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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

















rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (hope is all we have)

Fill: Final Fantasy VII, Tifa/Aerith

[personal profile] rionaleonhart 2021-02-09 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
It's easy to get worn down in Midgar, Tifa knows. The streets and the slums and the shadows, the ugliness of it all.

But Aerith has started bringing her flowers, and seeing them there on the bar, that splash of warm vivid colour, is a reminder that there's still life in the city.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-09 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
She truly is great.
ravenlilyrose: (Default)

If I'm Dead

[personal profile] ravenlilyrose 2021-02-09 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)
She's heard them speaking (how could she not) about how she is gone (dead, she hears, though they do not say) and how they have little hope for her return. She hears them cry for her loss and, in their darker moments, hurl accusations and sharp and bitter words before collapsing back into tears and pulling each other into hugs as she walks out the door.

What she does not hear or understand is that they long for her back, that they do not consider her dead, but only lost and that they do not hate her, but love her so much that it hurts (she can no longer understand the nuance with which they view and speak of people, though once she was the best at it).
loveandrockmusic: (Default)

[personal profile] loveandrockmusic 2021-02-09 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Any, any, welcome to the desert of the real.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (hope is all we have)

[personal profile] rionaleonhart 2021-02-09 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
This is lovely! Aww.
ravenlilyrose: (Default)

Re: Re: Warlock's New Home

[personal profile] ravenlilyrose 2021-02-09 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I can never resist found family. Thanks for the prompt and I'm glad you liked my fill!
Edited 2021-02-09 15:34 (UTC)

(Anonymous) 2021-02-09 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"For the last time, I do not care, it is none of my business and I do not see why do you expect that I should pay for it."

"But my dear Henry," insisted Drawlight and curiously the address sounded more like a threat than the pleading and grovelling one might feel entitled to when being begged for a large sum of money by such a low person, "I already told them you are backing the venture, I know for a fact that Mr C. Has written a great passionate letter - oh, you would not believe such eloquence, there are two or three expressions that positively bring me to tears when I think of them - all in your praise, and is to be published in The Gentleman's Magazine, did I not mention?

Lascelles stared at him; there were a two or three passionate expressions of his own that were certain to bring tears to Mr Drawlight's eyes, and they all began with "if you were a real gentleman I would have..." or "if I had a stick at hand...", but he was at a loss which one to choose, and in answer of his silence Mr Drawlight smiled sweetly, content in his victory.

Also on my ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29201325
ilthit: (Default)

[personal profile] ilthit 2021-02-09 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
There will be VENGEANCE

Re: Fill: Final Fantasy VII, Tifa/Aerith

(Anonymous) 2021-02-09 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Beautiful. <3
theseatheseatheopensea: Lyrics from the song Stolen property, by The Triffids, handwritten by David McComb. (Default)

Re: Piranesi, The Other, after being saved from drowning

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2021-02-09 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, this is so good. I like how you got his character voice just right, his dismissal of Matthew and of the House and also his dislike of it... really nice!
sheenianni: (Default)

[personal profile] sheenianni 2021-02-09 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Awww, now I want to know what happens next :D
Lovely fill.
laughingpineapple: (Default)

Re: Piranesi, The Other, after being saved from drowning

[personal profile] laughingpineapple 2021-02-09 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Hah, Ketterley Complaining About Things is an art form and this fic's is a masterpiece!
ravenlilyrose: (Default)

[personal profile] ravenlilyrose 2021-02-09 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia, Peter & Edmund, no better friend than a brother

(Anonymous) 2021-02-09 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! (And they definitely go on a date and eventually become girlfriends ;)

(Anonymous) 2021-02-09 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Love this! And you are completely correct of course, Shmi would make the most amazing jedi, she has all their best traits even after a lifetime of slavery.
schoolsasaint: (Default)

Earth's Children/The Old Guard

[personal profile] schoolsasaint 2021-02-09 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
She does not grow old; though she outlives her children, and their children's children, and eventually her own name, her body remain in the strength of her youth, her hair as dark as her mother's own. She is venerated for it, and feared, and eventually, when there are none remaining who do not remember the tale behind the story of her first great hunt, she sets out on a long journey, a trek that follows both the Great Mother and the curve of the coast to the south.

