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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

















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)

In Good Paws (Naruto; Madara/Tobirama)

[personal profile] kalira 2021-02-01 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
The things, Aoi thinks as she leaps lightly up to a very cluttered desk with careful paws, she does for her summoner. Still, she is also fond of his mate, and he had asked very nicely for her help; her summoner understands cats, she thinks smugly, and sits down squarely in the middle of a - dry - scroll covered in complex inked symbols.

"Aoi?" Tobirama asks as he startles, his fingers loosening around his brush, and Aoi perks her ears towards him and miaows delicately, with a touch of pleading to draw him away from his research in concern.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
The Untamed, any, "he's only human"
nyctanthes: (Dana)

Re: Fast Color (2018 movie), Bo

[personal profile] nyctanthes 2021-02-01 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!
nyctanthes: (Dana)

[personal profile] nyctanthes 2021-02-01 03:58 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)

Results (Rewind) (Naruto; Sakumo/Orochimaru)

[personal profile] kalira 2021-02-01 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Orochimaru . . . hesitated, fingers sliding along the syringe with its glowing serum; it had only been moments, but moments facing one's older self, giving a dire warning, were a heavy burden to one's thoughts. His older self who had voiced a warning, not only about the experiments he had finally assented to orders to assist with, but about the course of the world - more importantly to Orochimaru, about the coming third war, and the spark of it that would consume his mate and part him from his son.

Stepping in their front door hours earlier than he should have been finished in the labs, Orochimaru met his mate's surprised smile with a warm one of his own as he knelt to scoop up their son, bounded closer and switching between four paws and two rather less steady feet as he came; to never act for fear of results was pure foolishness, but not to change to ensure the results one wanted was even worse.
wingedflight: (Default)

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe, in another world, things turn out different. Maybe there's an airship cutting through the northern skies with a girl and her daemon dancing up the rigging, and a plucky aeronaut singing old showtunes in the cockpit, and a pair of explorers standing arm-in-arm as they look down upon a world they're discovering together.

Maybe, in that other world, Marissa does not pull away when Asriel whispers to her of freedom and adventure; maybe, in that other world with that other family, she actually feels content.
last_haven: (Default)

Re: One day I'll write a whole story of Edmund and his painter boyfriend; until then, have this.

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I have a big soft spot for domesticity, I can't lie. Thank you for commenting!
whitehall: (Default)

[personal profile] whitehall 2021-02-01 04:28 pm (UTC)(link)
oh i love this!!! weep, thank you!
wingedflight: (Default)

Re: The Song of King Gale (told on the deck of the Splendour Hyaline after the flight from Tashbaan)

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Aaaaaaaaaah i love this
wingedflight: (Default)

Re: One day I'll write a whole story of Edmund and his painter boyfriend; until then, have this.

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
amazinggggg
wingedflight: (Default)

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Aaaah YES spreading her power while still being jealous of it, that's so very Jadis.
wingedflight: (Default)

Re: things to say that will always start a fight

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Exactly! Definitely one of my favourite Whose Line bits haha
wingedflight: (Default)

Re: the bandage before the bruise (Luke/Din & Grogu)

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
and I won't do it aaaah good for you, Luke!
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!
wingedflight: (Default)

Re: As much as I hope someone does a literal take on this prompt soon, here's a metaphorical one for

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Amazinggg gosh, the parallels
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the comment, but now all I can think of is Toast holding a plush toy and going "hm. feels like a trap." Which I love, so thanks.
wingedflight: (Default)

Re: Artemis Fowl

[personal profile] wingedflight 2021-02-01 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
HE'S NOT WRONG.

Fill: Final Fantasy VI, Terra & others

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
1. The first months are lean, everywhere, and Terra knows that Edgar would help more if he could, but his desert castle’s vaults hold more gold and steel than grain; still, there’s more to Figaro’s wealth than metals, and the packages he sends – dried peppers, cinnamon, other spices with names she doesn’t know – are enough to make turn bitter weeds and thin porridge into something more than just survival.

2. She doesn’t remember the first clumsiness of learning the sword, but the knife does not come easily; Sabin shows her, as he learned at Duncan’s hands, the right grip, the proper angle, the way to practice until precision without violence becomes as natural as battle.

3. Years pass, and harvests, and when Celes visits now, she’s as likely as not to find Terra up to her elbows in flour, or chopping, seasoning, holding a carefully-tilted pan above a flame; she never cared for it herself, as more than necessary competence, but what it means to Terra, she thinks she understands: a little remnant of magic, never meant to harm; a transformation of heat into life.
nasimwrites: (Default)

[personal profile] nasimwrites 2021-02-01 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
His Dark Materials, Lyra/Will, the little moments that start to awaken strange new feelings
last_haven: (Default)

Re: As much as I hope someone does a literal take on this prompt soon, here's a metaphorical one for

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
*wince* really sums it up. Thanks for commenting.
last_haven: (Default)

Re: As much as I hope someone does a literal take on this prompt soon, here's a metaphorical one for

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I've never gotten a chance to write about the exact moment Susan tells the others about her rejecting Narnia, but my god, this prompt did lend itself well to it. Thanks for the prompt.
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Now I want a whole series of Adult!Wednesday's misadventures, but I really specifically want her to take up fencing because Gomez would be so proud.
last_haven: (Default)

Re: One day I'll write a whole story of Edmund and his painter boyfriend; until then, have this.

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!
liquidtears: (Default)

Riverdale, Archie Andrews, Superhero AU

[personal profile] liquidtears 2021-02-01 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
(OOC: let me tell you how thankful I am for 3 Sentence Ficathon! 2020 SUCKED for me writing-wise, I just couldn't put a single word to write when COVID-19 hit. So... THANK YOU so much for releasing my creative musing juices to flow again like never before! I hope you like it!)

Seven Years had passed in which Archie "Archibald" Andrews hadn't protected the town of Riverdale from evil-doers, including their Mayor, Hiram Lodge.

Because he had been off going on adventures of his own, of his college years and protecting new loved ones, not even thinking once of his gang the Justice Archie League.

But now, after having flown back to the town that had been a part of him ever since he had been born, and seeing how much of a ghost town the still current Mayor Lodge had turned it into, when his feet touched the ground, he knew that he would have re-assemble his team of Justice Archie League once again, yes, even Reggie "Reginald" Mantle.
nasimwrites: (Default)

[personal profile] nasimwrites 2021-02-01 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
His Dark Materials, Iorek Byrnison, Iorek makes friends with a small Talking Cat of some sort