The Unicorn Challenge.
A magical new weekly writing opportunity from her – Jenne Gray – and me.
Visit her blog every Friday to see the photo prompt, and post your amazing story in her comments section.
Or on your own blog, and stick the link down in her comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.
To hear me read my story, just click here:
Book of War
I know the truth now.
I will never see the end of this war.
Not that I will be killed, I know I won’t.
No, I’m indestructible.
But that is unimportant in the greater scheme of things.
Because this war will never be over.
It will never finish.
Like the list of the names of the dead, it will just go on forever.
There will never be a winner, although there are already so many losers.
This is why I am writing a book.
The Book of the War.
You’re currently reading the first page.
Which I call, unsurprisingly and, I suppose, quite unimaginatively, Page One.
When you turn to the next page, Page Two, you will see that it is blank.
Empty.
Like every page after it, page upon page, wordless.
Because there are no more words.
Just white paper.
I am trying, in my own limited way, to show how meaningless it is.
All of it.
But I don’t know how.
I lack the skill, the clarity, the intelligence, the craftsmanship and the understanding.
I am no Steinbeck, no Tolstoy, no Hesse.
All I know is war.
And how futile it is.
Sound Bite Fiction 
You’ve done it, CE.
Perfect tone and clarity of purpose, words unsurpassed. And in 250 words or less.
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Not much left to say that hasn’t been said already.
Very fine writing, CE. The image and your words make a perfect pair.
Most well done.
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Devastating, but very well done.
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A book with nothing to say. What a great idea, movingly told, and most suitable for the chosen subject. Unending war is meaningless, as you say, and I doubt if even those with ‘the skill’ could offer an intelligible explanation for why we continue to do it.
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Great piece of writing and your powerful words illustrate the futility of war simply and beautifully.
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“What is it good for
Absolutely nothin’” (E Starr)
That citation is not intended to be glib. It would represent, I would hazard, the consensus of opinion, I would hazard, shared by most correspondents at this ‘hop.
Your story succeeds as well as it does on the basis of (your) having a quality that imo is the necessary piece of the answer to the puzzle, i.e. why is War arguably the most consistent behavior since the day there were three humans?
A certain perspective is necessary to write as you have, hell, to think as you do (on the subject). Alas you are against the backdrop if human history, of the exception rather than the rule.
good story tho
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Scary tale, but a powerful message. You’re at your best!!
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Powerful story with exactly the music to frame it.
The futility of war speaks out from every word.
‘No, I’m indestructible’ – is it War itself that’s speaking?
That knows it will never end?
Harrowingly well written.
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