How To Subvert Tropes When Writing Your Novel

In addition to a writing coach, developmental editor and course creator, I’m also a heavy reader, reading about 2-5 books a week. Since I read so much, I’ve seen it all before. Except this. I’ve never seen this before; Jonny B Truant’s Fat Vampire.

Which is why I just had to talk about it.

So what’s different about this book? The title says it all; this is about a fat vampire.

Cue trope subversion.

Most of the vampires we’re used to seeing are young, healthy, and strong. This guy, well, he’s overweight. He was an overweight human and he becomes and overweight vampire. The problem is that now that he’s undead, there’s actually nothing he can do to lose weight.

Even eating less blood wouldn’t do it. All that would do is kill him. And he’s not good at being a vampire. He’s a horrible hunter, he’s not rich, and he’s not very attractive by vampire standards.

This is exactly what makes the book so fun. It takes every vampire trope in the world and turns it on its head. This vampire can’t do things other vampires can do. And he eats the vampire equivalent of fast food. The other vampires don’t understand how he can eat something with such low nutritional value, but it doesn’t’ bother him for quite a while.

All of a sudden, the vampire is something that we can relate to, instead of someone to emulate. And of course, he winds up the hero of this story not in spite of his weight, but because of it. Because he’s heavy, he does things differently. Because he’s different, he accomplishes something few others can.

Adding a new twist on an old trope is all about playing the ‘what if’ game; in this case; what if a fat man became a vampire?

Jonny B. Truant is a master of this kind of writing, so do suggest reading him. One of these days, I might even review his other book, the Unicorn Western.

See you next time.