vampire cosmology
As I gear up to write my trashy vampire novel, I run into the problem of liking vampire legendry too much. All of vampires' storied powers and weaknesses appeal to me, which is trouble because many of those powers and weaknesses contradict one another. In addition, a vampire loaded down with every single pro and con in the book would be a boring character. The vampire has ninety-nine approaches to problem solving (though a bitch ain't one), meaning that most challenges will be easily surmountable, and what's more, every single time the vampire messes up, readers will walk away thinking, "Why didn't the character just use mind control/turn into mist/punch down the wall?" With weaknesses I have a similar issue: the modern vampire lives in a world in which everyone knows ten thousand ways to ward off or kill vampires, so if someone sees him coming even a little ahead of time, people will wonder why that someone isn't just living in a room full of stakes, garlic, silver, and matches. Moreover--and here's the important justification for stripping down and reorganizing vampire powers, in most vampire fiction--ninety-nine powers and ninety-nine weaknesses do not add up to the unified effect which Edgar Allan Poe exhorts writers to pursue.
But I don't want to strip down and reorganize; I want to anthologize. I don't want to create vampires who make scientific sense, but I would like to boil vampirism down to as few important constants as possible, and have the panoply of powers and weaknesses follow from those important constants. I want deductively reasonable vampires: "if [small number of untrue but fun or interesting central assumptions about the walking dead], then [everything you come to expect of vampires]."
Soon to follow: Let's see if I can do it.
But I don't want to strip down and reorganize; I want to anthologize. I don't want to create vampires who make scientific sense, but I would like to boil vampirism down to as few important constants as possible, and have the panoply of powers and weaknesses follow from those important constants. I want deductively reasonable vampires: "if [small number of untrue but fun or interesting central assumptions about the walking dead], then [everything you come to expect of vampires]."
Soon to follow: Let's see if I can do it.