rthstewart | 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

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Don't worry," Yu Ziyuan's mother says. "You're so beautiful the master of Yunmeng Jiang will surely fall in love at first sight."

Yu Ziyuan scowls. "I'm not worried."

In the mirror, her mother frowns. "You must not show him your temper, either."

Yu Ziyuan presses her lips together in annoyance, at least until her mother bids her open her mouth for the lipstick paper.

Jiang Fengmian is a handsome young man; he's polite, and he smiles at her, but it never reaches her eyes and conversation with him is as dull as a block: he barely responds beyond simple courtesies. He does not fall for her at first sight, but then, the stories say that he's still pining for a woman who left him for a common retainer. Yu Ziyuan cannot abide such sentiment. Nor does she want a man who wants another woman.

They share tea and he praises her mother's blend, and then her mother leaves them alone to get to know each other. She's already told Yu Ziyuan to show him the garden -- she thinks the blooming lotuses in the pond would surely please the master of Yunmeng Jiang.

Instead, Yu Ziyuan proposes that they go out of the estate into the mountains. "Meishan is beautiful at this time of year. The alpine flowers are blooming, and from the top of the peak, we'll be able to see the sea of clouds. Come with me, Jiang Fengmian."

Jiang Fengmian does not refuse her; this whole meeting. She leads him on foot at first, claiming that the scenery is best experienced with a hike. They make their way through thick brush and along rocky paths; sometimes they must climb or leap across crevasses.

"If you need a rest, please let me know," she says. "If you're tired, we can go the rest of the way on our swords."

"I'm well," he says. Indeed, he's kept up with her easily enough; he is not even breathing hard.

She smiles coolly. "I must admire Yunmeng Jiang's cultivation skills then."

He's silent. They walk for hours, and she makes something like conversation by pointing out the flowers, blooming purple and blue on the slopes. Usually, the sight of them is a balm to her soul, but now she uses them as a barrage of courtesy. She thinks about calling Zidian, scattering the flower petals to the ground. What would Jiang Fengmian think about that? If only he would turn away from her in disgust, proclaiming the third lady of Meishan Yu to be far too intemperate--but of course her mother has already made sure that cannot be.

He does not tire and he does not fall, no matter where she leads him. At last she admits defeat and proposes that they go the rest of the way by sword.

On Meishan's peak, with the trailing clouds and the other mountains below them, Yu Ziyuan asks Jiang Fengmian to marry her, because she is a filial daughter and her sect requires it. Jiang Fengmian accepts, because his answer is already preordained and no sect leader is ever free.

Edited 2022-01-17 23:31 (UTC)

Well, that explains a lot. What a mess (pretty scenery, though)

Haha, thank you. :)

Three Sentence Ficathon 2022

Untamed, Yu Ziyuan/Jiang Fengmian (and no one is happy about it)

Re: Untamed, Yu Ziyuan/Jiang Fengmian (and no one is happy about it)

Re: Untamed, Yu Ziyuan/Jiang Fengmian (and no one is happy about it)