AI Can’t Fix My Trunk Novel

I don’t see a point in asking it to try

Robot by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay

Most writers have trunk novels, essays, stories, and poems. The “trunk” descriptor refers to rough drafts we put away for years, under the bed, in the storage chest, and to which we could return—but rarely do.

It’s been described by J. S. Wong:

Why You Need to Write Stories No One Will Ever Read

And by Mason Sabre:

The Trunk Novel — What It Is and Why New Writers Need Them

Often, the trunk novel wasn’t viable to begin with. The idea seemed funny and cool at the time — we were young and under the influence of a couple beers — but we’ve since come to realize it’s better if we don’t spend our wiser years striving for a “good” execution of a project that has no potential — speaking as our older selves — to be funny nor cool.

So, why do we save the draft? Well, the knowledge that we don’t need it (fine, we have better…