Reaching ‘The End,’ Then Not by R Thomas Brown

Writing “The End” felt great. The story felt good. Seemed I’d pulled off the rather odd inspiration. I was watching The Maltese Falcon (which I do often) and wanted to tell a variant of it. Not the nuts of bolts of it, but the twists and turns and the costly pursuit of something that is revealed to be a lie. I certainly had false starts trying to craft the story, but there I was, done, with a tight narrative around a single character. A sometimes nasty crime novella.

When Snubnose Press picked it up, I knew it was in good hands. The releases to that date were strong and everything since then has been top notch. All in all, it was a great feeling. Then Brian, the editor at Snubnose, made a little comment. He simply notes that there was a good amount of action and that an exploration of some of the other characters would probably work if done well.

That’s was where “The End” vanished. Working with Brian, I added almost the full length of what I had done again. Subplots grew, minor characters were explored, a few plotting changes were made to accommodate the new material. It was in lots of ways more work than the initial writing. But it was all worth it. The novel that emerged was stronger, deeper and more satisfying than the initial work.

It wasn’t what I initially set out to write, but it’s what I would have written had I thought about it. Thankfully, I had an editor that helped me see new things and then left me to explore the things I felt were fitting.

When I reached “The End” again, it felt great.