Vampires and Werewolves
I said I was going to make this thread and here it is. Now I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on Vampires and Werewolfs but I do know that most of the stories on certain platforms are hella cliché and I’m sure you guys have noticed it too. It’s pretty much like if you have read one of them, you’ve read them all. Some are even just carbon copies of Twilight (regardless of your stance on Twilight it’s unoriginal to just copy it).
So this thread is made for me to help you to reduce the cliché in your Vampire and Werewolf stories. Because regardless of how certain stories show them, they can be cool.
Here are the stereotypical plots to avoid for both vampires and werewolfs.
Vampires
Plot 1: The MC has been kidnapped by a vampire and becomes part of the vampire clan and falls in love with the vampire who kidnapped her. Then it turns out that she’s a hybrid or descended from a pureblood vampire so she becomes all badass and everybody worships her. All this does is glamourize kidnapping and give a Mary Sue as an MC.
Plot 2: The MC is a vampire in a school of humans or the love interest is the only vampire and vampires are illegal or something. While this plot isn’t too bad, it’s just been overdone. It’s not the worst plot available but it definitely needs work doing to it in order to make it original.
werewolves
Plot 1: The MC runs away from her abusive pack and joins another pack where she finds her mate but she’s descended from a powerful alpha or has a special wolf type which is usually called something like “eclipse wolf” or “luna wolf” or “insert cliché name wolf”. So she can have multiple mates. It’s overdone and portraying abuse properly can be difficult especially if you are as young as the authors who usually write these stories.
Plot 2: The MC is a hybrid between a wolf and another creature so she gets kidnapped and falls in love with somebody. Glorifies kidnap and is overdone.
Those are just some examples though, there are many more which we can discuss in this thread and I will also give advice on how to fix your own plots and stuff. In the meantime though here are some tips.
Tips:
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Don’t be afraid to stick to traditional folk lore about Vampires and Werewolves. Yeah it’s good to add your own swing to things but remember that a lot of subjects like “hybrids” and “descending from a pureblood” have been done so many times before. If you are struggling then look at different lore from different countries, this should give you all the inspiration you need.
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Avoid writing about kidnapping and abuse if you are not knowledgable enough on the topics. These subjects can be sensative and if readers also don’t know much about them they could think that the way you have written about them is the way that they are. For example they might see being kidnapped as an excuse to meet cute guys. The reason I include this tip is because abuse and kidnap often happen in vampire and werewolf stories.
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Don’t focus so much on romance that you lose the fantasy. Remember vampires and werewolves are ficticious (
) so don’t be too serious in terms of love. What I mean by this is don’t feel the need to make him sucking her blood sound like a s*x scene. Obviously if it’s a romance story then that’s different. But if it’s in the fantasy section then romance had better be the subplot 
. I’ve been fooled too many times. -
Ask yourself if another mythical creature can be used. For example a Wendigo. I swear I rarely ever see Wendigo’s get used in anything.
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Don’t feel the need to do the whole “he’s a vampire bad boy or he’s a lone wolf” thing because it’s pretty cliché. How about a vampire nerd for a change
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Try not to regurgitate Twilight.
