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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

















petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)

Re: Narnia: Le OSHA

[personal profile] petra 2021-01-31 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't realize that OSHA was a linguistic consequence of the Spanish Oso, and not wanting to say the true name of the bear. TIL. And LOLed.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Strange Empire, Kat Loving, mama bear

Re: Maybe Less, Maybe a Little More (Anthropomorfic, Time vs 2020)

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-01-31 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS

Re: Just Don't Say a Word

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-01-31 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
GAH YES THIS IS SUCH DISTILLED LUCIAN BEAUTY I LOVE IT

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Strange Empire, Kat Loving & her children, the code for living with a gun in your hand

Re: Fallen London, Furnace Ancona

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-01-31 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you, and I’m glad you liked it despite not knowing the fandom. Furnace is a union organizer responsible for leading the workers building a railway to Hell, so the prompt was too perfect to resist.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Strange Empire, Rebeca Blightly, stargazing

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Strange Empire, any, if there is no love in this world we will make our own / You know this is canada, ma. There is no law here but our own.

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-01-31 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I love this???

I love how you manage to deftly hint at superpowers in very clear & recognizeable ways without getting bogged down in explanation!

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
The get down, Mylene Cruz/Regina Diaz/Yolanda Kipling, glitter

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
The get down, Mylene Cruz/Regina Diaz/Yolanda Kipling, you make me feel might real

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Your name (kimi no na wa), trans! mitsuha miyamizu, turns out he doesn´t have to wait for his next life to be a boy

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-01-31 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Fallen London, any, False stars
arysthaeniru: (Default)

Pathologic - Let Them Eat Cake

[personal profile] arysthaeniru 2021-01-31 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
It is the ultimate poor taste to host a feast in the middle of quarantine, as the town around them dies in writhing, horrible throes—but then nobody's ever accused Vlad Olgimsky Senior of having good taste.

"Please, try the duck!" he booms, his overpowering voice filling the awkwardly silent room, nobody daring to look at the food too long, all too aware of the food shortage outside.

Saburov adjusts his collar as he takes a tasteless spoonful of caviar into his mouth, and dreams of the day when he'll be invested with the power to remove a man like him. Perhaps news of this fiasco will reach Dankovsky and the Inquisitor, and they will finally give him the authority to destroy this caricature of evil.

(He does not think about his culpability in attending.)

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-01-31 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
RTH. I'M GIGGLING

if his bolt really DOES fall from above is my favorite line

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-01-31 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Fallen London, any, The Treachery of Maps
pilfered_words: Escher bird tessellation, colored with watercolor pencil (Default)

[personal profile] pilfered_words 2021-01-31 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Vorkosigan, Ekaterin and Cordelia, mourning

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-01-31 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Fallen London, any, Unusual gardens

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
my love story/ore monogatari, Takeo Gōda/Makoto "Suna" Sunakawa/Rinko Yamato, it´s a date!

Re: College Preparations

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-01-31 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
my heart! this captures the flights of fancy and the deeply vivid emotion so well

[personal profile] scrivespinster 2021-01-31 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Fallen London, any urchin, The view from above

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Cowboy Bebop, Faye Valentine, who are you really?
eagleoftheninth: (Default)

Re: Fill: Chuubo's Marvellous Wish-Granting Engine, Seizhi/Miramie

[personal profile] eagleoftheninth 2021-01-31 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I will never tire of love between monsters.

(Also are you in the fandom? cause if not it is kind of accidentally hilarious that you chose the word serpentine!)
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)

Re: [Narnia] armies march on their stomachs, wearing hand-knit socks

[personal profile] petra 2021-01-31 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, headcanon accepted.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-31 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Yu-Gi-Oh! DM, Tea Gardner & Serenity Wheeler, sightseeing