Years pass along the way, generations spent on foot crossing the steppes, in forested wood and sun-scorched grassland, relearning the taste of salt at each new coastline she encounters, before she turns and begins to retrace her route north to the great walls of ice that cap the world once more.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-09 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Omg, this is hilarious!
theseatheseatheopensea: A drawing of a fox and a magpie hugging. (Fox and magpie.)

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2021-02-09 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
haha, thanks for sharing this, it made me laugh! Bravo!!

[personal profile] chanter1944 2021-02-09 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's fortunate that a bubblehead charm keeps airborne diseases out too, really," said Laura Madley from inside the near-transparent spell dome that still, to Natalie McDonald's eyes, looked like nothing so much as an upended goldfish bowl. "It's not just for stink pellets and dungbombs in the corridors anymore! Best get your own charm going just in case, and then I know you said something about Lavender Brown and Padma Patil both sending over information about useful medicinal herbs; not that they'll cure this horrible thing any more than that Muggle stuff - para somethingorother, I know that much - or a pepper-up potion cures a hangover, but if it helps, it helps, you know?"

Re: Edited because I don’t know html

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-02-09 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Awwwwwwwwww growing into new skins and new hearts is hard

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-02-09 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
amazing!

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-02-09 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)
wow, i've never read much BtVS fic and i love this!

[personal profile] buttonloops 2021-02-09 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
FUCK.
eagleoftheninth: (Default)

Fill: Nobilis: The Game Of Sovereign Powers, Genseric and Jenna

[personal profile] eagleoftheninth 2021-02-09 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
writer, muse

When Jenna starts telling one of her stories, there's no way of telling how it's going to turn out. Half the time it'll be philosophical and deep, full of hidden truths, and soul-troubling in ways that human languages don't really have words to describe. Half the time it's pure absurdism filled with pop culture references. The really hard bit is trying to determine which any given tale is.

Genseric writes them all down, just in case, even the ones about fictional bees, robot popes, and thinly-veiled expies of the Smurfs. He keeps a notebook and pen on him at all times—he can never predict when and where she'll show up, after all. He supposes that being an enemy of the world is one of those jobs with irregular working hours.

(When a notebook is full, he adds it to the teetering stack beside his bed in his tiny, shitty apartment. "Possibly I should buy an actual bookshelf," he admitted to her once.

She'd made a 'hmm' sort of noise, eyes as wide and guileless as voids full of falling stars could be, and opined "I'm not sure an Actual bookshelf would be a very practical idea. It would eat all the books, which would be a waste, since it wouldn't even be able to digest them. Then the next thing you knew, you and half Suzhou would be made of lined paper and covered in terrible handwriting!"

It was months before he figured out what that had been about.)

It's frustrating, often, being friends with her. And he's under no illusions that it's safe. The one thing she's always been perfectly clear about is that she's...what she is. She's out to destroy the universe, and he's got no idea why she's taking time out from that to tell one random human any of her stories and secrets. (No solid idea, at least; just worrying intimations, the sort that nag at him sometimes in the pit of the night.)

But, even with all that...here they both are. It might be the smarter option, but he finds he doesn't want to break off their friendship. And while he knows most of the Nobiliser community would point to that as a sign of Excrucian influence on him...

...really, he's pretty sure that the reason he's still here isn't because of any kind of void-magic-brainwashing.

Really, he's pretty sure that the reason he can't be really scared of her is less to do with her than him. With how he can never stop trying to figure things out, never quit wanting to know more.

"So, this is a rough one," Jenna says, toying with a glass of wine she won't drink under a sky cacophonous with fireworks, and Genseric does what he suspects he'll always do; he picks up his pen, and prepares to listen.
Edited 2021-02-09 16:51 (UTC)