Imagine, if you will, that you are. You know that you exist. You feel yourself as a body, buried in the earth, but you also know yourself as a mind that "sees" through the eyes of the forest around you - you can sense things through the eyes and ears of the birds and the rabbits and the deer, but you can also sense things through the earth itself, and the trees, and the grass. Except you don't know who you are, and you're not even aware that you ever had an identity. You don't recall that once upon a time you had a name, or an age, or thoughts or feelings. Then, suddenly, one day, something "wakes you up," and you know that you used to be a person, but you don't remember who you were or what you were beyond knowing that you used to have memories. I guess in this case, the central theme would be, "search for identity." And maybe the character this happens to doesn't realize that there are parts of who she is or was that she wouldn't like. But that's one part of the story - the rest of the story is about a group of teenagers who hang out together and discover something weird is "haunting" the bed-and-breakfast where some of the kids live. I'm kind of just processing the idea, but any feedback is welcome!
Picking up the idea of loss of identity ... this of course can be a very traumatic symptom of certain mental illnesses. To not know "who" you are triggers a fearful panic. You cannot rest. You feel as if something precious has been stolen from you. To lose yourself invites chaos. It's like being hollow, with nothing to protect yourself from the vagaries of this existence.
What you have here, sounds like the start of the snowflake method of writing. Well worth reading the book, you might find it useful.
Oooo! Thank you so much Louanne! I hadn't thought about this and can definitely use this kind of trauma in my writing! I appreciate the feedback!
I have a great deal of respect for the Snowflake Method, but have a little trouble actually implementing it. But I'm going to see what I can come up with!
Just tossing this out for your consideration. What if you link the memory issue to feeding, as in with each time the vampire feeds some memory comes back. But the regained memory fades with time since her last feeding. The increased frequency of attacks being what draws the kids into the mystery.
If the vampire remembers being connected with the earth and the forest animals etc, then finding herself in a mere single body could feel extremely confining, as if she's suddenly lost all that vastness and connection, traded in for a tighter focus in one specific body and one identity. In fact it might be something like this: Spoiler: Video I could see something like that being seen as a massive loss, a shrinking of self, and a tragedy that might fuel some rage against the unfair universe.
