What are some new and interesting ideas for a vampire story?

…I was thinking instead of sparkling, they can have millions of tiny explosions covering their body - like mini-fireworks (or exploding boils…whatever)….lol Seriously, though….how about a vampire who is a psychiatrist? Think about it…someone with centuries of knowledge and brooding actually trying to help others…or, perhaps trying to brainwash them into joining team Edward….sigh

I like the psychiatrist idea, seems interresting and funny

This isn’t a new concept… it was at the time it was written… the popular story “I Am Legend” handled vampirism in a relatively realistic way… but none of the movies stuck to the formula.

Richard Matheson treated vampirism as a malady. A communicable disease that turned its victims into paranoid solefuges whose only real attribute was the desperate quality the disease imposed on them… driving them to pursue the healthy stand outs clean blood which would slow the accelerated necrosis symptomatic of the vampiric virus.

As the story progresses… the reader becomes increasingly sympathetic to the plight of the vampires… The progression of the disease strips the health and humanity from the antagonists. Matheson juxtaposes the initial vitriol we have for them with the realization that we would behave the same in their situation. When the disease has ravaged their bodies and minds… they no longer pose a real threat to the hero of the story… the hatred we may have held for them turns into hatred for the human condition. It becomes a metaphor for modern life. The kill or be killed rat race. What Philip K Johnson* called the maze of death.

This is the most interesting take on the vampire myth in my opinion. Hollywood has shown that it can take the best stories and ream them of any substance… Twilight didn’t need much help in its mediocrity.

• Johnson… because the author’s name… D!ck… isn’t allowed

I agree…I would like to get back to the real nature of vampires…not the glorified way they have been portrayed as of late, but I want to try and avoid turning it into something horrific or gory.

Yeah… seeing as how George Romero was inspired by the story to write Night of the Living Dead… It sort of lends itself to the more macabre fields

all my ideas would be from the vampire chronicle series of books

interview with the vampire mainly as to me it was the best….. sorry colleen cant be much help but vampires are strong, powerful and beautiful beings that must live without regret in order for survival

…live without regret….I can use that - thanks Matty!

OK, I’m currently reading the “Left Behind” series, which is a Christian-based series about what happens after the “Rapture” when all the “believers” disappear and the non-believers are left behind and have to deal with the Biblical “Tribulation” Period of famine, war, the AntiChrist, the locusts, the men on horses etc.

What if you did something like The Rapture at the beginning, and all the Christians disappeared to Heaven, but those “left behind” have to deal with vampires, instead of the Tribulation period the Bible calls for?

hmmm….so those who aren’t saved end up in a proverbial hell on earth….

Yup but instead of the Tribulation Period of hell in the Bible (four horsemen, etc), make the survivors/ u-saved deal with zombies!

er vampires, rather.

That’s interesting…I like