Sherlock With Ants
Sometimes a competition, especially with feedback on offer for the place-getters, gives you the chance to shop an experiment around.
"Sherlock with Ants" was something I wrote that needed a unique voice. I was lucky enough to hit my writers' group up when several members had time to read something a little quirky. I also unsuccessfully entered it into one of the Stringybark competitions, where the nuance was too subtle.
After a few iterations, (and this is the point of writing - so often "the end" aren't the final two words you write in your story,) I got to the current version of this story. It still has a unique voice - of a three- or four-year old, reporting a family tragedy. The simplistic nature of the narration, the repetition, hides the true nature of the tragedy.
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I'm pleased to say that two of the judges of this competition embraced the nuance and uniqueness of the story-telling (the third LOATHED it), yet it must have been effective to have achieved the result it did.
Reading it back after having lost Mum, makes this story especially real for me. Grief sometimes turns you into that three- or four-year old again, who just needs Mummy.