Letting go

Straka · Jan 24, 2008

Last night I finally decided to shelve my first manuscript and not query agents with it. I've been working on it for 8 years and I've since written several other WIPs. My most recent one is much stronger so I decided to focus on that exclusively for now.

What finally did it for me was writing query letters. I made me realize that while the book is fun to read, it its current form it isn't very marketable. Having worked on it for so long it has a lot of band aides holding it together but to sell it I'd really need to rewrite large parts and I'm not ready to dedicate that much more time on it.

For now its going on the shelf, which is hard after working on it for so long. Maybe I'll return to it one day.

Anyone else go through this stage at some point? If so what were your reasons?

S.H.P. · Jan 24, 2008

I worked on a piece for a while and decided to just give it to my agent. My work isn't what most, if any, editors are looking for, but it is what I do. I won't change what I write or how I write to fit a mold as to what sells ... I can't.

Higgins · Jan 24, 2008

Straka said:
Last night I finally decided to shelve my first manuscript and not query agents with it. I've been working on it for 8 years and I've since written several other WIPs. My most recent one is much stronger so I decided to focus on that exclusively for now.

What finally did it for me was writing query letters. I made me realize that while the book is fun to read, it its current form it isn't very marketable. Having worked on it for so long it has a lot of band aides holding it together but to sell it I'd really need to rewrite large parts and I'm not ready to dedicate that much more time on it.

For now its going on the shelf, which is hard after working on it for so long. Maybe I'll return to it one day.

Anyone else go through this stage at some point? If so what were your reasons?

There is one novel I have been sending out for the last year without any luck. I'm halfway into writing another so I think I will finish book B and then revise book A in light of what I've learned in writing book B.

Gillhoughly · Jan 24, 2008

Everyone has "trunk" novels. They're the practice you do on your way to Carnegie Hall.

You wait until you're a best-seller and the publisher is screaming for a new book, then haul your old practice runs out and inflict them on the public.

You ever read a best-selling writer whose latest opus is not quite up to standard? Trunk book.

Stew21 · Jan 24, 2008

Lots of people trunk the first novel. They consider it the learning novel. Nothing wrong with tucking it away and using what you've learned on other work.

trish, has a trunk novel, too.

eta: good timing, Gillhoughly

Rolling Thunder · Jan 24, 2008

Gillhoughly said:
Everyone has "trunk" novels. They're the practice you do on your way to Carnegie Hall.

You wait until you're a best-seller and the publisher is screaming for a new book, then haul your old practice runs out and inflict them on the public.

You ever read a best-selling writer whose latest opus is not quite up to standard? Trunk book.

That must be where Stephen King's 'The Eyes of the Dragon' came from. It is to weep...

Bartholomew · Jan 24, 2008

My first book is unpublishable. You can still find a hunk of it in SYW. I'll rewrite it eventually.

I think everyone eventually writes something they thought would be SO cool, and then they find out that it's a montage of every clichéd idea in their genre, and a monument to every stylistic error ever conceived. Writing is a learning process.
#

I really liked "Eyes of the Dragon."

Straka · Jan 24, 2008

Its means to that I trunk two works because I wrote the sequal to it as well. First project I write I make it into a trilogy. To be honest I wasn't looking forward to editing the second manuscript either, all 313,000 words of it.

ORION · Jan 24, 2008

I have three manuscripts that will eventually be reworked- I consider them my tuition for producing LOTTERY.
I'm working on something new for my next novel- but I plan to go back to the others at some point.

Nateskate · Jan 24, 2008

I went through something similar. I wrote my own Lord of the Rings (Straight ahead story) and Silmarillion (Backstory told as a mythology)

Beta readers loved the Epic and pushed me to publish. But I wasted time trying to market the back story first. Finally after tossing out a question to friends, I was encouraged to market the second story first, and then if that succeeded, to market the second series as a prequel.

The suggestion worked and I have a publisher. Now I'm just tweedling my thumbs waiting for the edits to be done.

heyjude · Jan 24, 2008

I still love my first ms. (Ah, that first love!) However, I can accept that most of the world would say "not so much."

Yes, it was my learning experience. I wrote it for fun and because it was a story idea that simply wouldn't let me go. It was great practice for the "real deals" to come.

Storm Dream · Jan 24, 2008

I've shelved my first fantasy novel (again).

I like the characters and I love the world, but I've written the story three and a half, maybe four times now, and I've never been able to get it to work right. The third incarnation was probably the best, but I felt like there were some pretty gaping plot holes that couldn't be fixed within it. So I started over again. The latest incarnation was probably pretty good plot-wise, but it felt stripped of its heart.

