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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

















mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Teen Wolf, Cora/Lydia, Getting to the Good Stuff

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Tiger & Bunny, Barnaby/Kotetsu, Romantic

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, Bargains

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Star Wars, Finn/Poe, Into the Garbage Chute, Flyboy

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! :-D
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Star Wars, Finn/Poe, Into the Garbage Chute, Flyboy

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
:-D Thank you!!
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Hope

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much! <3
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Hope

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Hope

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
Ahh thank you! (Love me some found family!)
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Heroes

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!!
mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)

Re: Leverage, Parker/Eliot/Hardison, Something to Share

[personal profile] mad_madam_m 2021-02-15 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, thank you so much!! I think he really does appreciate them both for exactly how they are and wouldn't change either of them. <3
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)

Deep Roots Are Not Reached by the Frost

[personal profile] edenfalling 2021-02-15 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
And why, after all, should cherry and apple, citron and pear, plum and pawpaw, avocado and peach, almond and cashew, olive and fig, and all other nourishing trees not be thought part of the forest? Do they not draw from deep roots, gird their trunks with bark, stretch branches toward the sun, and rejoice with bursts of green leaves?

Any tree, however humble and amenable to pruning, transplanting, grafting, pollarding, can break bare rock to richest soil; those who consider any daughter of Kementári tame do so at their peril.
snacky: (little women)

let her fly

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-15 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
Meg works in the hot kitchen, listening to the twins bicker as John does the books at his desk. She shapes the loaves and sets them to rise, and glances out the window as she dusts the flour from her hands, catching sight of a hawk as it swoops across the sky, and a sudden mad impulse hits her, to tear off her apron and dash out of the house and just go, somewhere, anywhere, a place where she can be free.

But the twins are running to her, clinging to her skirts and calling "mama look!" and when she looks at John, he's smiling at her warmly, so Meg remembers she's a dove, and home is its own kind of freedom.
snacky: (narnia peter & susan)

i know they said the end is near

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-15 05:29 am (UTC)(link)
It surprises Susan that Peter is the one who stands by her, even when Edmund and Lucy turn away, barely bothering to hide their frustration and dismissal when she refuses to accompany them in this attempt to return to Narnia. She shouldn't be surprised, she realizes, when Peter takes her hand and pulls her close, whispering in her ear, words that echoe in her head for days, weeks, months, and years.

"I know, Su, of course I do, but I can't stay behind with you, I must go with them and try."
amedia: (Tin Man - Oracle)

Re: Original fic

[personal profile] amedia 2021-02-15 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
I love how this fic builds towards its last four words--it feels so right.
Edited (correcting typo) 2021-02-15 06:01 (UTC)
amedia: Curlicue of butterflies on black background (Default)

Re: Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

[personal profile] amedia 2021-02-15 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
This is marvelous!!! I especially love Sui Zhou's position here, both epistemological - it feels right for him, that he's the one who knows, and that it makes him smile - and physical - with his head resting on Tang Fan's knee. It paints such a lovely picture.
snacky: (narnia susan older)

and I can go anywhere I want / anywhere I want, just not home

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-15 06:09 am (UTC)(link)
She goes to Professor Kirke's home, after all the business of death — claiming the bodies, funeral after funeral, awkward visits from tongue-tied friends, endless mountains of paperwork — is finally over and done with.

She sits in on the floor front of the wardrobe (like she did a lifetime ago), staring at the carvings, touching the heavy wooden doors with trembling hands, feeling Narnia under her fingertips, wondering where everyone is right now.

Her hands are steady when she reaches for the rings.
snacky: (narnia edmund)

I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-15 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
Susan is hurrying through the train station, making her way through throngs of people waiting for the train's arrival, looking for her brothers on the platform, when she hears someone calling her name.

Edmund catches her hand, relief and happiness clear on his face as he pulls her into his arms, whispering, "I knew you'd come," before pressing a quick kiss to her lips.

She hadn't known she was coming, not until the moment the door closed behind her, but now she knows it was impossible to let him leave, to go home without her, but all she manages is a wry, "Well, I couldn't let you go without me."
snacky: (montmaray)

Narnia/Silmarillion, Susan/Maglor, women with madness / their men and bad habits

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-15 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
At first, the sea was a comfort and a distraction on the nights she couldn't sleep, but that was before she heard the singing.

She's mad of course, and she's been for a long while, but that doesn't mean she doesn't hear the song every night as she looks out at endless sea, the moon and the stars the only light she has as she waits for the singer to arrive.

Because he's coming, she knows he is, just as well as she knows the song on his lips as he walks across the beach and over the rocks to take her hands in his.
vialethe: (Susan)

Re: i know they said the end is near

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-15 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, sweet Peter, trying his best to support her and still be true to himself and his other siblings too! What a painful angle on the prompt that is (and of course, I love it for that).
snacky: (narnia susan i was a grownup)

Narnia, Susan/Edmund, back when I was living for the hope of it all

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-15 06:46 am (UTC)(link)
Tashbaan is too hot, too crowded, and too treacherous for Susan to enjoy her time there. Rabadash watches her with plans in his eyes, and she knows that she and Edmund are playing a dangerous game, were the moment she accepted the prince's invitation to come visit him in the Tisroc's palace.

But Edmund insisted they come, that it was necessary to see Rabadash in his home and Calormen with their own eyes to understand the situation that Narnia was in, and that they must do it together — and the work Edmund does is never safe, this she knows.

And despite the danger, and the heat, and hostility veiled in compliments that comes so easily in Calormen, Susan does her best to enjoy the days and nights with Edmund by her side, knowing that he'll never leave her here with Rabadash and someday soon they'll be able to return home together.
vialethe: (Susan)

Re: and I can go anywhere I want / anywhere I want, just not home

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-15 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
I love the connection here between her and the wardrobe, the physical object that represents all her pain - and all her hopes, too. And how she's done with emotion by the time she goes for the rings - that's my girl!
vialethe: (Susan)

Re: I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-15 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
Yesssssss. I love that she couldn't let him go, that she had to hang on so hard she went against what she actually believed. And that stolen kiss!! DYING. This is so perfect for the prompt, thank you. ❤

Obsidian & Blood, Teomitl

[personal profile] notapaladin 2021-02-15 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
They cheer louder than they ever did for his brothers, and that should please him; he's certainly a greater Emperor than both of them put together, adding new territories to the Empire with every campaign. It does please him, but...

But instead he looks over the heads of his war council and out into the crowd below, where his wife and Acatl are standing, and he feels his other brother-in-law Neutemoc's presence solid as a wall in the army behind him. They are silent, but he doesn't need them to sing his praises. He can see it in their faces, in Mihmatini's proud little nod and Acatl's soft smile at seeing him unhurt and victorious.

He is Emperor, and the priests and warriors sing their victory songs for him--but his greatest accomplishment is to look at his family and know he's made them proud.
vialethe: (Susan)

Re: Narnia/Silmarillion, Susan/Maglor, women with madness / their men and bad habits

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-15 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
Aww, I've missed these two. This has all the elements - moon, stars, the sea, the song - and of course she isn't mad (or maybe only as mad as he is), and he will come in the end. And I like the title, of course.