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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

















Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-04 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
The arrow flies true, and the ghost hound rears back with a roar that echoes through Wei Wuxian's bones - he grits his teeth, ignoring the pain where the monster's claws raked across his arm, and rolls to the side as the beast rages and claws forward - in the direction Chenqing fell, that'd be useful, before the hound gets over the pain and decides to tear out Wei Wuxian's insides for real this time - a second arrow screams through the dark and buries itself in the hound's other burning eye, and now Wei Wuxian's impressed.

"Da-j-Wei Wuxian!" Jin Ling rushes to his side before the energy's finished pulsing around the hound's flickering corpse, and Wei Wuxian can hear the muffled sound of someone kneeling in a hurry - not very smart, Jin Ling's going to get dirt all over his nice robes. Jin colors are so impractical, YunmengJiang purple is much better at hiding both dirt and blood! Not as good as Wei Wuxian's own black, but, ah, that's the privilege of being - Wei Wuxian doesn't feel like wondering if he's a rogue cultivator or unattached or honorary GusuLan these days. Focus.

"That was a good shot," Wei Wuxian says, "almost better than I'd have done myself."

His mouth stays open once he's done, as if surprised he could finish his sentence. If Jiang Cheng were here, he'd have snapped at Wei Wuxian for being an idiot and cut him off, but - wow, Wei Wuxian must be more tired than he thought.

"I know," Jin Ling mutters under his breath, "that's - how many fingers am I holding up right now?"

"Three," Wei Wuxian says, "Jin Ling, is that a way of talking to your seniors? I paid you quite the compliment, you know." He pats himself on the back for not saying any upsetting word. Mentally, because his body is still comfortably lounging on the ground, and Wei Wuxian intends on moving at some point, but there's no rush, is there?

"We're going to Lotus Pier," Jin Ling decides out of the blue.

"What? Noooooo, Jin Ling, that's a bad idea - are you worried about me? I feel fine! Nothing a good night's rest at the nearest inn won't fix!"

"We're going to Lotus Pier," Jin Ling repeats, more firmly this time.

It's not like Wei Wuxian's surprised that a child raised by Jiang Cheng is stubborn as hell, especially shijie's son - but Wei Wuxian's used to being able to wheedle away Jiang Cheng's most stubborn resolutions, and Jin Ling? Jin Ling didn't grow up with Wei Wuxian cajoling him into breaking his firm refusals to get involved in trouble.

Jin Ling's also surprisingly strong - he holds Wei Wuxian upright on his sword as he flies them to Lotus Pier. After the first time Wei Wuxian's foot slips and he almost falls, Jin Ling fashions a makeshift harness out of his outer robes and ties it around both Wei Wuxian and himself, so Wei Wuxian won't fall, or, more likely "if I fall, I'm going to take you down with me," Wei Wuxian points out, "that's pretty silly. You should just leave me here and go for help."

"Jiujiu would break my legs," Jin Ling says, matter of fact, and there's something off about this logic, but for the life of him Wei Wuxian can't pinpoint what, "so I'm going to bring you to him so he can break yours instead."

Wei Wuxian hums. "That seems fair," he volunteers, "but I don't think Jiang Cheng wants me there at all, even if you bribe him with letting him break my legs." Privately Wei Wuxian is also sure Lan Zhan won't be happy if Wei Wuxian's shidi breaks Wei Wuxian's legs, but he keeps it to himself - he doesn't remember Jiang Cheng caring enough about Lan Zhan's feelings.

"Yeah, that's also something you and jiujiu should talk about," Jin Ling grumbles incomprehensibly. Jiang Cheng raised a brave kid, but not one that makes a lot of sense a lot of the time; though maybe that's hypocritical of Wei Wuxian to think so? "Just - stay put, da-jiu, okay? There'll be soup and you can sleep there."

It sounds a bit too good to be true; soup and a bed in Lotus Pier. But it's happened before, and it sounded too good to be true back then as well.

It sounds like something he could get anywhere; it sounds like home.




i have a lot of feelings about Jin Ling and YunmengJiang and how he carries the legacy of his mother's investment in the WWX+JC familial bond, and *vague gesture* look this started out of wanting WWX to know JC used to tell JL the best archer YMJ had was JC'S former head disciple (without ever mentioning that was the YLLZ) and JL is better, because I like donghua JL being introduced with his bow and arrow and I like JC passing on sth of WWX that he can rationalize away, and in the end this didn't go there, so! /shoves /runs
pilfered_words: Escher bird tessellation, colored with watercolor pencil (Default)

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] pilfered_words 2021-02-06 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
Oh I love them...

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-06 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
They're <33333
alexseanchai: Katsuki Yuuri wearing a blue jacket and his glasses and holding a poodle, in front of the asexual pride flag with a rainbow heart inset. (Default)

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] alexseanchai 2021-02-07 10:04 am (UTC)(link)
Jin Ling is not holding up three fingers, is he

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-07 01:11 pm (UTC)(link)
in my head he is holding up three fingers but WWX is acting too out of it anyway, so! executive decision!
salinea: (Default)

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] salinea 2021-02-07 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw

Re: Fill: The Untamed, Wei Wuxian + Jin Ling

[personal profile] runespoor 2021-02-07 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
:3