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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

















(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
any, any nonverbal conversation

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
any, any, the child never made any sound beside the sound of laughter
sholio: Misty from Luke Cage (Defenders-Misty)

[personal profile] sholio 2021-02-01 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Defenders, any, improvised weapons

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Aladdin (and the King of Thieves), Cassim, pride

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Big Fish, Sandra Bloom/Jenny, part of the narrative

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Bandidas, Maria, Are you raising yourself/Above your father's empire
sandinmyboots: (Default)

[personal profile] sandinmyboots 2021-02-01 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
any, any, nerding out about cooking
vialethe: (Dany)

For This Moment When I’m Free

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
When she strokes her fingertips over his scales, he shivers, the whole of his hide sending delicious tremors from tip to tail; when she speaks to him in sweet, fragmented sentences, he thumps his tail with pleasure; when she climbs on his back, he has to remember not to roll through the skies with joy, his awareness shrunk down to the point where her thighs squeeze at the great ridge of his shoulders, at the grip of her hands on his spines.

Someday, he thinks, he will be free of this cursed bracelet, and return to his human form, and then - then, she will see, and he knows, as he knows his own heart, that she will not love him any less.

And if he never is - well, she loves him as he is, too; so he is patient, and waits, and serves his Dragon Queen.
lonespark: Cassidy from "Far Beyond the Stars" (Default)

Re: Princess Bride AU

[personal profile] lonespark 2021-02-01 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
yay!
sholio: Misty from Luke Cage (Defenders-Misty)

[personal profile] sholio 2021-02-01 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
Defenders, any, rooftops at night
vialethe: (Narnia Group)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I like how they're ordered here in terms of age, with the younger two being new and blossoming life, and the older two being colder and harder. It's an interesting thought.
disastermovie: Someone in ripped jeans holding a cup of hot chocolate. (Default)

[personal profile] disastermovie 2021-02-01 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
Hermione remembers her first conversation with her mother after the war, their first real conversation after she brought her parents' memories back and all the screaming and crying was out of the way.

They sat on the edge of Hermione's childhood bed; her mother ran shaky fingers through her hair (like that summer after second year full of Basilisk-fueled nightmares) and said, "We shouldn't have sent you there. We didn't know how dangerous that world was. The end of first year should've been the last straw. We should've protected you; we should've given you a happy childhood. I'm so sorry we failed you, love."

Ron finds her in the entryway some time later, still staring at the letter in her hands, the blood-red wax seal seared into her vision.
vialethe: (Ophelia)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
I'm certainly no RTH, but I'm quite confident that she would say yes, absolutely! No reason not to really, and who knows what new ideas you'll get out of a new crop of writers.
vialethe: (Lion in Winter)

Re: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
Oh dear, I feel Phryne's pain here. What a cute snippet!
eagleoftheninth: (Default)

[personal profile] eagleoftheninth 2021-02-01 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
I love this, because it ia exactly right.
disastermovie: Someone in ripped jeans holding a cup of hot chocolate. (Default)

Re: HP, Ron & Hermione

[personal profile] disastermovie 2021-02-01 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
Didn't see this before my own fill - I love this!

Re: Princess Bride AU

[personal profile] word_devourer 2021-02-01 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
"An- an then she's gotta get real mad about it, an- she's gonna wanna chase down Roberts an-" she continues on, grinning as her mind and tongue are already racing far, far ahead of the story.

He stares down at the next line, "Buttercup fell into despair," and laughs.

"And here I was thinking you'd never read this story before," he says, the lines already halfway rewritten in his head.
--
Adjacent to the prompt, and I feel contractually obligated to share it.
pilfered_words: Escher bird tessellation, colored with watercolor pencil (Default)

[personal profile] pilfered_words 2021-02-01 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
yeaaaaah, uh, sorry 'bout that.
vialethe: (Lamia - Waterhouse)

The Tide Will Turn

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
Some ghosts are always with her - her father, Norrington, the mother she could scarcely recall, the chances that had passed her by, the relationships that might have been, the world as she could have known it, quiet and safe and scented by ocean breezes rather than salt, and smoke, and rum.

The ghost of Cutler Beckett she sees only once, a wispy sneer of a man in death as he was in life, his words hissing along her skin, twining her limbs like the cold touch of seaweed: Are you happy with what you’ve wrought, with your Commodore dead, your Governor dead, your beloved husband dead, and your precious Captain Sparrow, who will surely never place his trust in you again?

“I am not responsible for the choices of other men,” she says, willing it to be true, for there is no room in the heart of a King (or a pirate) for regrets, “and I am not sorry.”
vialethe: (Susan)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
Narnia, Susan &/ any other Pevensie, if I can’t relate to you anymore/then who am I related to
pilfered_words: Escher bird tessellation, colored with watercolor pencil (Default)

Re: My Brother's Keeper

[personal profile] pilfered_words 2021-02-01 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
Oh no
vialethe: (Ophelia)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
Greek Mythology, Hades/Persephone, and I was catching my breath/barefoot in the wildest winter/catching my death
vialethe: (Susan)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
Narnia, Susan Pevensie & Aslan, he’s got my past frozen behind glass/but I’ve got me
vialethe: (River+Mal)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
Firefly, River/Mal, god I love you/but you trouble me
violsva: full bookshelf with ladder (Default)

The Old Guard, Andy, (way way way) pre-canon

[personal profile] violsva 2021-02-01 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
Of course those of her tribe who she knew personally are long dead by now. But she hopes that the tribe itself still remembers her, not just as a myth but in enough detail to welcome her back—it’s happened before, that she left for decades, and came back, and the young riders knew her and asked her for stories of their parents and grandparents.

But she rides across the steppe, north up the Dnieper and south down the Volga, east even past the Hyrcanian Sea, south over the mountains to Parthia, then back through all the lands in between because she cannot believe it—but only a few centuries after she left, no one in her homeland remembers even the name of her people.