Just another drowning in paradise
This was yesterday’s NaNoWriMo piece and it’s set on a Caribbean island where Mr Palmer-Smith is taking his wife out in a small boat for a romantic picnic.
It’s a strange choice, since his wife is afraid of water because she can’t swim.
This is another one of those stories that’s been simmering in my head for some time. There were a number of different ways I could have told it.
My first attempt was as a psychological thriller, told in the first person through the POV of Mrs Palmer-Smith. In the end, I decided to narrate it in the third person and turn it into a crime story, as seen through the eyes of the island’s policeman, Sergeant Dwayne Saunders.
When I rewrite and edit the piece, I might give the sergeant a sex change, because after reflection I think it would work better with a female policeman as the narrator.
I wrote this with a Writing Magazine competition in mind but at 2,690 words the story is too long. It will either need some serious culling during editing, or I will have to think of another place to submit it.
27,223 words written so far in my #30days30shorts NaNo challenge.
Ruth Livingstone 