What Makes a Vampire, a Vampire?

Okay, so I’ve got my plot all ready to go, spent 3 months outlining, in 2 days I start writing, I’m doing good too, no vampires in sight – ghosts and zombie, but not a single vampire, and suddenly today, October 30th, I start thinking – tomorrow is Halloween! YAY! Got to go watch every Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price movie under the sun for the next 24 hours!!!! Yep, I’m weird, I know – every Halloween I pull out mountains of Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price DVDs and spend the whole day going classic vampire crazy. Oh no! Two days before NaNoWriMo I have a different plot ready to write and than Halloween shows up and messes up my train of thought and now all I can think about is vampires and how much I want to write a vampire story.

Okay, so I’m still doing my Frost Zombie apocalypse and I’m planning on 75k for that, but you know me, since when I have written less than 200k for NaNoWriMo? What that means is, I can go ahead and do a second NaNovel, and if I can go ahead and do a second NaNovel, than why can’t I go ahead and spend Halloween planning a vampire NaNovel? Can I outline an entire novel in less than 24 hours? Who knows, but I’m going to try.

So, here’s where I come to you guys. I’m trying to figure out what exactly it is, I think of when I think of vampires. Who are my vampires? What is it that makes my vampires, different from humans? What makes a vampire a vampire?

So, I am compiling a list of classic vampire things, (I prefer classic Bela Lugosi style Dracula vampires, btw, so that’s what I’m focusing on, and if any one has anything they want to add to this list, feel free to jump in and add your thoughts.

Here is my list so far:

Things that make a Vampire a Vampire:

- drinks blood
- is undead
- looks like Bela Lugosi
- dresses like Bela Lugosi =P

“Regular” Vampires have the following abilities:
“Super Powerful” Vampires also have the additional “rare” abilities:

Movement Abilities:

-Inhuman Speed
-Unearthly Reflexes
-Vertical Ascension (climbs walls)
-Gliding (with help of cape)
-Bat Form
-Mist Form
-Flight
-Move Silently

Rare Movement Abilities

-Clown Frenzy
-Astral Projection
-Dodge Daylight
-Spider Climb
-Cat’s Grace
-Shadow Conceal

Offensive Abilities

-Fangs
-Vampiric Claws
-Enhanced Senses
-Animalistic Frenzy
-Superhuman Strength
-Mind Control
-Wolf Form
-Horrific Transformation
-Glamor

Rare Offensive Abilities

-Pyrokinesis
-Corrosion
-Control Mall Santas
-Ironic Annihilation
-Purge Blood
-Pestilence
-Mummification
-Blood Soaked Vengeance (Carrie)
-Hellfire
-Demonic Familiar
-Bloodletting
-Vampire Lord
-Summon Horseman
-Shadow Transformation
-Bone Spikes
-Demon Summoning
-Telepathy
-Drain Youth
-Raise Zombies
-Invisibility
-Shadow Manipulation
-Blood to Ashes
-Command a Wolf Pack
-Command Rat Swarm
-Cause Madness
-Intoxicating Bite

Defensive Abilities

-Fast Healing
-Impervious to bullets
-Intimidation

Rare Defensive Abilities

-Veil of Thorns
-Winged Guard
-Premonition
-Indestructible
-Iron Skin
-Create Illusion
-Immunity to Religious Icons
-Immaterial (can walk through solid walls)
-Resistance to Sunlight
-Immunity to Silver

(This list was copied from the Zanga Game Vampire Wars, btw)

So, what do you think makes a Vampire a Vampire? Are the things on my list enough, too much, or not enough? I’m not really worrying about cliches and such. I figure if it’s too cliche, well tough luck, I’ll just have cliched vampires than. I’ve always been mesmerized by Bela Lugosi as Dracula, he’s the best vampire ever and he’s what I think of when I think of vampires, so he’s what I’ve got stuck in my head right this moment – of course it helps that I just watched Dracula last night too

This blog post, btw, started out in life as a NaNoWriMo Thread, What Makes a Vampire, a Vampire? So if you have an answer, you should post your answer on the thread itself. Okay? Cool!

Find Out More About My 2008 NaNoWriMo Book Which the LDS/Mormon Church is up in arms about. (NOTE – this link goes to the unedited proof of the book and not to the actual listing.)

Find Out More About My 2009 NaNoWriMo Project

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

———-
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Create a Fantasy Realm
Advice For NaNoWriters!
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How To Become a Better Writer
The Top 5 Tools For NaNoWriMo
What Genre Is My Vampire Story?
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Improving your writing with what you read.
Have You Written Your Author’s Interview Yet?
How I Reached 50,000 in 30 Days and You Can Too!
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