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!



      


















flowerdeluce: (Default)

Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

[personal profile] flowerdeluce 2022-01-18 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[I adore your injury prompts and them listed them together had me thinking of the various occasions of a timeloop... so here's a fill for each of them, with one for setup. Warning: this is a wee bit gory and there's character death, over and over...]

Time and Torment

Any other day Goodsir might have managed better, but cursed to relive Carnivale…

No matter what he does or who he pleads with or what course he alters in the day’s events, the destruction is the same, inescapable, and never any less haunting than when he last witnessed it, either from within the flame-licked cocoon of the tents or the detached safety of the quarterdeck.

This does not, however, dissuade Goodsir from trying to break his curse, because if he saves one man, changes one thing and gets it to stick, he might slip the noose of this cruel purgatory—for perhaps he died at Carnivale too, another charred body added to the expedition’s growing list of dead.

-

He’s tried convincing McDonald not to attend Carnivale (once even feigning illness to get him to stay away) but it never succeeds—there’s always something that draws him to the place, so McDonald always dies.

This time, Goodsir’s protestations work; McDonald survives the night without so much as a scratch on him.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

-

Hickey’s knife drives through waxed canvas, and Alexander cries out; his palm, nicked by the blade, cautions him to move aside before it splits an opening, a writhing pile of bodies spilling through like entrails from a quartered abdomen.

Goodsir pulls the doctor aside, checking him anxiously for additional lacerations, but it is this small one alone, easily mended.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

-

Goodsir doesn’t get where he needs to in time and finds McDonald sat upon an upturned crate, eyes wide with horror as Carnivale burns. He kneels before him wordlessly, searches to find his stomach bloody from a puncture wound he barely seems to notice.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.

-

Tonight is the last time Goodsir will try to spare McDonald his fate—he does not appear to be an integral cog in the workings of this pernicious device of time and torment.

When the poor man dies in his arms, his final breath painting the air, Goodsir finds his resolve: he will attempt to save the woman next.

The charcoal smear of smoke, visible later on the featureless horizon, vanishes, and the day begins anew.
theseatheseatheopensea: Lyrics from the song Stolen property, by The Triffids, handwritten by David McComb. (Default)

Re: Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2022-01-18 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
This is amazing (and heartbreaking, ahhh!) and I love the repetition of the charcoal smoke... it works so well! Bravo!! (Please keep the Terror ficlets coming! <3)
flowerdeluce: (Default)

Re: Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

[personal profile] flowerdeluce 2022-01-19 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
:D :D :D Thank you so much!

Your kind comments are really keeping me going <3 <3
theseatheseatheopensea: A drawing of a fox and a magpie hugging. (Fox and magpie.)

Re: Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

[personal profile] theseatheseatheopensea 2022-01-19 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
:D
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: Time and Torment (The Terror, Goodsir & McDonald) Groundhog Day AU

[personal profile] alexseanchai 2022-01-21 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
honestly I couldn't decide which to do, and then I figured, why choose? and this is a beautiful way to thread them together, and furthermore, ouch; I have no clue who these people are but that has got to be one torturous time loop