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rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2021-01-30 02:31 pm

Three Sentence Ficathon 2021

We have now opened a new post, for new prompts! Please leave all new prompts there. You may continue to fill existing prompts here. If you didn't get a prompt filled here, feel free to post it on the new post!





Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!
2 Feb. 2021 See important edit below regarding where to find unfilled prompts.


What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is an open exchange where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and fill as many prompts as you like, as many times as you want.

What do I do first?
You can start 3SF by posting prompts! When posting a prompt please format it this way:

fandom, character(s), prompt word/sentence.

Only one prompt per comment please. So, for example,

Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I don't like sand."

Open ended and anthropomorphic fills are popular too, such as:

Any, Any, "I don't like sand."

or

Earth geography, sand, "I don't like humans very much, either."

What happens after that?
You answer other posters' prompts in three sentences (or more if you can't stop yourself) and fill as many prompts as you want, as many times as you wish. If you see that a prompt you loved has already been filled, go ahead and fill it again! Multiple fills of the same prompt are allowed and even encouraged! (We get really fun stories going this way).

Can I still post if I need more than 3 sentences? Or should I just abuse grammar in ways the English language never contemplated?
Yes. Yes.

But I'm not a member of Dreamwidth
No problem. You can comment anonymously or through open ID

I'm really overwhelmed by all the prompts and how much there is and how fast it goes. I can't read 1,000 prompts and fills. It's too much. 
I hear this a lot and it keeps a lot of people from participating.  The 3SF is big and it moves fast, especially at first. 
I get overwhelmed, too, and I'm hosting the thing. With 2020 and 2021 sucking so badly you don't want something that's supposed to be fun cause you anxiety.  I have a couple of suggestions for managing the 3SF volume. 
  • First, really, you don't have to read every prompt and fill on every page.  You can start at the last page of this and just go forward, or back a page or two.  It's fine.
  • You can come and go as time and energy allow, you don't have to participate the whole time, and it drops off quite a bit by mid-February.
  • Even after the 3SF and new prompting end, people fill prompts all year long.
  • You can fill an already filled prompt and you can can leave a prompt that's already been prompted before.  People do it all the time. 
Always make sure you're looking at top-level comments only, not threaded. That helps a lot. Your screen should look like this.




But shouldn't I read everything to see if someone already prompted the same prompt I want to leave if someone already filled it? 

No.  Prompt as many times as you want, as much as you want.  It doesn't matter if someone prompted the exact same prompt.  Go ahead and prompt again!

I left a prompt and no one filled it.  Can I prompt it again?
Absolutely!

Can I spread the word?
Yes, please. I generally fail at creating banners and embed codes but if you create one and make it really idiot-proof, I might be able to post and share it.  Feel free to cross-post this entry. If you create your own banners or icons, let me know and I'll share!
Please share the 3SF with your followers, friends, and any channels and comms you are active on.  I'll post on fandom calendar, Tumblr, and Twitter, but I don't have many connections in other spaces such as Discord.


How long will it go?

The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 28, 2021. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long.

Are there any rules about cross-posting?
Nope, you can post wherever you want, whenever you want. A lot of folks collected their responses together and posted them on AO3 under the 3 sentence fiction tag. 3SFs are a terrific prompt for remixes and could be helpful for Yuletide bears, too.

What about spoilers, content and archive warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squick?
I thought a lot about this. It boils down to reader beware.  In my experience, this typically gets too big, moves too fast, and the stories are too short for content warnings and ratings to even apply. It is too big for me to moderate in this way. You should assume spoilers are fair game and that the initial poster and the responder have opted to use no content warnings or tags. This means AO3 content warnings for dubcon, violence, canon character death, underage, etc. COULD be present. I've found personally that I can skim and scroll by stuff that, from the prompt, I can tell isn't my favorite flavor of delicious cake. Use your best judgment and be prepared to skip over things that aren't your thing. In this format, the obligation is on you, the reader, to protect yourself from triggering content.
Some posters do include warnings and spoiler tags in subject lines or include spoiler space, but they don't have to do so.

