Vampire Movies and Books like Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Have Become All the Rage

Read all my writing tips at roberttgasperson.com

1. Decide on the rules of your world. What actually can kill your vampires?

2. Is your book going to be dark, funny, romantic or something completely new and different? Prepare yourself to write in this fashion.

3. Is your vampire going to play the villain or the hero? Vampires are good at being both. Some of the best heroes are villains; the walking undead.

4. What is the crisis of the book? Decide what your heroes are striving to accomplish?

5. Outline in detail the basic plot of your story. Note feelings of the characters and what might be going on in the background.

6. Loosely follow your outline and write the first draft of your novel. Do not edit yourself. Just get the first draft written. Write the movie in your brain.

7. Go back after the first draft is written and fix your grammar and spelling. Then really read through it and fix any plot holes.

8. Let a first reader (someone you trust) read it and give you constructive criticism. Make sure it is someone who is going to be brutally honest not overly supportive.

9. Use your own notes and the notes from your first reader to edit and polish the second draft of your novel.

10. At this point the book should be editor worthy. Start sending out queries to editors and wait for someone who loves your idea and wants to represent you.

11. After a year, if you can't find an editor, then you should self publish the novel as a podcast novel.

Wooden Steak to the Heart - This is the best way to take down a vampire and keep them down. Depending on their age they will either completely turn to dust or they will kind of mummify.

Holy water - Most of the time holly water won't kill them, but if you are able to bless a body of water and play dip a vamp, theoretically you can kill them with holy water. It is a great way to deter them from biting you. Keep a spray bottle of holy water next to your bed and you will be able to run off any intruders as well as disfigure some of them. Yes, in most cases, vampires are not able to get into your house unless you invite them.

Decapitation - This won't always kill them, but it will make the use of their bodies impossible. If you can dispose of the body making sure the head never finds a way to reattach itself, you could have a great talking head to keep under glass in your study.

Fire - this element puts off natural light. It will not affect them normally if they are around fire, but if you set them on fire it will definitely scar them for the rest of their lives. This in one of the reasons you have very ugly vampires. If they were not a master of disguise, they would never get close enough to people to do any harm.

Sunlight - Will turn them to dust. If you want to completely destroy a vampire, chain them to the ground and allow the sun to rise and watch what happens.

Silver Bullet - This is usually only a remedy for werewolves. Vampires come from the same evolution line, so they do have a slight allergy to silver. This won't kill them all. You will find an occasional vampire who has a tolerance to silver, so beware.

Lack of Blood - Starve them. There is a reason they crave blood. It sustains them. The problem is they can live on one feeding for months. They just like to eat, and they don't have to worry about gaining weight. They are already dead.