My Trunk Novel

I've redrafted trunk short stories. A novel would take longer, but if you're willing to give it a go I see no reason why it couldn't succeed.

Just remember: you'll need to be brutal. A lot of stuff you love may have to go, but you'll also get a chance to add things you'd love even more. Also, keep in mind why you trunked it in the first place as you work.

I have a first novel that I used to tinker with now and then. I even rewrote it from 3rd person to 1st person. I got an agent with that book, but after two years, it never sold. I considered it my learning book and would try using new techniques I'd learned. But I have no delusions it will ever be more than it is and resigned it to the trunk years ago. That's not to say you won't have better luck, though.

I just did a similar thing, and let me tell you, it was painful... but I'm glad I did it. In this case, I really recommend putting together a synopsis or outline first, so you know what to salvage and what to revamp. And if you have the strength (I didn't, dang it), print out a copy of your old story as reference and start from scratch in a new file. Because while the ideas might be salvageable, the majority of the actual writing probably isn't. Be RUTHLESS.

Don't do it. I reworked my first novel four times before I finally moved on. In retrospect, it was great practice and a I grew as a writer each time. But storywise, I was digging up the carcas of a dead horse and flogging the bones.

Once I moved on to a new story, things progressed more rapidly.

Retype everything from the beginning -- don't just edit it. Type it, then change whatever along the way.

If you think you can make your trunk novel work, go ahead. What do you have to lose? More trunk space?

That's what I'm doing now, trying to rewrite a trunk novel I wrote ten plus years ago. In my mind, I know that with a lot of work and tons more research, this novel can be good. I may have to throw away quite a bit of what I wrote, but a lot of it too is salvageable. It's just going to take time and work.

RunawayScribe said:

...I may try to save it.

It's the first novel I ever drafted start to end. I did it in high school. Some of the characters are weak, as is much of the writing, but lately I've been thinking, and I don't think it's anything that can't be fixed with huge, gross amounts of work and dedication. I really do love the plot. When I finish my current WIP, I may go for it.

Anyone ever done this? Advice? Survival stories?

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I loved my trunk novel so much even though it was bad. Badly written that is, although there was the skeleton of a story there. And I'm glad I didn't get rid of it because years later I started to get an idea of where I could take it.

I'll need to make a lot of changes, introduce new characters and take certain situations and move them to different settings...and there will be many, many darlings to kill...but yeah, it's salvageable.

So good for you. I say go for it. In my case, I'm taking my trunk novel, editing the snot out of it and calling that 'part one' of my novel. 'Part two' will continue the story and introduce new characters. All in all, it'll be 'complete' that way and far better - I hope!

It's exciting, isn't it?

I just dug up the first "serial" I wrote but didn't finish (it had 26 episodes, about 15,000 words). I think I may rewrite it and then make it into a novel some day.

But I have better books to write right now -- actually have a list. Sometimes I wonder if your "first novel" is kind of like your first love in high school... it was great while it lasted, but it wasn't meant to go anywhere.

I must confess I'd never heard of "trunk novels" before coming to this forum, and the concept puzzled me and still does. I rarely consider any story COMPLETELY abandoned, and IMO almost anything can be fixed, if one has the drive to fix it. I find the advice above to "Don't dare try it!--work on something more promising!" perplexing as well. What if the OP really DOES have it in them to make this story work? Isn't that worth trying? You'd advise against it just because it didn't work for you personally? It seems such a shame and a waste for somebody who really loves their story to be told not to bother with it because it's a waste of time and effort. Since the OP is even asking and thinking about this, I think that's a good sign in itself that it could work.

I started a novel series back in high school and such and got three of them written. They were good to me at the time but following a royal lambasting by a self-professed "critic" (read: troll) online some years ago, I lost all faith in them and "trunked" them, if you will. But the part of me that never lets stories go is fortunately always on somewhere. I recently started rewriting the first of them. It's stalled out, but not because it's going lousy, more like just my trouble with any writing lately. I think the rewrite was going really well and hope to get back to it sometime soon. I believe in these stories. They're really, really lousily written, yes. But if I believe in them enough I can fix them. It just takes time and work.

And yes, I do have stories that I've decided I should not spend my time and effort on right now, so I can dedicate that time and effort to things that are more promising. But I would never tell somebody outright to just trash something because there might be more promising things to work on. Especially if they're excited at the prospect of revamping a story with potential. Say the OP decides not to redo the trunked novel based on this advice. Who's to say the new story they start in its place won't turn out to be trunkworthy material, too...? We really can't know until we try.

Maybe a "better, more promising thing" for this writer would be to redo this story.

That's really all I can say. If you love and believe in a story enough, you can fix it. That is my opinion based on my personal experience and I shan't defend it, so take it or leave it.

Good luck with your novel. I say go for it.

I don't know - my first 'novels' were what I wrote in high school for my friends to read. They were James Bond knockoffs with us, older, as the lead characters. The members of Duran Duran were our boyfriends

This has no relevance for the OP, but I couldn't help but tell it

backslashbaby said:

I don't know - my first 'novels' were what I wrote in high school for my friends to read. They were James Bond knockoffs with us, older, as the lead characters. The members of Duran Duran were our boyfriends

This has no relevance for the OP, but I couldn't help but tell it

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Heh heh heh I think we were classmates. Simon was my boyfriend.

I think a trunk novel can be reworked if you're willing to recognize what works, what doesn't, and what elements, characters, etc. may have led to your trunking it in the first place. I trunked a novel because the MC was too whiny. Seemed like good writing when I was a whiny 20-something, but not so great now.