Are you looking for ideas for your next scary story? Are you a fan of the vampire horror genre and want to create your own blood-sucking characters?
If so, you’re in the right place.
Below we’ve included a list of over 15 vampire-themed ideas for short stories (or longer stories if you like!)
Vampire writing prompts and story ideas
We all grew up with vampire stories. From classic vampire novel Dracula to modern YA series Twilight, vampires are some of the most popular monsters in literature.
Given our exposure to vampire fiction, we can easily make up a few vampire stories.
The rules are changeable – some vampires can’t go out in the light, while others need more than a stake to the heart to die.
When writing your own story, you can make up your own rules. It’s wise to use known, common vampire traits such as thirst for human blood or immortality. Again, this is your story, and you create any kind of vampire you like.
Vampire writing prompts
- A retired vampire hunter picks up the stake once again when a pack of vampires begins to terrorize local high school students. Write about the vampire hunter’s background, their last hunt before retirement, and the connection between that last hunt and the current vampire culprits.
- Write a vampire’s recount of his life so far, covering the periods of history he saw and his influence on them politically and socially.
- In this world, vampires dominate. The few humans on the planet hide in fear, but they must leave their hideout and seek food every few days. Write a short story from the perspective of one of the remaining humans about living in hiding and the risks of going out to look for food.
- Write a story about a world in which humans and vampires must learn to live in harmony.
- A police detective is assigned to investigate a series of murders. Each victim has two punctured holes in their neck, but the case has been at a standstill for months. The detective is the vampire.
- A man is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Fearing death, he seeks a vampire to stay alive.
- A family man gets bitten by a vampire. He experiences all the symptoms – fangs grow, he has thirst for blood, aversion to sunlight, and immortality. Write a story about this man’s attempts to maintain his normal life while living with vampirism.
- In a world where most people are vampires, write a story from the perspective of one of the last remaining humans.
Vampire story ideas
Look no further if you’re looking for inspiration for a new vampire story.
Below we’ve got some simple but engaging story ideas to help you craft your own vampire story. Feel free to chop and change any details of these story ideas to suit your writing style and imagination better.
Combine elements of different stories if you like, or see one through to the end.
Closing time
A fellow barman at a cocktail bar works until 6 am. When closing time comes and the sun starts to rise, he’s always in a rush to get out and get home. One day, he gets delayed and doesn’t make it out before sunrise. He can’t leave, but the bar needs to close.
Stuck and needing help, he reveals his secret to you – he can’t go out in the sun because he’s a vampire.
The Lamb
Vampires are real, but they no longer hunt humans (most of the time). To keep a low profile in their communities, vampires in this world only eat animals. A hunt begins when one vampire is overcome with greed and goes on a bloody rampage, draining the blood of many of the local farmers’ animals.
The farmers and townspeople set out on a hunt for the mysterious beast killing their livestock. Will the real killer manage to lure a few humans from the pack?
Welcome
Seven strangers are invited to a beautiful island mansion. The invitation does not inform them of the sender, but they go anyway. The butlers and maids show each guest to their rooms. That evening, all guests are invited to dinner. At the head of the table sits the host and an old, gray-haired man with a smirk.
Quick!
A human-vampire romantic relationship is tested when the human gets fatally injured in a street fight. The vampire can save the human, but only by turning him into a vampire so he can live forever. Write a story about the conversation between these two lovers as time runs out and the only options are death or vampirism.
Suckers
Gartrell is a vampire, but he doesn’t drink human blood. In this world, vampires are not known for drinking blood but for draining consciousness from a person through their minds. These vampires are telepathic and can make a person reveal their innermost secrets and traumas by looking at them intently. Eventually, the person loses memory and passes out.
What do the vampires in this world gain from consuming others’ memories?
Nevermind
A teenage boy has vampire fantasies from reading too much vampire lore. He wants to be a vampire, to the pain of his parents, who must tell him repeatedly that vampires are not real. One dark evening, the boy meets an eclectically dressed man on a walk home from school.
The man informs him that he is a vampire and knows what the boy wants. He offers to bring the boy on that night’s hunt to introduce him to the world of vampirism. On the hunt, the boy learns just how gruesome and brutal vampires are and tries to make his escape.
What happens to the boy?
Blood Tax
The most elite members of society seek to maintain their status by achieving immortality. Large sums of money are offered to the Vampire Counsel to turn these elites into creatures of the night, granting them immortality, immunity to disease, and incredible strength. Soon, the blood-sucking elite exerts their dominance over the laypeople. The new vampires rule the world and call for a blood tax.
Repentance
An older vampire reflects on his life so far and sees the error of his ways. He wants to make amends for the death and pain he has caused in his life. He stumbles across an abandoned baby in the woods and decides to care for it. He does the best he can, but the vampire hunters in the area don’t know about his wish for repentance and intend to kill him.
Write about this old vampire’s attempts to change his ways while avoiding being hunted and persecuted.
Vampire writing tips
When writing about vampires, it’s best to avoid heavy use of cliché.
Of course, you’ll need to incorporate the classic themes – blood-sucking, turning a human into a vampire, and an effective method of killing vampires – but you can still create an original piece with these considerations.
Don’t focus on the shock value of a vampire. We’re well versed in vampire literature, and their concept is no longer scary. Instead, focus more on your vampire as a character with a background rather than solely a vampire.
Giving the vampire(s) in your story a vivid life is essential. Being a vampire comes with challenges – no longer having a normal life, out-living all of your loved ones, and having to kill or turn people to feed.
Incorporate your character’s struggles, weaknesses, and desires to enrich them and make your story more engaging for the reader.
Conclusion
If you’ve got a favorite vampire story, feel free to take inspiration from that story when it comes to writing your own.
The vampire horror genre is broad, and countless vampire stories exist, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Be inspired by the stories you heard and read growing up, but don’t be afraid to offer your creative input.