Why is 3SF split among several posts?  That seems confusing.
It is confusing and we always lose momentum once we have to move to a second post. The reason is because at 5,000 comments to a single post, DW installs a human test CAPTCHA, which is a pain for users.  So, once this entry gets to the upper 4,000 comments, I open a new post.  If you've been waiting until things slow down to participate, when we open a second post is often a good place to join.

If I have questions, what do I do?

I'm rthstewart everywhere, here, Twitter, Tumblr, gmail and AO3.

A special thank you to [personal profile] conuly  .
Last year, Conuly started logging all unfilled prompts.
This year's (2021) unfilled prompts are here.
Last year's (2020) unfilled prompts are here.
Conuly asks that you not reply, as they want to be able to edit and add more prompts to the list.
Conuly does this just because they are an awesome person but should you want to write them fic in thanks, you can find a birthday wish list here.

Here is the 3SF 2021 Friending Meme to show of your new DW account.

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!

 






text box you can try to cut and paste

















wingedflight: (Default)

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-06 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia, Jadis/Father Christmas, last Christmas I gave you my heart, the very next day you gave it away
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)

Re: Master Class

[personal profile] edenfalling 2021-02-06 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! :)
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)

Re: Swing Your Partner (The Magnus Archives)

[personal profile] edenfalling 2021-02-06 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Tim is not having a good day at all.
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)

Re: Wiggle Eschatology (Chronicles of Narnia)

[personal profile] edenfalling 2021-02-06 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! It had to be Marshwiggles. That post is so exactly their aesthetic. :D
wallwalker: Venetian mask, dark purple with gold gilding. (Default)

Crochet (FFVII, Tifa/Barret + Marlene, SFW)

[personal profile] wallwalker 2021-02-06 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
(This got... considerably longer than I meant it to be, obviously. But hey.)

---

Tifa isn't sure where Marlene got the idea of learning to knit; she only knew that one day it was all she could talk about, wanting to buy soft yarns and long needles and learn to make all kinds of nice sweaters and scarves for when Papa got cold on his long trips. "Miss Tifa, please?" she would ask again and again. "I promise I'll be careful!"

"I don't know how to knit," Tifa said sadly, and that was true; her mother had known - it was a very practical thing to know up in the mountains - but Tifa had never liked the idea of dealing with the sharp metal needles she'd favored, afraid she'd prick herself. Now she regretted not spending the time she would've needed to learn it with her mother.

"But... we could learn together, right?" Marlene would ask, grinning, and it was very hard for Tifa to resist that sort of grin - except that she knew how worried Barret would be if Marlene pricked herself on a knitting needle, or worse.

"Hmm," she said after a while. "How about a compromise? There's another way to make nice sweaters that we could both learn."

"There is?" Marlene's mouth opened wide. "How??"

They spent the next few weeks while Barret was gone working on their project, finding a few wooden hooks that weren't too sharp and dangerous for a young beginner, and fumbling with large balls of very soft yarn and laughing as they snagged and split strands in their attempts to create a sampler. By the time he came back, Tifa was there to watch Marlene give him a kiss and proudly present him with a small square of fabric, made of the softest and fuzziest yarn they could find. "Look, Papa! Tifa and I are learning to make you a sweater!"

Barret laughed. "Oh, that's really impressive! Yeah, I can see you'll have that done in no time!" he said, even though anyone could see that it would take a massive number of swatches to even begin to cover his massive frame. But the love and pride glittered in his eyes as he gave her a kiss, then grinned at Tifa. "Think you can show me how too, Marlene? Tifa might want a nice sweater someday."

"Sure, Papa! I'll help you make one for her too!"

"You bet. Now, lemme get somethin' to quench my thirst and then we'll talk about dinner, ok?"

"Okay! I'll go get some water!"

His smile when he walks back to Tifa and gives her a big one-armed hug is softer and gentler. "She started goin' on about knitting, huh?"

