JuNoWriMo Featured Author: Vicki Trask

Meet some of your fellow JuNo WriMos in our Featured Author series each Monday and Wednesday during June.

~

Vicki Trask
Vicki Trask

Hi, I’m Vicki Trask *waves* this is my second time doing JuNoWriMo but my first time succeeding.

I was walking around campus one day last year, just people watching, when I stumbled across a dark corner behind a building that everyone walked passed and no one really noticed. Naturally my first thought was “you could murder someone back here quite easily.” It then turned into a game to find all the dark corners in the university campus. There were a lot. And it often required a bit of creativity. After that, I started seeing opportunities to write murder scenes – I emphasizewrite so no one thinks I’m a homicidal manic…yet. By the end of the summer I had a notebook and a wall of sticky notes full of plot notes and dialogue and murder scenarios that I’d “borrowed” from the business office I was working at at the time.

It was a story begging to be written.

So I gave in and planned out a vague storyline so that I could do it for NaNoWriMo in November. I wrote about 4,000 words before life got in the way and I gave up. Turns out November is just not my writing month. I’ve tried and failed at NaNoWriMo three years in a row and for last year’s JuNoWriMo I got further than ever but I still didn’t finish. This year, I have no excuse so if I start to fall off the wagon for one reason or another just slap me upside the head and we’ll get through it together.

Since November the plot has changed so many times that I can’t see straight but I still have that wall of sticky notes as inspiration. I find it a great organization tool actually. It’s disorganized but colourful and handy – plus you can’t misplace a wall so you never lose your notes.

With the help of the handy wall and a few days off, I began to try and make sense of these new ideas that kept popping into my head that were somewhat related to the original idea but in the same way not – it was all very confusing. All I knew was that it was about death and a woman in a pencil skirt.

Thus “Morbid Curiosity” was born; a New Adult Contemporary Fantasy about a woman forced to kill for all eternity who accidentally kills the wrong person and is forced back into the real world. I’ve always had a fascination with death – a safe obsession I assure you. I’ve been writing short stories about death for several years now (mostly on my blog: http://madamewriterofwrongs.blogspot.com) and I thought it was time to finish a full novel.

Right now, I’m in the middle of planning, trying to plot out as much of the story as possible before June. For me the biggest challenge is going to be the emotion. When it comes to fantasy I love the rules and the origin stories but no good story is just made of background – duh – so the challenge is going to be indulging in the background while still fleshing out an interesting story. Seems like it would be simple and obvious but really, it’s not. Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses.

I’m going to be tweeting about it a lot so follow me (http://www.twitter.com/vatrask) and I post writing articles (not my own) every weekday on my Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179919772129906/

Happy Writing WriMos, Wishing you all the best of luck!

~

You might also be interested in:

When You Want to Quit
When You Want to Quit
Three Tips for Reaching Your JuNoWriMo Writing Goals
Three Tips for Reaching Your JuNoWriMo Writing Goals
Featured Author: Margaret McNellis
Featured Author: Margaret McNellis