So, how many novels have you trunked exactly?

Maxinquaye · Dec 21, 2009

01 am.

Max is sitting at the desk, only illuminated by the glare from the computer screen.

He takes out a large envelope, stuffs about 250 printed manuscript pages into it. Seals the envelope, sits a moment, and then dates it and marks it as "Scrolls and dolls". After a quiet little sniffle it joins two older, more yellowed envelopes, in the bottom drawer of the metal filing cabinet beside the desk.

Aka the trunk.

*sniff*

Scrolls & Dolls just didn't work as intended, and it was so different from what I'm writing otherwize. Sometimes you've got to cut and run and make room for more productive stuff.

*sniff*

But I'll rescue it. One day. One day... I'll free all of them, all the huddled Myrtles, yearning to breathe free.

*sniffle*

Anyways, it makes my third trunked novel. How many have you got, exactly?

thethinker42 · Dec 21, 2009

3 fully written (including one that was written 3 times) novels, probably a dozen or more started-but-not-finished drafts. I'll be revisiting a few of the latter in 2010, but I have no idea if they'll ever see the light of day.

gonovelgo · Dec 21, 2009

I've only trunked one fully written one. Hopefully my current WIP won't make two

sheadakota · Dec 21, 2009

2 fully written- I was going to say one has hope, but on second thought- no-

Ellefire · Dec 21, 2009

Three nano-novels, which are too short really to look at rewriting for publication and are more 'practice novels' than anything else.

One fully written novel, which may have some hope if it was completely rewritten.

NeuroFizz · Dec 21, 2009

None (so far).

Linda Adams · Dec 21, 2009

Two, one unfinished and the other was in early submission to agents.

Phaeal · Dec 21, 2009

None. Any unfinished work goes into the plot bunny hutch with the other bunnies. After sufficient interbreeding, its progeny emerge bouncier than ever.

K1P1 · Dec 21, 2009

.75 and numerous first chapters that didn't develop into anything. Probably a good thing I'm really a nonfiction writer.

bearilou · Dec 21, 2009

Zero so far. Hope springs eternal!

kaitie · Dec 21, 2009

One. I have another that I'd like to bring back to life one day, and two that I just wrote for play and so I don't consider them trunked so much as purpose served. But yeah, I've got one that just sucks balls basically. Though one of these days I do intend to go back and reread it. It'd probably be an amusing experience, especially considering I was something like 17 when I wrote it.

jrector · Dec 21, 2009

I tossed a couple unfinished early novels, but I've never trunked one that I've finished.

Straka · Dec 21, 2009

4

2 were written in high school / college and that is obvious from the stories' construction and prose.

1 is highly politically and I'm not sure the best way to handle it. It's more hold hold, than trunked for life.

1 is trunked as is, but maybe re-visioned a few years down the road.

Irysangel · Dec 21, 2009

Eight completed novels. Three more have sold and we're shopping a fourth.

I'm going to clean up one or two of them next year in the hopes that I can do something with them, but I'm pretty sure at least five of them will continue to live in the trunk, forever and ever amen.

Parametric · Dec 21, 2009

Three complete novels. That makes everything I've written so far, except the novel I just finished this November, and I'm sure that'll make it into the trunk in time.

SarahMacManus · Dec 21, 2009

Just one - the first - and I haven't completely given up on it. At least not on the characters, their story may become very different, though.

DeleyanLee · Dec 21, 2009

Every novel I've ever written solo (about 9) and the 4 collabs. The only one that isn't trucked, but is dead anyway is the small press publication from 1999.

I've got 10 years of unfinished novels that are pretty much dead too.

I have intentions of using one of the trunked novels to perfect my rewriting skills, but whether or not it goes out after that, I won't know until it's finished. The novel I'm working on now may or may not be trunked--it doesn't matter, my goal is to finish it. Anything more is frosting roses on the cake. I have intentions to revisit one or two of the unfinished novels from this decade, but may or may not do it.

I've found that, for the most part, I've moved beyond most of my trunked novels and am no longer interested in reworking them. I've got more ideas than I have time as it is.

DustyBooks · Dec 21, 2009

Three SF novels, about five fantasy novels, two middle-grade pieces with talking animals (when I was in middle-grades myself), three WWII novels, three Napoleonic-era sea stories, one (awesomely illustrated) Austenesque, one romance novel, a litfic novella attempt from when I was 11, a collection of short stories chronicling the history of aviation in Canada, and my memoirs, from when I was 13. Most 13-year-olds should not write memoirs.
All of the above were incomplete except for one of the SF novels and the litfic novella.
Edit: except for one of the sea stories, none of them has any hope of being revived, but I don't think they were wasted. I think they were practice.

Mr Flibble · Dec 21, 2009

None

I've got one first draft on the back burner till I've finished my series, a nano first draft which needs working on after that and a novella I'm currently polishing to send out in the new year. I sold the two I've actually finished.

/end smug mode

Cos that's gonna come back and bite me on the arse at aome point lol

dgrintalis · Dec 21, 2009

I've permanently trunked two finished novels and probably a dozen unfinished ones.

Adam · Dec 21, 2009

One partial and one second draft. The second draft will be coming back out of the trunk soon though.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 21, 2009

My trunk only had room for one.

theantisplice · Dec 21, 2009

I've trunked two, one of which I may attempt to rescue someday. Maybe.

AlishaS · Dec 21, 2009

I've got technically 3 partials in the trunk, and one that I have started and put off until I get the editing on my current MS done.

cwfgal · Dec 21, 2009

Two now, with a third likely to join them in the coming months. The third one breaks my heart...I love that novel, as does my agent. But we haven't been able to find a home for it. The first two novels will stay trunked forevermore.

Beth

So, how many novels have you trunked exactly?

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