What Genre is My Vampire Story?

Which genre is my book? You want to know but you are not sure, all you are really certain of it that it is about vampires.

The basic genres are: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Literary, Mystery, Romance, Satire, Science Fiction, Western

Within these genres are several sub-genres... some genres have as many as 20 different sub-genres.
For example, inside of Horror, you will find: Dark Fantasy, Goth Lit, Gothic Horror, Gothic Romance, Halloween Stories, Splatter Punk, Suspence, Thriller, and more.

There are many cross-overs to confuse you even more. The most common of which is Chick-Lit. Chick-Lit, is a category outside of genre in which the basic genres become sub-genres. In other words, Chick-Lit can be any genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Literary, Mystery, Romance, Satire, Science Fiction, Western, etc.

In other words any genre and any of it's sub-genres can be Chick-Lit. What makes it Chick-Lit is the fact that the main character is a female (or a chick). She could be a housewife, a career woman, single, married, widowed, divorced, laid-back, out-going, a teen, a young woman, middle aged, senior, a farm wife in the 1800's, a globe trotter of today, a time traveler, or even a vampire. Usually there is a tone of romance in the story, and usually there is the attitude that woman are the greatest, best, most able to do whatever it is that she has to do. Though Chick-Lit is considered to be a genre, it is the only genre that is determined based on who the book is about. So, if your female main character happens to be a vampire, than you may find that your vampire story is actually Chick-Lit.

If one or more of your characters broods in dark places, avoids sunlight, has a fear of garlic, flies, and drinks blood, you can be sure they are a vampire.

Of course not all vampires are alike. There are vampires that feed off life force or energy instead of blood. Some vampires walk around in broad daylight with no problem. Not every vampire is allergic to garlic, sliver, holy water, or mustard seeds. Only vampires raised in Christian cultures fear a cross. While modern vampires are beautiful and human-like, classic vampires were monstrous and looked more like winged werewolves. Some vampires are shape-shifters but others are not.

It is very important, when writing about vampires that you know what type of vampire your vampires are. You don't need to stick with what anyone else says vampires are or are not either. What is important, is that your vampires are consistent. In other words, if in Chapter One, you said they turn to dust when struck by sun rays, than your vampire better not be seen outside on a sunny day 3 chapters later!

Before you write your story, first write up a brief explanation of what your vampires are and what they are not, and than keep that list on hand while you write.

In genre, horror horrifies your readers and romance romances them, while science fiction takes them on journeys through time and space, mysteries intrigue them into solving a puzzle, and Westerns take them to the wilds of the old west. (Has anyone ever thought about writing vampire cowboys vs zombie Indians?)

So, as you can see, the genre is determined by what the story is about, not who the story is about.

So, as you can see, the genre is determined by what the story is about, not who the story is about.

Okay, so we've looked at genres. Now lets look at vampires. In what genre should you place your vampire? To date there is no genre in which vampires do not appear (even non-fiction).

But how do you know which genre your vampire story is? Well what you need to ask yourself is, who is your vampire? What is he like? How does he live? Where does he live? When does he live? What is he doing? Why is he doing it? What will happen as a result of what he is doing? In other words, what is the plot of your story?

Ask yourself: WHAT GENRE IS YOUR STORY? Are you writing something really scary? Yes? Than you are writing a horror book. Are you writing a girl meets vampire story? Than you prob'bly will be writing romance. Does your vampire come from another side of the galaxy and travel through space and time? Than you are writing a science fiction story. Is your vampire smashing pumpkins and scaring children on Halloween so that he can drink the peanut butter centers out of chocolates? Than you may be writing a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial, a children's picture book, or a satire novel.

What your vampire does in the story and how and where and when he does it, is what will determine the genre of your story, vampires or no vampires. Your vampire is just another character in the story; take him out and you still have the genre, because you still have the same plot.

A guy who kills folks to drink their blood, could be a mythical beast or a mental patient depending on your take. He could be a cutsy comical vampire as seen in children's Halloween picture books or a bloody gore lusting serial killer of the splatter punk books. He could be the romantic lover. I once read a young adult-preteen chapter book in which a vampire was a detective, along the lines of Sherlock Holmes... he never bit anybody or did any vampire like things, because he was too busy solving the mystery. Your vampire could be good or bad, the villain or the hero. It all depends on the plot you plan to use.

This bit here is just me ranting on what I like and dislike about vampires. Maybe it will give you some ideas for your vampire story, maybe it will not.

Lately the book world has become overloaded with vampire stories. I stopped reading the new vampire books in about 1993 or so, because they had become so cliche` and lovey-dovey. Lesat started out great, but than Lesat got boring. Than all the Lesat wanna-be stories started cropping up. Than along came Angel. Angel the show was pretty good. Angel the books were dull and boring. After Lesat and Angel, vampires began to run rampant in every novel, for the sake of having a vampire in the novel. Vampires became cliche` and boring to me.

I like vampires. I am a huge fan of vampires. Vampires are my favorite monsters.

Yes, vampires are monsters, not blood drinking humans. Vampires do more than drink blood and look good.

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing and a good thing becoming corrupted and no longer being good. That has happened in the past few years with vampires and fiction.

I like vampires in fiction only once in a while. Dracula was good. I like Dracula: the book, the movie (Bela), and of course the costumes.