So I've shelved it. I still tinker with the world, because I want to go back to it one day, but I'm not touching that story for the time being. Kind of sucks.

Right now I've got three WIPs I'm working on that stand on their own, so I guess that's enough to keep me off the streets.

KarlaErikaCal · Jan 24, 2008

I realized I needed to stop working on my 1st novel ever written. It was the best I wrote... at that time. I started freshman year of HS. It changed loads since then. Each time it got better and better, but once I hit that 2 year mark (i'm a junior now) I couldn't stand looking at it anymore. It wasn't that I was tired of looking at it a lot, it was that I was tired of fixing mistake after mistake. I guess with plenty of firsts there are always the things you need to do better the second time around. Hopefully my current WIP is a lot better. And I already think it is!

DamaNegra · Jan 24, 2008

I've been rewriting the same novel for 7 years. It's getting exponentially better with each rewrite. Someday, it'll be ready. I'm NOT admiting defeat on this one. Not after so long.

JamieFord · Jan 24, 2008

I did the same thing. I rewrote my first book 4 times. It ended up a ginormous piece of scar tissue from all the editing and rewriting. I shelved it and sold the next book.

There are no wasted words--it all makes great practice. Kudos for being able to let go.

Happy Pooch · Jan 25, 2008

I abandoned my novel for five months. Then on a boring morning I happened to open the file. I didn't plan on hitting the Delete button but my expectation was very negative. I was happily surprised when i started reading. I liked it and saw what was wrong with it. Changed the structure and some characters, deleting some scenes and added new ones.

I'm very much of the school to let a piece of writing go cold for a while until you can see it with more objective, "outsider" eyes.

HeronW · Jan 25, 2008

WIPs are like wine, they need to sit and ferment before you take them out, blend and strain and make sure it tastes right.

Stew21 · Jan 25, 2008

Some of them can't be fixed. You have improved your writing skills and they are beyond your plot. Some trunk novels don't need to come back out and see the light of day. Some of them just need to be considered practice - the one where you learned you could get to the end.

At least, for me, that's how I feel about my first novel and I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't feel like I gave up. I feel like I took what I could from the experience and put it into a better book.

Charlie Horse · Jan 25, 2008

It's funny you should bring this up. I was thinking of starting a similar thread wondering if anyone had revived any of their old trunk novels and reworked them to the point they were marketable.

My first novel was queried with some success in requests for partials but never got any further than that. I guess the concept was good and the query well written but the ms itself was weak. As my writing is constantly improving I've been wondering if it would be worth it to perform an overhaul and try again at some point in the future.

Hobbes · Jan 25, 2008

Here, here, Trish. I agree. I was so proud of my first book but I kept getting rejections. When I finally started and finished my second book, I went back and read it again and understood why I got so many dismissals. It was dismal. But I learned, moved on, learned some more and my third book has been accepted!

Whether it gets published or not, it's something you can learn and grow from.

ink wench · Jan 25, 2008

Straka said:
Its means to that I trunk two works because I wrote the sequal to it as well. First project I write I make it into a trilogy. To be honest I wasn't looking forward to editing the second manuscript either, all 313,000 words of it.

If it makes you feel better, I trunked 3. It was a trilogy, although I hadn't intended it to be (the story just turned out much longer than expected). I still love the story, love the characters, and have one beta who is very annoyed that I didn't think it was strong enough to query. Don't regret writing the entire thing for a moment, though, because the improvements I saw in my writing from novels 1 to 3 was incredible. I just figure one day I might go back to it. I'm not convinced I can't salvage it, it would just take more work than I want to bother with.

Mr Flibble · Jan 25, 2008

I'm in the same sort of pickle.

I wrote my novel - the learning novel - and went on to something else. But each time I learn something new on my WIP, I go back and apply it to the trunker, which gets better every time I go through it. One day it may actually be good

I just can't let those characters lay there forgotten....

a_sharp · Jan 25, 2008

I hauled out a novel I'd trunked for twelve years, intending to take the idea and characters and give it a wholesale rewrite. Nada. Couldn't do it. Had fun revisiting but I'm a different person now with a different way of telling a story (improved, I hope) and the CPR flatlined on me. The energy is better placed in a new work.

Charlie Horse · Jan 25, 2008

a_sharp said:
I hauled out a novel I'd trunked for twelve years, intending to take the idea and characters and give it a wholesale rewrite. Nada. Couldn't do it. Had fun revisiting but I'm a different person now with a different way of telling a story (improved, I hope) and the CPR flatlined on me. The energy is better placed in a new work.

Would you ever considering taking the original concept, plot, characters, etc. and rewriting from scratch?

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