On Trunk Stories

Phyrebrat

Phyrebrat

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I've been seeing the words come up a lot lately - just coincidentally, nothing important - and I wanted to ask what the 'done thing' is.

For example, I have two shorts - possibly three; Gash (fabulist feminism, 6K), What Little Girls Are Made Of (horror, 4.2k) and Wheezer (semi-Lovecraftian horror 6K). Gash stands on its own and I imagine would require a feminist-biased anthology or something, and WLGAMO was an expansion to a 300 challenge entry I wrote here. Apart from Wheezer they were written with an eye for subbing but I only tried once and then got wrapped up in my WIP and have not made any further efforts.

I suspect if I re-read Wheezer I'd want to edit it and make some changes, but I'm wondering if the other two are classed as trunks?

From a lot of what I see re trunks is 'no trunk novels/stories etc, please' but then, how would anyone know? I mean, if it has been beta'd and edited - is there something obvious I'm missing.

Thanks.

pH
 
A writer friend of mine - his name is Jon Pinnock and he's very good - became quite successful for a while in the short story market. Part of his success came from the fact that he was constantly sending out stories and kept a spreadsheet of who had what at what time. There was almost never a time when he didn't have four or five stories out with somebody and, sooner or later, the results started coming in (they were good stories, I should add). Some of the stories were doing the rounds for a long time, others hardly at all.

This idea of a "trunk story" sounds new and a bit false to me. If it meant "unsaleable rubbish", then fair enough, but otherwise I don't see what you're missing here.
 
How in the world would they know? Oh, you just asked that. I see. But how in the world would they know?
 
Hmmmmm. I'm betaing a story at the moment that I get the sense the author might or might not trunk. I also have a few.

Here's my definition. A story that is:

Too flawed for me to find an easy fix for and too complete for me to reimagine

Has characters who don't work and who I struggle to make work

Has fundamental pace and story issues with multiple routes forward that I don't know how to choose between.

A book that I no longer love enough to work more at
 
Why would anyone submit any of those, though?

Well, yeah, because some people submit anything to anywhere, no matter how awful or unsuitable it is. But that's not so much an issue of "trunk" as it is "bad".
 
The earliest mention of this term I can find is in 2008.
and two years after a definition
A trunk novel is a term for a novel that won't ever escape the inside of a trunk. It's a piece a writer works on solely for his/her own gratification, one that stands little chance of every being published, mostly because the writer understands it's horrible. It's the writing version of junk food.Apr 29, 2010
Click to expand...

I have two briefcase novels: They've been in there since the 1980's or thereabout.
 
@Phyrebrat is WLGAMO the one with the drawing girl? If that is still dusty next year I might toss together a little horror collection and ask you for it. It was great.

I have a few trunked stories, even ones that were accepted into collections that never happened. So I may do something with them someday, or they may just be words on the way to my million words
 
ratsy said:
is WLGAMO the one with the drawing girl? If that is still dusty next year I might toss together a little horror collection and ask you for it. It was great.
Click to expand...

Ah you remember that far back?! Yes it's the one with the girl. Funnily enough I wrote it as the yang to Jumbled-up Jack's yin.

I'd be happy for you to have it. Thanks.

pH
 
dannymcg said:
What is difference between a trunk novel and a briefcase novel?
Click to expand...

Go to the park bench opposite the embassy at midday. A man will approach and ask about a florist. Tell him that there are many fine florists on the streets of Kiev. Exchange briefcases and wait for publication. That is all.
 
TheDustyZebra said:
Why would anyone submit any of those, though?

Well, yeah, because some people submit anything to anywhere, no matter how awful or unsuitable it is. But that's not so much an issue of "trunk" as it is "bad".
Click to expand...
I submitted one recently because it was to a shared world platform and the world in it is very cool - and I'd be happy to see it picked up. But, also - just because I think it's not working might not mean it isn't - especially if it's just that I can't face reviewing again
 
Phyrebrat said:
From a lot of what I see re trunks is 'no trunk novels/stories etc, please' but then, how would anyone know?
Click to expand...

I've always read that as "don't be an arse and send us stuff that's rubbish that everyone else has rejected"

The trouble is it strikes me as the sort of thing that the only people who would take notice are the ones who aren't arses and wouldn't knowingly send rubbish.
And on the "everyone else has rejected" - until you've sent it to absolutely everyone, how do you know you haven't just missed out on the one editor who adores what you wrote?
 
Toby Frost said:
Go to the park bench opposite the embassy at midday. A man will approach and ask about a florist. Tell him that there are many fine florists on the streets of Kiev. Exchange briefcases and wait for publication. That is all.
Click to expand...

This is so gonna be the basis for my next 75 worder :)
 
Joking aside, I don't get the distinction. Trunk = crap? Or just old and not gone anywhere yet? If the definition is "too bad to take out of the trunk" then why would you sub it? If it's something that hasn't found a home yet but you don't think is bad, then how is it "trunk"?

It's been a long day, I may be missing some fundamental point here!
 
I don't think you are. It feels to me like an unnecessary naming of something that doesn't quite exist as a category. As you say, a story is either rubbish or it's salable*. I suppose you could divide "salable" into "easily salable" and "difficult to sell" but again, I don't really see the problem.

Alternatively, does it refer to stories written while the writer is learning how to write? Arguably, a writer is always learning, but again, they're either salable or not. My feeling is that there's enough jargon in writing as it is.

(On an unrelated note, I must ask @Martin Gill: who are the people in your picture? They seem familiar, but maybe just because the chap on the right looks quite like a friend of mine...)

*Is "salable" right? It looks wrong. My instinct is to write "saleable" but the spellchecker doesn't like that (and does like "spellchecker").
 
Toby Frost said:
Is "salable" right? It looks wrong. My instinct is to write "saleable" but the spellchecker doesn't like that (and does like "spellchecker").
Click to expand...
You can't trust spellcheckers and they have a nasty sense of humour. In my early R&D years, I was working with urea (yup, one of the major components of urine) in the form of spherical particles produced by a 'shotting' process, i.e. let a spray of molten material fall and cool. The spellchecker forever wanted to amend references to 'shotted urea' in my technical reports and I had to go through and make sure 'shotted' was spelled with an 'o' not an 'i', before my boss read the drafts.
 
sal·a·ble
ˈsāləb(ə)l/
adjective
adjective: saleable; adjective: salable

six of one half dozen of the other....

The doughnut box is half full
The doughnut box is half empty
What doughnut box...?
 
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