fire with a beer in hand trying to impress each other with wild tales of horror and heroism.  That's what made them fun.  Get rid of the wishy-washy crap that's become so popular ever since Anne Rice started writing her stuff.  Vampires have practically become undead elves, and werewolves their smelly hillbilly cousins.
That's my opinion anyway.


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## Gavrill (May 10, 2009)

Thanks Renard, that is actually very helpful. I'm trying to more focus on the character's struggles rather than what they are. It's like "this character has an issue, but incidentally he's also a vampire/werewolf/minotaur/unicorn and that may or may not complicate things".

If that even made any sense. >.>


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## nybx4life (May 10, 2009)

SHENZEBO said:


> Thanks Renard, that is actually very helpful. I'm trying to more focus on the character's struggles rather than what they are. It's like "this character has an issue, but incidentally he's also a vampire/werewolf/minotaur/unicorn and that may or may not complicate things".
> 
> If that even made any sense. >.>


 

Yeah, it does.

It depends on how the character is with it. Like, in one webcomic, one person soon became a werewolf, so part of it was the protagonist helping that person control themself.


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## Gavrill (May 10, 2009)

nybx4life said:


> Yeah, it does.
> 
> It depends on how the character is with it. Like, in one webcomic, one person soon became a werewolf, so part of it was the protagonist helping that person control themself.


Peter is the Wolf is a good comic.


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## nybx4life (May 11, 2009)

SHENZEBO said:


> Peter is the Wolf is a good comic.


 Glad you noticed the reference.


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