: Re: Is it bad to suddenly introduce another element to your fantasy world a good ways into the story? I'm writing a novel with many POVs, and this is a very flexible story. It started out with

@Sue2132873

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I think you can look to Harry Potter for inspiration to answer your question.

Every book introduced new species. Some at the beginning of the book, and others in the middle. But they were always introduced before they became important to the story.

In the first book, the dragon egg showed up with no real fanfare and became something that fleshed out Hagrid's character and added some comic moments, but later that dragon became very important to the story. Similarly, the hippogriff was introduced in book 3 and demonstrated differences between Malfoy Draco and Harry Potter, but later became very important to how the story unfolded.

So, if you think your story needs vampires to be even better, then add them. But, like HP, make sure it's clear they exist before they are important to the plot - or those moments in the direction of the story where the arc changes.

If you blurt out "oh there are vampires", then you may telegraph something about your story before you want it revealed. But if the vampires are introduced in a way that develops your characters more fully, or presents a challenge to the character that is already well established, so we are learning more about someone we are interested, then the vampires will be as accepted as HP's Grindylows and Nargles.

You can contrast this with Out of the Dark by David Weber. In the very last chapters, he introduces the story element that saves the day. It was in plain sight all along and it was foreshadowed as well, but it was done in a manner that caused me to dismiss it. So when I got to the point of the reveal, I felt cheated. I still read it twice because I like his work. But I was disappointed in the ending both times.

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