A Distinctive Flourish

The writing of my second and third novels overlapped, though this was not intended at the outset. As you'll read in my post about Passing Unseen, that was the second story I decided to write. As it turned out, the complexity of that story demanded several changes after the first version had been completed. Since I'd already embarked on my third story, A Distinctive Flourish, I decided to continue with that tale and return to Passing Unseen later.

Several elements that emerged in A Distinctive Flourish occurred to me at very different times. Each was noted in my computer, then forgotten. Thus the genesis of A Distinctive Flourish was the loose structure of a novel written, abandoned the re-written several years later. This is how it happened.

The 'trigger' for the writing of the story wasn't specially unique and has been employed by any number of writers, namely the accidental switching of property. Because this isn’t a unique device, it may one of the reasons I didn’t pursue the story immediately but simply filed it away.

Later, thanks to my career in the civil aviation business I became aware of the procedure generally followed when a passenger dies in mid-flight. This item too was noted and saved away on my computer. 

Later still I found myself saddled with a substantial bad debt by a ruthless and dishonest client and went through the ghastly process of trying to save my own business.

Finally, a shortly after recalling that occurrence, I surprised myself when writing a sequence in which a photographer is searching through darkened studio which someone has tried to burn down when he stumbles across a dead body. As he bends over the body to confirm that the body is dead, the ‘body’ grasps him around the neck in a final effort before it expires and releases him. 

Once I started to write the story – to which I initially gave the working title of Flash, Bang, Wallop – I found the initial structure flowed quite naturally and I was able to weave geographical, historical and political elements I’d become aware of during my aviation career into the initial structure. When I reviewed the initial draft of the story I realised that the conclusion was a point at which the hero would have to choose between two rather obvious options, either of which would be satisfactory but not entirely fulfilling to me as a storyteller.

It was the advice of one of my trusted and much-valued critics that prompted me to consider an entirely different conclusion to Flash, Bang, Wallop. This modification adds a new and unexpected dramatic element leading you, my reader, to an entirely different ending to which I give a final surprise twist in the last line. This major amendment appeared while Passing Unseen was still developing so Flash, Bang, Wallop, now renamed A Distinctive Flourish, became my second published novel.

By the time I started writing this story I'd discovered how enjoyable writing could be for the author - moving the location of the action from place to place around the globe is one of those pleasures. The 20 years I spent in the airline business gave me invaluable background and if I've managed to capture the vivid emotion of sunset at Tippecanoe battlefield, or the rundown Sheraton hotel in Indianapolis where I witnessed my first shootout between police and a fugitive, or how some photographic models behave in private, it's because these things actually happened to me.

If this story added anything to my education as a writer it was the importance of getting details right. For example, the largest Haliburton camera case packed full with US $100 bills couldn't be lifted by a man, let alone be mistaken for a couple of cameras and some lenses.

The element which I used in my debut novel and originally included in my second and third novels was the 'aftermath' wrap-up. It felt to me like the 'happy ending' scene that used to occupy the last 30 seconds of each episode of Kojak or The Waltons - the antithesis of Shane riding off into the sunset and not spending the rest of his life with the family whose lives he saved. On reflection, I'm glad I dropped it.

Finally, some readers of my first novel questioned whether it was economically wise not to finish the novel with the potential of a follow-up novel or even a series. To be honest it wasn't something that actually crossed my mind. In any case, I find stories which reach a definitive conclusion and even leave the reader imagining what might have happened next, more satisfying to read than a series that in the worst cases end with a clear 'hook' to the next book.