I like when you read a mystery series (Nancy Drew, Three Investigators, etc) and one volume has them run across a vampire.

Vampires are monsters. Soulless zombie-like monsters. Vampires should never be personified into acting like humans, because vampires are not humans. Vampires do not take human lovers.

I like the fact that vampires are very rare creatures and only one or two of them can exist on the world at a time.

I dislike seeing vampire stories were vampires run a muck everywhere and vampire nations are rising up and doing battle against other equally rare creature (werewolf, zombie, etc.) nations. Goes against the whole vampires are rare theory.

I dislike vampire romance where vampire girls are falling for vampire boys and vise versa. Why? Because vampires are so rare that the likely hood of them meeting in the first place in unlikely. And even if they did meet, vampires are emotionless, thus they are not going to start mooing over each other!

Vampires are mean, cruel and emotionless.

Vampires eat meat, humans are meat. Vampires don't make love to or marry their food supply.

There you have what I dislike about modern day vampire stories.

I dislike people saying vampires are Goth. Vampires are not Goth.

I'm Goth. I don't wear black. I don't look like a vampire. I get so sick of what people call Goth. Gothic actually gets it's name from the Gothic time period, because it means a revival of wearing Gothic Period clothing. It actually has nothing to do with the color black or gloomy emotions or vampires, that is EMO, not Goth, please do not confuse the two, they are nothing alike.

Gothic clothen is clothen that was worn from 500AD - 1300AD (the original Gothic period). The first Gothic movement started in the 1850's and lasted until the 1930's. This period is known as The Gothic Revival Period, and it's when people tried to dress in fashions that mimic those of the original Gothic period.

Today's Gothic movement started in the 1970's but didn't take full hold until the late 1990's. The Modern Gothic Period or Goth Movement means to wear the cloths worn during The Gothic Revival Period (1850's - 1930's).

So few people know this and it always frustrates me, when people say: *You're Goth? But why aren't you wearing black and cutting your wrists?*

ARGH!

EMO is not Goth!

Vampires are not Goth!

Vampires usually dress in current fashion and look just like everybody else, that's how they blend in to find their food (you).

Black is not Goth!

Historical reenactment IS Goth.

An 1850's vampire wearing 1850's cloths is not Goth.

Anachronists are Goth.

If your 1990's vampire is dressed in 1850's attire, than he is Goth because he is anachronist.

END RANT

Way back in 1978, I start a series of short stories, which for a while were being written at a rate of one or two a month. Not popular beyond a few local fans, these stories are hailed as too graphic and too violent for the mass media, and thus remain small press published. Odd thing is that people call it a vampire series. In my own stories my characters are not vampires per say, but rather they are more vampire-like. Roderic esp. However, my stories are usually considered *vampire stories* even though there are no actually vampires in the. Odd. Made me wonder how that could be.

First off is the house: The Twighlight Manor. It's a huge old fortress that's been considered by humans to be haunted. Humans avoid the place like the plague, telling others stories of vampires, ghosts, zombies, and demons. Wild stories of how no one who's ever entered the Manor ever came back out or their bodies were found but never their heads.

Than there is the family. The Swanzen family whom never comes out of the Manor. No one ever sees them, no one knows what they live on, no one dares speak in the presence of AlKeeme, Roderic, or Melaca, and if it wasn't for EelKat and Etiole, no one would even know any one lived in the Manor at all. The Swanzens want nothing to do with the humans and gladly slaughter any human that enters the Manor. Of course, here's where the whole vampire confusion comes in: The Swanzens are aliens from another planet. They eat meat. Humans are meat. If meat wants to willingly walk through their front door and offer itself to them, they will not refuse the offer.

Than there are the Phookas. Mean, bloodthirsty, evil beyond evil. A band of shapeshifting demonic creatures, who can turn themselves into anything or anyone. They can become your best friend, your husband, or ever you sweet little dog; and they do it for one reason and one reason only: to get close enough to humans to be able to kill them quick and drain their blood without any fuss at all. My Phookas are prime evil.

What genre do I write? It's a horror-sci-fi cross over, heavy of the romance, and thick on the graphic gore (M rated for extreme bloody violence). Not a vampire in site. So what classifies it as a vampire story? The fact that the Swanzen family eats humans, and the Phookas relish in human blood, is what gets my Twighlight Manor series classified as a series of vampire stories.

The content of this lens was created by Wendy C. Allen compiled in part from posts on Star Log Pink, Star Log White, EK's Writing Blog, EK's CosPlay & Sewing Blog, Xavier's Nest, and EK's Business Blog, the official blogs of author and artist Wendy C. Allen, a.k.a. EelKat. Reprinted here on Squidoo with permission.

EK's Star Log and it's sister sites Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 2004-2008.

Star Log, Space Dock 13, The Twighlight Manor Press, Moonsnails, Buried Treasure, Copper Cockeral, Black Bobcat Fashions, Purple Peacock Patterns, The Rabbit Hole, and Xavier's Nest Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 2003-2008.

Twighlight Manor, EelKat, White Rock Asylum, Planet Ptarmagin, Crystonite Chronicles, Etiole, Sir Roderic, The Swanzen Family, and all other related characters, info, writings, names, images, and content Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 1978-2008. Reuse of these names, characters, writings, and images of the Twighlight Manor and TM characters are not allowed without prior authorization.

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