rthstewart: (Default)
rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2022-01-15 12:00 pm

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

This post is NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS!  PLEASE POST YOUR NEW PROMPTS HERE, IN POST 2!  Do continue to fill prompts here but please put all new prompts in Post 2.






 
Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!

Here's a Friending meme!

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 at bit after about 2 weeks and especially once we open a new post because this one is approaching 4,500 comments.
  • 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.

Here's my attempt at a text box that might go horribly awry.






How long will it go?

The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 13, 2022. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long.  (There were a bunch of new posts to the 2021 3SF this week!)

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 (and much more). 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, protect yourself, 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 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.

 

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!



      


















undeadrobins: (Killjoys)

[personal profile] undeadrobins 2022-01-15 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Any, Any, Wishing on a falling star
yarnofariadne: morticia addams from the sitcom sitting in a chair (me: i am the bones you couldn't break)

Mass Effect, Garrus/Shepard, the things that we could be

[personal profile] yarnofariadne 2022-01-16 12:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[gods help us all I'm back in Mass Effect hell]

"On your left!" Garrus yelled, not fast enough to save one of the soldiers from falling under a Marauder's fire. Sweat rolled down his face, the sharp sting of failure shooting pain through his open wounds, and blood pulsed in his ears as the bellowing howl of the Reapers resounded in the cold, thin air. He looked up at the falling asteroids, showers of red sparks the colour of her hair filling the sky with fire, and wished for a miracle.

ao3
be_themoon: I want a better world. By me. (Default)

[personal profile] be_themoon 2022-01-17 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
mass effect hell is such a good hell, tho

and this is excellent! poor Garrus, everything happened so fast
yarnofariadne: morticia addams from the sitcom sitting in a chair (me: i am the bones you couldn't break)

[personal profile] yarnofariadne 2022-01-17 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
it iiiiiiiiiiiis

thank you! ♥
be_themoon: I want a better world. By me. (Default)

[personal profile] be_themoon 2022-01-18 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
sounds like it's time for me to prompt some mass effect
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)

Sorrow and Sweetness (Naruto; Sakura & Naruto)

[personal profile] kalira 2022-01-16 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, look, Naru! Make a wish!"

"I never wish on falling stars," Naruto said quietly, tucking his knees up towards his chest and looking at the sky; Sakura winced, thinking of Naruto's past and how- "it always seems too sad." he finished, lifting a hand and tracing the star's glittering path with one fingertip.

Sakura's throat tightened painfully, and she wrapped an arm around Naruto, drawing him in closer - he made a soft sound of startlement, then burrowed into her embrace the way he always did, as though afraid it would be taken away - and swearing silently, and not for the first time, to see to it Naruto got as many happy things as she could make happen for him.
flowerdeluce: (Default)

Skyward (The Terror, John Bridgens/Harry Peglar) Grief and MCD

[personal profile] flowerdeluce 2022-01-18 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
The sunlight fades in orange hues, and while the warmth of John’s body fades too, he peers skyward. Stars begin pricking through, more beautiful for being the last he’ll see, just as Harry had been beautiful when he’d smiled his last, breathed his last, and John last looked upon him.

A star scrapes a path through the dimming blue, and John wishes upon its silvery trail that he might join Harry in heaven soon.
theseatheseatheopensea: Illustration of the Sir Patrick Spens ballad, from A Book of Old English Ballads, by George Wharton Edwards. (Sir Patrick Spens.)

Re: Skyward (The Terror, John Bridgens/Harry Peglar) Grief and MCD

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2022-01-18 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
*cries forever* This is beautiful and sad... and I'm never going to be over them!!!
flowerdeluce: (Default)

Re: Skyward (The Terror, John Bridgens/Harry Peglar) Grief and MCD

[personal profile] flowerdeluce 2022-01-18 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for this, ahhhhh! *cries with you*

Disco Elysium, Kim Kitsuragi

[personal profile] azurefishnets 2022-01-18 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
As the light fades and the first stars come out, an earthgrazer streaks across the horizon; Kim looks out across the windswept, freezing waters of the bay as SadFM echoes around him and the thin grey crackle of the pale recedes for a moment (want to be free / it will last forever / eternally ) and, just for a moment, allows the orphaned child he's sublimated deep within to make a wish: Let there be a summer night, dark and quiet and deep and the stars coming out, with just me, the Kineema, a cigarette and...

He stops the thought. There is no eternity here, although this boat ride stretches on endlessly into the twilight; they'll finish the case on the islet ahead and, solved, both mark it on their ledgers and go back to the way they were (...but deep in there, that traitorous, wish-on-a-star child wishes there could be a miraculous blank slate for him as well in a new life; he quashes that thought just as firmly as the other and turns his eyes back to the pale grey depths of the water).
Edited 2022-01-18 17:28 (UTC)
laughingpineapple: (Default)

Re: Disco Elysium, Kim Kitsuragi

[personal profile] laughingpineapple 2022-01-18 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM you'll get your summer night ;_;
severina: (vikings: rollo and gisla)

Vikings, Rollo/Gisla

[personal profile] severina 2022-02-13 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Gisla rested against her husband's chest, watching the stars through the bedroom window as he drew pictures with words, stories of monsters in the deep and mighty warriors who rode the lightning. Blasphemy, all of it, but not if she pretended that it was just a story, something with which to entertain the children. She followed the arc of a falling star and tightened her grip on Rollo's hand; if wishing for the rasp of his voice against her ear and his strong arms around her always were a sin, then she would gladly bear it.