As I continue to navigate the waters of NaNoWriMo, and the Two Year Novel class, and my own Nano-based online writing group, I keep wishing for the death of the vampire genre.
Everyone does it. Primarily, younger writers seem to be enamored of the vampire thing (or vampyre, if you’re being artsy about it), but there are older writers doing it too. I understand the appeal, honestly, but really. How many books about vampires can there be before the whole vampire thing finally goes up in a puff of smoke resulting from its own spontaneous combustion?
Even Neil Gaiman, whose dark writing includes some vampiric characters on occasion, has come out in an interview or two stating his preference for fewer vampire stories:
(And note that I’m not saying there’s anything bad about vampires, quite the opposite. Just that in a world in which a dozen people immediately write to me on Twitter to point out that I’ve got it wrong, as they are all writing Vampire stories, in which Vampires are now everywhere, is a world in which High Vampire Season is coming to an end). You shouldn’t be glutted with vampires: they should be a spice, not a food group.
And I have to agree. I realize that as a non-fan of the fantasy genre, I am probably not qualified to say one thing or another about vampires. But in my mind, there are too many of them, too many stories with them, just too too too much. Anyone have an original idea or two?
Of course, what feeds the market are the readers who buy the stories. I have never bought one or read one, and probably never will. My daughter has read the first three books in the Twilight series, but cannot force herself through the fourth one. She is already over it, after only three books. I have to think she’s not necessarily alone, and at some point, all of these vampire stories will have no one to read them.
At least, that’s my thought. It’s time for this genre to see its sunset, in my opinion. Strong words, I know, to the lover of a vampire story.
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