"Yeah," she said, patting him on the back. "But I thought that crochet would be a better idea to start with."

"Ha! I didn't even think of that when she asked me 'bout learnin' to make a sweater! You're definitely the smart one." He gave her a quick kiss. "Wanna get something delivered? I ain't up to cookin' and I can see you've been busy."

"That sounds great." She smiles - the work hadn't been that hard, but she was happy to let someone else take care of dinner, so that she could spend time with the two of them while Barret was home without any distractions.
Edited 2021-02-06 18:01 (UTC)
ernest: (What disadvantage?)

Umineko, Beatrice & Battler

[personal profile] ernest 2021-02-06 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
“Of course I don’t believe whatever I’m told,” snaps Battler, “you can’t trust anything unless it’s in red, so everything else could easily be a lie.”

“Oh, that’s so cute, Ushiromiya BattleeeEEERRR, kihihihihihihiiiii!!” When Beatrice has run out of breath to cackle, she leans in close to hiss at him, “The truth can also be used to mislead, or haven’t you been paying attention?”
last_haven: (narnia)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-06 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Some nights, Susan sits up in her flat and starts to shout for Edmund to turn the wireless down, but then she remembers that she doesn't live at home anymore. And then she remembers that Edmund is gone, Lucy is gone, Peter is gone, their parents, their cousin, and--and all of them are gone.

Susan's flat is home to ghosts who were never there at all.

Re: first two of four

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
this is beautiful and hart-breaking

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
aaahh, so sad
coralines: (beauty in the beholder)

[personal profile] coralines 2021-02-06 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Marvel, Natasha/Clint, freckles
ernest: (Default)

[personal profile] ernest 2021-02-06 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia/Harry Potter, Edmund/Ginny, lead me not into temptation
ernest: (Default)

[personal profile] ernest 2021-02-06 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia/Catcher in the Rye, Susan/Holden, diction and deportment

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
He knows this is stupid, foolish, but he can’t help himself: she is beautiful, more beautiful than anyone he has ever met in all his years of roaming this land, and her laugh sounds like the twinkling of stars

She smiles as he hands her his heart and for a moment there is something sinister in her face, but like a trick of the light it disappears, and she once again looks exactly like the woman he has fallen in love with.

The next day she trades his heart for the allegiance of the vampires – after all, there is nothing so valuable as the heart of Christmas.
loveandrockmusic: (Default)

Re: Susan and Tebbitt - TSG AU

[personal profile] loveandrockmusic 2021-02-06 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Re: Stardust (Unnamed player, SFW)

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-02-06 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
It might have been a while, but I’d say you captured the atmosphere of the game beautifully, and I love this a lot.

a way for humanity to hold bits and pieces of the firmament in their hands, even if it is not as firm as they had expected?

This is a fantastic line.

Re: Susan and Tebbitt - TSG AU

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
aww, love how they are both completely resolved at first, but then neither of manages to completely pull that of

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
narnia, any, (minor) gods and godesses
wallwalker: Venetian mask, dark purple with gold gilding. (Default)

Re: Stardust (Unnamed player, SFW)

[personal profile] wallwalker 2021-02-06 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!!
kalira: cartoon representation of Kalira (pale skin, long brown hair, fangy smile, with thumb and two fingers raised), wearing a black tank top and cardigan, on a galaxy in ace flag stripes/colours (Default)

Re: Family Debt

[personal profile] kalira 2021-02-06 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, yow, and that's really intriguing.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia, the pevensies, magical!Pevensies

Re: ASOIAF, Brienne of Tarth (/Jaime Lannister)

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
(is anon who prompted this) This is lovely! The color descriptions and the bit about "her frame was made for carrying armor and duty and honor" were especially good.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the idea of Arya getting a crown entirely her own, and the "unpolished shine and lack of adornment" would suit Arya just great. Well done!

(Anonymous) 2021-02-06 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you!