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!



      


















elementalraven: (Default)

[personal profile] elementalraven 2022-01-15 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Narnia, any, ladies with swords
cofax7: climbing on an abbey wall  (Default)

[personal profile] cofax7 2022-01-15 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
It didn't seem so heavy at first; less than the weight of a full teapot to be carried into the drawing room for Mother's tea with Mrs. Hazelton, but more than the Greek text that Edmund so regularly left behind when he returned to school.

Lucy shifted her feet, then stilled under the keen eye of Silversharp: the Centaur had only turned the sandglass twice, and there was some time yet to go.

The sun glinted off the edges of the sword, and her muscles burned, and she ignored the whispers around her from the Dwarf guards and the stable staff as sweat trickled down her back--but still she held her pose, as the sword grew heavier and heavier.
vialethe: (Narnia - Lucy)

[personal profile] vialethe 2022-01-16 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, Lucy! Keep it up, dear girl. I love her comparisons to the weight, especially Ed's oft-forgotten book.
wingedflight: (Default)

[personal profile] wingedflight 2022-01-16 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
Lucy training!! I love it!
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)

[personal profile] edenfalling 2022-01-16 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
Go Lucy! (Also the teapot and the textbook are wonderful weight comparisons.)
elementalraven: (Default)

[personal profile] elementalraven 2022-01-16 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
I love it! Lucy does deserve all the swords, and I always love to read about training! I also love the personal touches added to this, like how Lucy compares the weight to objects connected with her family.
arveldis: Éowyn at Théodred's funeral (Default)

[personal profile] arveldis 2022-01-16 08:28 am (UTC)(link)
“Battles are ugly when women fight,” Father Christmas had said, and Lucy had chafed at his words then and ever since, determined to become every bit of the warrior her brothers were, practicing with every weapon that found its way into her hands and carving her way through battlefields at her siblings’ sides, until princes and kings of enemy nations feared her name.

But his words were true, she thought, as she looked in triumph at the man staring at her in fright from where he stood at the tip of her sword, if not in the way he intended them. She raised her sword in a glittering arc, her smile fierce and grim as a wild bloodlust sang through her veins; battles were ugly when the Valiant brought her sword, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
elementalraven: (Default)

[personal profile] elementalraven 2022-01-16 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
Oohh this is kind of dark, I love it! It's also exactly what I imagine Lucy did: learn all the weapons she can find and be found on all the battlefields. I love the idea of the Valiant being a most fearsome and terrible enemy in battle.
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] silveradept 2022-01-17 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
While it was not considered proper for a Tarkheena to join the men on the field of battle, she was expected to be able to defend the city and the house of her husband should the battlefield come to her, instead. She had thought Queen Susan a weak and frail woman and Queen Lucy a child, until Susan had drawn and let fly an arrow that stopped a man in full charge and Lucy had cut a man down from his horse without impeding the horse. The words of the poet Zahrah were as true in Narnia or Archenland as they were in Calormen:
A woman with a weapon is the greatest foe you will ever meet, for she has no reason to live and you have every reason to die.
cofax7: climbing on an abbey wall  (Default)

Re: Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] cofax7 2022-01-17 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, very nice.
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

Re: Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] silveradept 2022-01-18 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you.
elementalraven: (Default)

Re: Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] elementalraven 2022-01-17 10:01 am (UTC)(link)
yess!! Multiple ladies with weapons, what more can you want. Really love the little bit of worldbuilding you do here too!
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

Re: Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] silveradept 2022-01-18 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
Hee, thanks. It seemed a likely thing to extrapolate.
vialethe: (Narnia - Beach)

Re: Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] vialethe 2022-01-18 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
Yes good. I love the quote at the end, sums it all up so well, as well as Aravis's changing perspective on the Narnian queens.
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)

Re: Aravis, Cultural Differences

[personal profile] silveradept 2022-01-18 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. Seems likely that Aravis would have seen the entire thing with Rabadash and come away from it with very different ideas of what the situation was.