Prompt: #217 - Yearn

[misbegotten]

This week's prompt is: yearn.

Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as a starting place only. Please use the tag "prompt: #217 - yearn" with your prompt response.

Please include all necessary content warnings for potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers.

Here is a template for posting your work, if you so desire:

Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title

Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:

<strong>Title:</strong> <strong>Original</strong> (or) <strong>Fandom:</strong> <strong>Rating:</strong> <strong>Notes:</strong>

If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!

Comments

[alexseanchai]

question for the mod!

I have written 100 words of fiction for this prompt. (or, well, it's 100 words as long as either "???" and "cheese-breath" are one word each or "???" is zero words and "cheese-breath" is two. which I would also like a modly opinion on. Written? Kitten! is going with one word each, and I think so will AO3?) the thing is, it's texting fic. I plan to post it to AO3 using a variant on this work skin by CodenameCarrot and La_Temperanza, and therefore the visible words to people who are viewing with the work skin on will total 100. (subject to caveat in previous parenthetical.)

but if I set up the AO3 version to identify both sides of the conversation properly when the work skin is off (which I have to for accessibility for both screenreader users and anybody reading a download instead of direct on AO3), AO3 will include that in my word count. and Dreamwidth, of course, does not do work skins, so the Dreamwidth version would match the AO3-without-work-skin version. and to make the Dreamwidth version exactly 100 words, I'd have to clip 6 words of dialogue, and then the work-skin-on version on AO3 would have only 94 visible words.

I could solve this by making it dialogue-only, but this is one scene in a series, and it is important for the series plot that these two characters get minimal feedback on each other's emotional states during this conversation, so making it voice chat would create a different problem.

thoughts?

[misbegotten]

I think we all understand the problem with various word counting software. "Exactly 100 words" in this case is a rule of thumb meant to exclude fic in which writers aren't even trying to adhere to the golden drabble rule.

In this case, I'd suggest posting to the community with a link to the skinned drabble. No worries.

[alexseanchai]

and after all that, neither emojis nor "???" count as words on AO3! hang on…