#scientists and historians please help with my aldini quandary

[antique-symbolism]

35, 42, 47, 52 for writer asks 👀

35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________.

By asking me this, you have officially consented to an infodump about my current backstory development struggles for Ruzena vis a vis her witnessing early 1800s corpse reanimation experiments.

So, Frankenstein was actually inspired by some dudes in the late 1700s and early 1800s being like ‘hey what if we electrified some corpses and we let people watch us do it.’ 

Back in that time period, you were only gonna get a corpse to do science with if the body belonged to an executed criminal. When I heard that a lot of executed criminals were posthumously drained of blood I got this banger of an idea where fresh corpse blood could be adequate sustenance for a vampire (I consider, in my limited scientific research, for this to be plausible as corpse blood obtained within a certain window of time can be used in transfusions). 

So, enter Giovanni Aldini publicly trying to shock hanged murderer George Forster’s body back to life. I thought it would be interesting for Ruzena to have been the one to drain Forster’s body, and she attended the public demonstration because she was concerned about the possibility of Forster reanimating as a vampire because of the traces of her venom that would be left in the dead body.

THE PROBLEM is that I think a galvanized body needs blood in order for the electrical current to travel? So says one non-academic and therefore questionably reliable source; according to it, they drained the bodies of beheaded criminals but not hanged ones, thus Forster still had all his blood and Aldini was able to use the body for the galvanic experiment. 

So I’m figuring out where to go with this? I think this backstory is illustrative of Ruzena’s character and interesting to her story, so I don’t want to write it out. But if a body without blood wasn’t a candidate for reanimation experiments, then how could the backstory be possible?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be historically accurate, as I’m working in a closely parallel alternate timeline/reality, but I want it to be scientifically accurate. I had the idea of her biting and starting to drain the body but stopping for some reason so that the body could still have most of its blood left and thus be used. 

But this would also either require that vampire venom doesn’t normally turn the already-dead OR require that somehow the body was otherwise stopped from rising as a vampire, because it is the current canon that vampire venom will turn somebody unless all of their blood is drained. 

Anyway at that point I’m wondering if I’m getting too contrived with it just to make this work? Input or suggestions absolutely welcome from anybody.

And if that wasn’t enough of a wall of text for you, I do have answers to the other ones!

42. How do you figure out your characters looks, personality, etc.

It’s all vibes, babeyyyy~ Honestly though, there’s no method for me. They just evolve as they go. Though usually one of the best things I can do for developing a character’s personality and motivations is asking myself about key details of their life and backstory and figuring out how that’s affected them throughout their life.

47. Do you start with characters or plot when working on a new story?

Usually it goes like this: I have a vague concept like “magical college roadtrip” or “vampire trying to find alternative to drinking blood.” I create a few characters, I come up with a very loose idea of what the major conflict is, I start writing the story, then soon figure out that the major conflict is something completely and totally different. 

This process is actually ideal for me! It’s my favourite way to develop a story, I think it helps me grow it very organically.

52. How did writing change you?

I think writing has helped me understand both myself and other people better. I think writing good characters requires an effort to understand the emotions and experiences that drive our actions, which is an invaluable skill in the real world, too.