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Young Writers Society


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157 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3015
Reviews: 157
Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:54 am
alwaysawriter says...



Please note this is from 2008. YWS has gone through two massive overhauls since it was posted and a lot of it no longer applies. It will be updated when staff have time.

Hi, welcome to YWS! I'm guessing if you're reading this, you're new and/or completly lost. Don't worry; it happens to everyone. When I first came here, I couldn't tell you how to do anything. Now, a short four months later, I can navigate pretty well. This is complied from Nate's Five Most Common Questions of a New Member in the Lounge. In no particular order:

1. Why can't we use chatspeak?
This is a writing site. We concentrate more on spelling words the right way than we do trying to find shortcuts for them.

Also, YWS is international. Many people have English as their second, or even third+, language. They might not understand chatspeak.

2. Where do I put my story?

That depends. What is it about? Is it set in the past? Put it in Historical Fiction. Is it Nonfiction? Put it in the Nonfiction section. As Griffenkeeper put in Fiction Discussion and Tips:

Action Adventure Fiction has action stories that are set in modern times.
Science Fiction has a story set in a futuristic setting or an alternate reality.
Fantasy Fiction is set in a world with mythical, usually medieval, settings. If your story has dragons, elves, or knights in shining armor, this is probably where your story belongs.
Romantic Fiction are composed of love stories, with love as the central theme.
Historical Fiction usually has stories composed of a realistic past setting. If you're writing about an American GI on the shores of Normandy Beach, this is probably where your story goes.
Fan-Fiction is fiction done by fans in honor of a certain author or story.
Other Fiction is fiction that doesn't fit into the above categories.
Non-Fiction is composed of a factual account. You don't make up non-fiction stories, you tell them. Essays usually fall in this category.

For poetry, simply look at the info under each poetry review forum.

3. What's a review?

I'm glad you asked this question. When you review, you basically edit a story or poem. For fiction, you talk about grammar, plot, characters, setting, etc and for poetry, you talk about line breaks, stanzas, literary elements, etc.
Remember the 2:1 ratio: you must review two other works before you can submit one of your own.

4. What are points?/How do I get them?
Points are used to help determine the Featured Member. Points are reset to 300 every two weeks to help determine the next Featured Member. Points are also used to post stories/poems and in Storybooks. To get fifty points for a post, you basically need forty words (250 characters). Points aren't available in places like the Lounge, Randomness, and In the News. Places to get them include usergroups, reviews, the Welcome forum, etc.

5. How can I post things?
I probably should have listed this first. Find a thread you'd like to comment in then go to the very bottem of the page. Right under This Thread was created on... you'll see a Post Reply button. Click on it, say what you want to say, then press Submit then you're done! You can either view the message or go back to the forum. Don't forget to go to the last page if it's a debate so you don't end up arguing with the person on the first page in a forty-two paged debate.
Posting a story/poem costs 150 points while posting a topic in Advanced Critiques or Storybooks will cost you 500.

6. How can I add friends?
Go to the person who you want to become friends with's profile. Right under the banner add, there should be a thing that says Add To Friends. Click that. You can either personalize the message or leave it as is and submit it.

7. Who are the people in colors?
The green people are the senior and junior mods. Senior mods control and look over all of the forums while junior mods can only look over specific areas. Senior mods are dark green and junior mods are light green. You can see what mods are in what group by looking at the forums and clicking on the green groups next to Moderatered By...
Greeters are the blue people. They help new members learn their way around the site and participate in the Welcome forum frequently.
Instructors are the purple people. They post writing tips, have the best reviews, may offer online classes, and may even help people improve their reviews.
The red people are the administrators. There are few of them and they can do anything on the site: lock/delete threads, etc.

8. What are ranks?
Ranks depend on how many posts you make:
New Member: 0-4 posts
Novice: 5-14 posts
Junior Writer: 15 - 49 posts
Writer: 50 - 99 posts
Senior Writer: 100 - 249 posts
Novelist: 250 - 499 posts
Speaker of the Forum: 500+ posts

Master of the Forum is 1,000 and over, I think, and no one's ever said what the other two were.

9. What are the stars?
Stars depend on how many reviews you have. I'm working towards my fourth star. :):
Yellow Stars:
5 Reviews = 1 Star
25 Reviews = 2 Stars
75 Reviews = 3 Stars
150 Reviews = 4 Stars
250 Reviews = 5 Stars
Blue Stars:
350 Reviews = 1 Blue Star, 4 Yellow Stars
450 Reviews = 2 Blue Stars, 3 Yellow Stars
550 Reviews = 3 Blue Stars, 2 Yellow Stars
And so on and so forth
Red Stars:
850 Reviews = 1 Red Star, 4 Blue Stars
950 Reviews = 2 Red Stars, 3 Blue Stars
And so on and so forth

10. How can I get those fancy letters below my name?
You become a Novelist at 250 posts, in which you go to My YWS and can type in a custom title. The custom title will go under your username.

