Flash Fiction: On the Same Page

This is part of a series of short stories that I publish here on the blog. This one I wrote is a fantasy scene! Flash fiction is a story under 1,500 words. It’s very short and gives a brief flash of narrative. It’s not elaborated on and stands on its own. In my case, this is very much fast fiction as well as flash fiction. This piece was generated from a prompt and written in under twenty minutes. My story is transcribed as written. (With some minor spelling changes.) Other then that, everything remains the same as when I first wrote it.

I wrote this short piece at my writing group. Our prompt: two characters have the same goal but different ideas/ways how to accomplish it. I’ve included some thoughts on the prompt at the end of the piece. Enjoy!

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“I thought we were on the same page!” I say exasperated.

“Same page? We’re not even in the same book!” My companion pulls back on the reins of his horse.

“Well, how do you suggest we get him?” he asks me. “I thought you were on board with going through the tower, knocking out the guards and repelling to the island.”

“Are you mad! We’ll be seen. There’s nothing more obvious than taking out a slew of guards. It’s sure to sound the alarm.” I wipe the sweat from my brow.

“It’s dark; we’ll be fine,” he replies. “Plus I trust you to knock them out–”

“It’s not that. Of course, we’d be thorough.” He nods curt like it proves his point.

“Then what is it?” he asks. “It’s a solid plan.”

“I’m afraid of heights…” I say.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What?” I stumble. “It’s true.” Peter just laughs at me. He’s seriously doubled over!

“You must be afraid of something,” I try but he’s still too caught up in my petty fear.

“Oh, this is too good,” he says whipping away fake tears.

“Stop,” I whine desperately. “What are we going to do?”

“If you seriously can’t climb the tower…” I shoot him a deadly look.

“I would climb it if I thought it was our best option. But in this case, it’s not.”

“Do tell, miss scaredy cat.”

“We swim,” I say simply.

“Swim? In that creature invested water! You don’t know what’s lurking in there.”

“Oh, it’s just rumors. I don’t think there’s really anything in there. I think they say that to deter anyone from trying.”

“I mean why would someone try in the first place. That’s why they have rafts to get there,” he draws out the word rafts an annoyingly long time.

“We’re trying,” I say drawing out the word trying to prove my point.

“Yeah, to kidnap the prince,” he says.

“At least we’re on the same page about that.”

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This prompt took me more time than usual to come up with an idea. It’s a bit shorter than usual because I had to make up the situation, the world, and the characters. (Well, you didn’t have to but I did.) It also turned out to be all dialogue but I think that really was the nature of this prompt because two characters disagree about how to acommplish a mutual task.

Inspiration for this piece came from the saying “on the same page” which implies agreement. Reversely, the expression “not on the same page” is used just as much. These sayings gave me my opening line. It took me a minute to come up with their goal, simply: kidnap. (I also thought of rescue, steal, and kill but kidnap seemed unique and up for the task.) It wasn’t until I reached the end did I round of this short scene with the title saying, “on the same page.”

Do you often write from a prompt? This one is rather fun and light. I find writing dialogue easy when it’s something like this. What about you? What helps you write scenes with extensive dialogue?

Happy Writing-