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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

















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
last_haven: (narnia)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
Conversation stops when she walks in the room, but it's not a silence Susan wants to recognize. Lucy's smile is so pained and loving while Peter stalks off and Edmund follows after him with a nod, but it's the apologetic nod of a diplomat and Susan feels frozen inside.

She doesn't ask what they were talking about when she sits with Lucy because it hurts too much already. It's like they're all children again and her brothers are squabbling over who gets to lead and Lucy is just annoyingly delightful, but she is just Susan the Bore.

But this is worse--Susan the Bore is better than Susan the Traitor and she wishes they could just put these games aside.

(Why can't they see that they weren't wanted--none of them, not even ever loyal Lucy and where the hell is the justice in that?)

She misses her siblings long before their funerals.
vialethe: (Susan)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
You know, I don't know why I leave sad prompts and am then all /shocked pikachu when I get tragic fills out of them! Poor, poor Susan - I love the callback to her childhood when she was the boring one, and Ed's nod being diplomatic - my heart, she is broken. Thanks!
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
Poor Susan has it so rough, but she's also probably the one I find most interesting to write. The pathos of Susan, I love it so!
vialethe: (Susan)

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-01 09:11 am (UTC)(link)
Oh me too, for sure! I'm trying to space out all the Susan prompts I have lurking in my brain so I don't overwhelm the fest too much, but trust me, there are a lot.
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I shall eagerly await them then!
frausorge: my arm in a black opera glove (Default)

[personal profile] frausorge 2021-02-01 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
This is so painful and so insightful.
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-01 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
What I would give to have been a fly on the wall in the Pevensie house after Susan admitted to rejecting Narnia. The sheer drama of it all, I tell you!
loveandrockmusic: (Default)

[personal profile] loveandrockmusic 2021-02-02 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
oof, that hurt. i am in exquisite pain.
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-02 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
Always happy to serve, even if it does feel like a knife in the back.

[personal profile] embraidery 2021-02-02 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
that last sentence--ouch!!!
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-02-02 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
Like a kick in the teeth. Thanks for commenting.
snacky: (Default)

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-07 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh god, my heart breaks at the Susan the Bore vs. Susan the Traitor.
last_haven: (Default)

[personal profile] last_haven 2021-05-11 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Susan is such a fascinating character and I love trying to examine her. Thanks for commenting, sorry for taking so long to get back to your comment.
snacky: (narnia susan close to the end)

lost again with no surprises / disappointments, close your eyes

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-07 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Lucy is the coldest when Susan tries to speak with her, but her sister — her kind, loyal, sweet baby sister — just shakes her head and says, "You need to grow up, Susan."

Peter is earnest and he tries so hard to help, talking to her night after night, telling her he understands, imploring her to stop pretending and remember that she is a queen — as if Susan could ever forget, as if that wasn't the entire point of this whole thing.

Edmund just watches her with his dark eyes, and when Susan approaches him, he takes her hand in his own, holding it tight for the longest of minutes (the shortest of seconds) before letting it drop, her brother who never left her before, and Susan closes her eyes so she doesn't have to see him walk away.
vialethe: (Susan)

Re: lost again with no surprises / disappointments, close your eyes

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-07 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, ouch. It's so unexpected to see Lucy that cold, so it really drives home how alone and abandoned Susan is here. And Peter, trying so hard but completely missing the point, and then Ed! That one hurt (in the best possible way, of course). You do know what I like.
snacky: (narnia edmund & susan)

Re: lost again with no surprises / disappointments, close your eyes

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-08 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
The Edmund part was so BAD! All I could think was of them in Tashbaan and how he would do anything to save her. :(
vialethe: (Susan)

Re: lost again with no surprises / disappointments, close your eyes

[personal profile] vialethe 2021-02-08 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
My very favorite Susan & Ed moment! You are making it even more painful (but don't stop).

also how do you always have the perfect icons
snacky: (narnia susan arrow)

Re: lost again with no surprises / disappointments, close your eyes

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-08 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
It’s too much though! He totally would save her if he thought he could but this time, he’s got nothing.

(been collecting for YEARS and saving for moments like this :D)
snacky: (3 sentence ficathon)

Re: lost again with no surprises / disappointments, close your eyes

[personal profile] snacky 2021-02-08 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
Brutal, right? If only should understand!