I didn't list every question because this was getting too long already.
Credit goes to Griffinkeeper for a basic idea of what was what in Fiction and Nate for the ranks and star system. You can find all of those here: http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewarticlebody.php?t=19230 http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?t=813 and http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/topic11936.html

As always, PM me for anything and/or questions about this article.
-alwaysawriter
Last edited by alwaysawriter on Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Meshugenah says to (18:12:36):
Kat's my new favorite. other than Sachi.

WWJD: What Would Jabber Do?





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98 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 1155
Reviews: 98
Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:54 pm
chasingcolts21 says...



Wow! Good job writing this always!
"We would accomplish many more things if we didn't think of them as impossible." Vince Lombardi

~You've just been ticketed by the Grammar Police! 1000 word essay fine.





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Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 4
Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:15 am
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madhatter294 says...



You should add to this how to edit work previously posted, I can't figure it out at all ! :(
stay awake through the summer like we own the heat





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150 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 14032
Reviews: 150
Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:39 pm
irishfire says...



Hey there! I have a question, and I can't find the right forum to put it on, so I'm going to try it here.

I've been reviewing things, and posting things keeping up with the ratio, but for some reason it doesn't show on my profile that I've been doing so. I was just wondering if there was certain things that I need to do in order to make it an actual review so it shows up. And, if so, what do I need to do?

I'm following the rules to my knowledge, and I just don't want people to think I'm just ignoring the rules. If you could answer my question I'd really appreciate it :D

Thanks so much! Irish :lol:
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. - Robert McCloskey

Teacher: What do we, in the U.S enjoy from places like Mexico?
Student: Wait, legally?

WARNING: This user carries a spatula.





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Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 8
Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:03 pm
A. C. Denny says...



Hey, I have a quesion about the points thing. How do we check to see how many points we have? Is it in our personal info???
Ride and never worry about the fall,
Guess that's just the cowboy in us all!





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16 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 880
Reviews: 16
Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:25 am
Night says...



To A.C. Denny

The anwser to your question is right under the date you joined.

As of right now you have 16 posts.





Random avatar


Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 8
Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:59 pm
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A. C. Denny says...



Thanks. Since my Internet is too old for this kind of site, the whole left half of the screen is invisible to me. Sometimes I can’t even see what I’m writing!
Ride and never worry about the fall,
Guess that's just the cowboy in us all!





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193 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 23443
Reviews: 193
Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:18 am
Lydia1995 says...



irishfire wrote:Hey there! I have a question, and I can't find the right forum to put it on, so I'm going to try it here.

I've been reviewing things, and posting things keeping up with the ratio, but for some reason it doesn't show on my profile that I've been doing so. I was just wondering if there was certain things that I need to do in order to make it an actual review so it shows up. And, if so, what do I need to do?

I'm following the rules to my knowledge, and I just don't want people to think I'm just ignoring the rules. If you could answer my question I'd really appreciate it :D

Thanks so much! Irish :lol:


For a post to be a review it needs to be 250 characters long, thats about 40 words. And don't worry about it people won't think your ignoring the rules if you just explain to them what the problem is.
:D
~Lydia
Thinking about what you COULD achieve will get you no where. You've got to chase your dreams.
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=188&t=92400 - Need a review?





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Gender: Female
Points: 1040
Reviews: 2
Sun Mar 20, 2011 1:46 am
TeenWRiTER says...



UIm I saved a draft i was working on and i'm new. I can't find the draft can you tell me how to find it???
I wish I were a kid again because skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts





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537 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 60568
Reviews: 537
Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:27 am
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Evi says...



TeenWriter-- I sent you a PM about it. ;)
"Let's eat, Grandma!" as opposed to "Let's eat Grandma!": punctuation saves lives.





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Gender: Female
Points: 1053
Reviews: 4
Sat Jul 23, 2011 6:49 pm
CreativeXpressions says...



Hi,
I have a question. How can I delete my YWS account?





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1272 Reviews



Gender: Other
Points: 89625
Reviews: 1272
Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:35 pm
Rosendorn says...



You can't! Just stop using it and let it fall into obscurity. :) If you want to remove all your works, just hit the "Edit" button in the top right corner and delete all the text (replace it with a period), and replace the title with "removed."
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.





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80 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 333
Reviews: 80
Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:21 pm
polinkacreations says...



Hellow everyone,

I'm pretty lost with the new formatting at the 'submit' section.
Is there a thread about this explaining what to do? How do I make my writing, well, not one chunk of text? It just appears as one block, no formatting, no spaces or anything. It's pretty frustrating. I also saw a couple of works today which look like one bunch of text too, so it doesn't seem to be a problem only with my computer.

Help please, anyone? :(

EDIT: I guess I had to just wait a little longer, it now appears to be okay. Might have been a bug or something.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss





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1272 Reviews



Gender: Other
Points: 89625
Reviews: 1272
Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:44 pm
Rosendorn says...



It is a bug. Nate's just fixed the submit system.

Also, this thread is very outdated. It's locked until the staff gets around to updating it.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.








I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.
— Markus Zusak, The Book Thief