When Your Baby Becomes A Trunk Novel

None of my writings are babies. They are work for sale. I like them, I enjoyed them but I'm not going to form some emotional attachment to them.

Write a new book, and go on.

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

I'm certainly attached to everything I've ever written. Not to the point where I can't see my baby's ugly, but they were all fun while I worked on them.

Some, though, just ain't gonna see the light of day...

scarletpeaches said:

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

I'm certainly attached to everything I've ever written. Not to the point where I can't see my baby's ugly, but they were all fun while I worked on them.

Some, though, just ain't gonna see the light of day...

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The emotional attachment is made while writing, am talking about after the book is finished. After the writing is finished I'm treating it as a sales product. The emotional portion is finished.
Anyway, by that time I'm on to another ms and am enjoying a new adventure.

I still love my trunkie, but, yeah, I'm moving on.

Yeah, I am trunking my first novel. It wasn't finished--but the problem was I couldn't seem to figure out how to finish it no matter how many times I would try writing different scenarios. Too many pieces didn't fit together. Yes, it was 3 years of effort and it hurt a little, but it was time to put it away.

Perhaps someday I'll revisit it. For now I'm working on my new one and hopefully it has a bit more promise to it.

And I'm sorry it didn't work out for you--mine was still in the development stage--I can only imagine how hard it must be to have it put away after being so close.

TWR, I'm really very sorry to hear about the trunking. Hopefully you'll be able to resurrect it at another time.

If you're up for it, either here or by PM, I'm curious how you would classify the book and if you could say more about what specifically kept it from being outside the publishers's comfort zones.

Sort of random, but I don't see writings as equal to babies.

Babies....all you have to do is have sex and 9 months later, poof! There is a baby! You can't stop in the middle and say, "Gee, this baby is really hard to grow right now, I think I'll put it in a drawer for a couple of years and then come back to it", then forget about it forever. No matter what, that baby is coming, no matter how little or how much you prepare for it. Novels are much harder to produce than children.

I see writing as more comparable to a dog. I adore my dog. I spend a lot of time training and socializing him so he can be awesome and go places in public without humiliating me. That is a bit like taking a lot of time and effort to write a story well, something you have an emotional connection to.

Then there is my husband's dog. I also adore that dog, but don't spend as much time working with him. As a consequence, he gets shut away when people come over so they don't get a slobbery cow manure coated face shoved into their laps. We still have him and love him, but because he hasn't had the time put into refinement like the other dog...well, he is a bit embarrassing and only comes out when the in laws visit.

I'm in the process of moving and I found a new use for one of my trunk's WIPs; packing paper.

Ah that sucks, writingrunner.

Maybe you can dredge it up out of the trunk in a year or so, when the market is different?

Look at it this way, if two, three and four become huge sellers, imagine the delight on your descendents faces when it's "untrunked" and goes to print as an undiscovered work of genius by the late, great...

Yeah, I know, small consolation.

KenSchneider's advice might seem jarring, but he's right. Feel passionate about the book as you're creating -- you really can't help that - and then let go. Again, I'm a newb and have never been published, so take it with a grain of salt.

scarletpeaches said:

If the author doesn't form an emotional attachment to his book, how can he expect a reader to?

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Those are, of course, completely unrelated issues.

No they're not.

They're really, really not.

Did you just agree with me?

I've written over 30 novels. I've trunked all of them. One got untrunked when a small press publisher asked for it out of the blue, but other than that, I've always trunked what I've written.

In your case, I think it has more to do with the market than the book. I've talked to other writers who just wrote the book ahead of the market. When the market shifted, they were ready and in the forefront. All the better for you.

Hope the market shifts its way for you.

Canotila said:

Sort of random, but I don't see writings as equal to babies.

Babies....all you have to do is have sex and 9 months later, poof! There is a baby! You can't stop in the middle and say, "Gee, this baby is really hard to grow right now, I think I'll put it in a drawer for a couple of years and then come back to it", then forget about it forever. No matter what, that baby is coming, no matter how little or how much you prepare for it. Novels are much harder to produce than children.

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I'm another one who doesn't equate writing a novel to having babies, honestly.

While I am emotionally wrapped up in writing my stories, I see it more as a hot torrid affair than raising a baby. At the start, the flames burn hot and passions run high. I'm totally infatuated with the story and what I'm doing with it and would love to share it all with everyone, it's still private and I want to keep it to myself. At some point, the flames start to cool, I start seeing the flaws, I know it needs work, I realize that it can't last forever. The book wraps up. Sometimes I try to keep it going longer, sometimes I'm happy to let it go. Then I move on with my life, with those cherished memories. Occasionally, I revisit those memories, I'll reread the book and smile to myself. I get mad when someone says bad things about something I cared very deeply about, may even still care deeply about. But each book has its time and, at some point, another story will spark my passions and capture me all over again.

I don't want books to be babies. Babies are work and responsibility and far more commitment than I'm willing to give anything that's not human. I'm really happy with my torrid affairs, thanks.

Nakhlasmoke said:

Ah that sucks, writingrunner.

Maybe you can dredge it up out of the trunk in a year or so, when the market is different?

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I agree with that approach. If it was good enough for an agent to champion and two editors to fall in love with, I certainly wouldn't give up on it. When I think of a trunk novel, I think of something that is not written well enough to ever become fully developed into something other people would want to read.

Sounds like a fantastic candidate for an ebook.

I haven't even bought a trunk yet.

I was thinking of going to Pier One. Maybe they have something on sale.

Someone once asked, if I were in a building that were on fire, and children and books were strewn about, which would I take.

The books.

I hate.

Hate.

HATE

HATE

HATE

HATE

CHILDREN!!!!

scarletpeaches said:

No they're not.

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A lot of art has been made purely as a way to make money for the creators. That doesn't mean that they won't be enjoyed by the public. And once you have sent a novel out the door, there is not that much you can do about anything anyway, so you'd beter concentrated on the next work.

I can relate. I have a novel I finished two years ago that my agent loved as much as I did. But we couldn't find any takers. For now it's trunked. But the one I have coming out in a few days was trunked for a long time, too ... 7 years, in fact. so you just never know.

Beth

motormind said:

A lot of art has been made purely as a way to make money for the creators. That doesn't mean that they won't be enjoyed by the public. And once you have sent a novel out the door, there is not that much you can do about anything anyway, so you'd beter concentrated on the next work.

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Of course I'm probably wrong, so keep that in mind.

However,

I think both what you are saying and what SP is saying are equally valid points.

For one, I understand someone who writes for a living. Someone who enjoys the play of fiction but doesn't hold emotional attachments to characters or scenes.

On the other hand, and I am one of these, there is an emotional and/or philosophical connection for some writers during the process of writing. It doesn't mean you can't step back when query time comes, or sale time, or whathaveyou. It just means you're a bleeding artist versus the equally proficient but I'll-keep-my-blood-in-my-veins-thank-you-very-much artists.

Anyway that's my take.

I'll take my response off the air.