Ten years ago I developed a major crush on a guy while working at a ski resort as holiday help. I have always been a writer of poetry as well as a journalist. So naturally when I returned to school, I took to my new computer to start jotting down some of my feelings. When I realized how much quicker I was typing the words than when I had used to journal by pen in a notebook it was intriguing.
I have also always been a very vivid dreamer, waking up most mornings remembering a dream or two. In the few days following my return home I had powerful dreams that inspired me to keep writing. I decided to use my infatuation for this romance, which by the way never never blossomed into a relationship, to fuel a fictional story about a girl who fell for a boy in the mountains.
I begin to define the relationship of a young couple who met at a ski resort & created them some friends. It was quite simple at the time it seemed. I was motivated by my dreams & the idea of the cute guy still looming in my mind. The the writing, as usual for me, seemed to flow. So I wrote several pages before my passion for the story dwindled.
After I graduated college, I moved to Los Angeles for two years & writing no longer seemed important. I was more focused on trying to kick off my career as an actress. I gave up only shortly after being accepted into & joining SAG-AFTRA (the acting union). However, during my time in LA I was fascinated by yet another young man, a foreign athlete who was only in LA for a short period of six months. This time I focused more on real life than the made up world of a book. For the time being at least…
In 2014 I relocated once more to New Orleans. I had not thought about my book in a long time until my apartment flooded & my laptop was destroyed (PSA: never leave your laptop sitting on the floor). I sent it to a company to have the data retrieved. They were somewhat successful, however, the work I had done on the book was lost. It was heartbreaking! It was one of those situations where you don’t realize how much something means to you until it is out of your reach. I was disheartened & had absolutely zero interest in returning to my book.
Over time I made a few more moves. Each time I would come across notebooks with my writing or poetry in them & I would get enticed to sit down & read. I came across a lot of writing about men I had been attracted to over the years & I realized what a hopeless romantic I am. I also came to accept over time, that I am not destined for a relationship of my own. Yet, I still love the idea of love. I love reading about love, watching movies about love, dreaming about love & I have now discovered that I enjoy writing about love. So I began to write again.
It was a struggle at first. I honestly did not want to start over after losing all of my previous work. So I simply jotted down some thoughts I had about the characters I once created. One day, I don’t remember exactly when, I sat down & wrote a quick scene. It was a single page or two of the main characters meeting. I left it at that & did not write again for quite some time.
Over the course of the past TWO years, I have slowly chipped away at what I now call my “Snowboard Novel Draft.” I have a full time job & I certainly don’t commit myself to writing as I should. I don’t write regularly, but when I sit down to write, somewhere between one to two thousand words ends up coming out. I rarely write small sections at a time. I did write out of order & I would skip all around. Only here recently did things finally take shape & I began to feel a sense of accomplishment.
On April 19th 2021 I printed my ROUGH First Draft of my “Snowboard Novel Draft.” It stands at 86 standard, letter size pages, font size 11 or 55,627 words. This was in my eyes, my first real milestone on this project. I sent it to three people who I know & trust for their input & feedback before going back to add more. As things progress, I plan to keep you informed! But in the meantime, if you would like updates, please contact me to be added to my email list & follow me on Facebook at my Kimily24 page & Instagram at @KimilyTrehern 🙂 ❤
