Are Vamps and Werewolves too overdone?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I've gotten to where I hate vampire based books. It's overdone and most of the vampires these days are just emo/goth people with too much makeup and some kind of primal sex urge. Not to mention that a vast majority of the young teen (most likely female) are "raping" the Twilight series. but that is just my opinion of course.

If you're seeing too many of that kind of vampires, you're looking in the wrong places for the good stuff; if you're actually interested in the good stuff, check out my recommendations on the first page of this thread.

[novium]

I am quite tired of the vampire and werewolves (and etc) stories about, oh, having a life and having adventures (with angst/romance/thrills thrown in as appropriate). I know this sounds like it would cover pretty much everything, but I am thinking of a specific type of story. They're all blurring together in my mind...i liked them, but now it feels like the last bit of candy you have as a kid on halloween. You're sick of it.  Person is werewolf/vampire. There are downsides, which they complain about, but really, they aren't as bad as they make it seem, because there are a lot of upsides and they go and have adventures, fighting evil/monsters/politics/what have you and getting a love interest.

After all this, I'm in the mood to read about a truly tortured soul (not an angst-ing one), for whom being a werewolf (for example) is actually a curse... all downsides... I guess what I want is a horror story, and not the sort that is about a rampaging monster. The internal horror story, the stories that are about guilt and redemption, of the struggle and triumph (although that does not imply 'happily ever after') against one's own faults, failings, weaknesses and disadvantages.

[fivestyle]

Personally I would just like to have a vampire or werewolf story that doesn't read like it should have a picture of Fabio with fangs on the cover.

[The Dread Pharaoh Roberts]

The real trick to keeping vampires and werewolves from being too overdone is to remember to marniade them overnight and for God's sake, baste them every fifteen minutes!  Also, if you make a little tent of tinfoil over the vampire or werewolf while it cooks, it'll keep the moisture in and keep it tender and juicy.  Don't be afraid to experiment with seasonings, and consider a slow-cooker as well - there's nothing better than a good werewolf roast that's slow-cooked in the crock pot all day with some veggies...

[Lord Nedd]

It is important to tenderize the meat as well.  The problems with werewolves is that they have a tendancy to be gamey.  Vampires are stale and dry.  Hence, the important part of the dish is the sauce.  (If a sauce can make snails taste good, then it can repair anything...)

-LN

[The Dread Pharaoh Roberts]

Yes, there's nothing like vampire tenders with a good Szechuan dipping sauce.

[Lord Nedd]

Yes, there's nothing like vampire tenders with a good Szechuan dipping sauce.

Stop it now.  You are making me hungry.  It also make me a bit curious about some of those chinese mystery meats nuggets.

Heheh.


-LN

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Stop it now.  You are making me hungry.  It also make me a bit curious about some of those chinese mystery meats nuggets.

Two words: Jade Court.

[The Dread Pharaoh Roberts]

Two words: Jade Court.

Do they do take-out?

[Glymre]

Though I am not a big fan of vampire books, I enjoyed Robin McKinley's Sunshine so utterly that I have read it time and again. And though I am no fan of werewolf stories generally, I'm hooked on the Mercy series (Moon Called, Blood Bound, and the short story 'Alpha and Omega' (soon to be a full novel)) by Patricia Briggs.

Oh yeah. And hi.  New here.

[Lord Nedd]

Do they do take-out?

Nah, they just rely on their friends at Ninja-Burger!
 
http://www.ninjaburger.com/

-LN

[fivestyle]

Gillman gets no love

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Gillman gets no love

Your Kink Is OK But It's Not My Kink.

[13x13]

I always had an background idea where werewolves were extremely rare, and the ones who do exist tend to be very old and curmudgeony.  The first reason being that most people are more likely to not survive being mauled by a large anthropomorphic beast with superhuman strength and endurance, so passing on the curse is hard.  Secondly that younger werewolves have no control. The essentially turn during the full moon, lose humanity and sanity, and kill.  This tends to be a problem for humans as being eaten is a major downer. So young werewolves tend to be hunted and killed, that and the younger they are the more physically vulnerable they are to massive damage and silver.

However, as a werewolf ages (over 100's of years) they gain better control over their bestial side and increased invulnerability.  I always thought of playing werewolves off of vampires, in that vampires get front loaded with power in the beginning, but plateau fairly quickly.  That and making a vampire is essentially like falling off a log, any white trash inbred vampire moron can do it. 

I thought of a story where a young werewolf is on the run from just about everyone.  Vampires hunt him because killing young werewolves is sport (like boar hunting) and  mauled half eaten humans tend to bring bad attention.  Werewolves hunt him because he is to wild and dangerous.  In the past a werewolf could find an uninhabited area with a large enough territory and grow.  Now with modern society this isn't the case, they cause too much havoc and draw too much attention.  Humans hunt him because after eating a couple of people they started to get a wee upset.

I was planning to make Vampires not necessarily very angsty or goth.  They aren't also necessarily the brightest most productive bunch.  Since making a vamp is so easy most aren't proactively selected to be vamps.  In fact the ones who most likely get turned are the ones stupid enough to hang out in dangerous places, flirt with the supernatural, or drunk on the street.  There are vamps who tend to think things out, but Chester the hillbilly who was turned after passing out drunk in a gutter after drinking moonshine probably hasn't read Sun Tzu or Machiavelli.

Of course I fear that the vamp/werewolf thing is overdone so that tends to hold me off on writing anything.  You know what they say, "If you notice the trend, it's already dead."