Young Writers Society

Here's my situation. I'm currently posting works on another young writers' site run by a big publishing company you've probably heard of (but I'm not going to name names). I joined a while back and thought it was great! The graphics were awesome, everything looked really professional, the people seemed nice (I had friend requests and messages minutes after joining), my projects moved up the ranks quickly, and the top five ranked projects every month could be reviewed by real editors from the publishing company! Sounds great, right?

Except, as time went on... and even right now... Me - and other users - are slowly getting a little fed up with it. The site focuses a lot on promotion, and it's gradually mutated from a site where people can review and rank each other to help each other improve into a monster. I have a friend who was on the same site for a while, but they recently quit it and actually said, word for word, 'It's the most selfish website I've ever seen.' And I tend to agree with her. Most users won't review something unless you do a swap, and promise to give a review back. Except a lot of people don't bother to return swaps, and no one wants to give something for nothing, so everyone wants each other to go first. Most of the comments you do get are one-liners. 'This was great.' 'Post more.' 'This was really good.' Etc. Also, there's a problem with honesty. I've seen projects riddled with errors, with an over-done, not well thought out plot, with fifty comments telling the author how 'great' it was.

The forums are tense, too, because everyone's getting ticked off to a certain extent, and most of the threads consist of either people asking for swaps, people promoting their books but NOT wanting to return reviews, people complaining about some aspect of the site or the people on the site that ticks them off, or character chats (essentially roleplay. I think I actually participated in the first one, which was fine, but they've taken off so fast it's ridiculous, and a lot of people are sick of seeing them, and there isn't even a specific section of the forums for them). Also, debates run rampant. That's usually not neccesarily a bad thing, but in the words of my friend from before, "The people participating aren't mature enough to handle it calmly, with understanding." And I agree with her there, too. I tried to join in one of those debates once, and almost immediately I felt attacked. They essentially called me a close-minded prude who's missing out on life just because I don't neccesarily want to read graphic sex scenes in young adult books.

*sigh*

So here's where you come in:
I'm getting more and more fed up with it, but I've been reluctant to quit because I still want feedback on my projects (even though that's getting harder and harder to get on that site...). Then I had the brilliant thought: "Duh! There are other writing websites out there!" So I searched young writers' websites, and on a list of the top forty, right alongside the NaNoWriMo young writers program, I found this site. Looks good, looks friendly, I looked at some projects and some reviews, both of which looked great, and I've already seen some measures that make me think this site will be better (word minimum on critiques! Yes!).

But I guess I'm still a little hesitant, so I'd like some input from the users already on here.

What's this site like? What's your favorite/least favorite thing about it? How's the atmosphere in the forums, and how helpful have the reviews been for you and your writing?

Hoping to find a friendlier, monster-free young writer's website,
Silent Pages.

The atmosphere on YWS is friendly, the critiques are well thought out for the most part, swaps are not mandatory (although some people do them in thanks) and you can go to anybody with a light or dark green name if you have any major issues. (We are the mods and are here to answer questions!)

I have made a ton of friends here who I plan on keeping up with for awhile, and my writing... you do not want to see the quality I had when I first joined the site. Between writing and reviewing, I've improved by leaps and bounds.

There is also no major push on promotion; it's about quality works and improving writing. Grammar is encouraged, as are well thought out reviews and general supportiveness. You can also find people willing to review you as an editor would— willing to pick apart a work in tinny detail with no sugar-coating to be found.

In short: YWS is awesome.

First of all, Welcome to YWS. I do hope you'll decide to stay.

Young Writers Society's atmosphere is very much one of a community, and I definitely don't see it as a selfish one. The main forum is, of course, the Literary (Read/Write) forum, but there's a lot more to the site than just reviewing. For your first taste of the community feel, head over to The Welcome Forum to make a welcome thread and introduce yourself!

Quality of critiques depends on who's giving the critique, and I'm pretty sure it's like that anywhere you'll go. I do feel, however, that the majority of YWS members are helpful and honest in their reviewing. Our current featured member is Navita, whose profile you can access from the front page-- check out her reviews. If you scan the literary forums I'm sure you'll find numerous in-depth critiques, and, of course, some lesser so! But we do discourage plain "I loved it!!!" reviews. Post one of your works, why don't you, and you can gauge the helpfulness of the reviewers for yourself.

My writing has improved leaps and bounds since I first joined, and I really do owe that to YWS. There are all sorts of people on here from all over the world and with unique mindsets, so of course there are the occasional squabbles, but it's definitely a monster-free environment. xD Everyone you encounter here wants to become a better writer, and YWS does a really good job of achieving that through critiques, articles, and observing each other.

Hope you decide to stick around! PM me if you need anything.

Hm, sounds to me you were on Inkpop.

I've been on this site for over a year now. I found it cause I thought of a poem in the shower and felt the need to share it. Essentially, you could say I blossomed from there.

There's really a lot to do here, not just writing. And all of the people are friendly. Things don't escalated to I'll critique you if you critique me because there isn't that pressure of editors and such. It's simply, you do a critique to help someone improve. And same thing happens to your work. You don't get 20 reviews, you get a couple of opinions and suggestions and if you need more you can simply ask in the Will Review for Food forum.
Not all levels of reviews are the same, you gradually learn who have the tear you to shreds reviews over time.

There isn't any tenseness that I know of. Everything is sort of laid back and not really much pressure. We're all here to help each other.

Favourite thing? How much you improve over time. The critiques given here are essentially helping you improve by teaching you how to look at literature from a critic's eye. You're gaining something every time.

Least favourite thing? I can be based on popularity. You make friends really quickly here, and the more known people tend to get a nice bunch of attention. But really it doesn't pose a problem.

I hope this answers any concerns you may have. If you have anything else you need, drop me a line.



Kamas

@ Evi: Thanks! Haven't posted a 'I'm new' thread yet, but I'll probably get around to that at some point... I did post a project that I wrote for a mermaid-themed contest on that othere site, and I plan to post another project later, probably. Also, I wrote my first review on this site! >.< Yay! XD

@ Kamas: ... *cough* Not gonna name names, not gonna name names, not gonna name names... But maybe? XD

This sounds good so far... I guess I'll need to click around a little more... But then, summer vacation started today! >.< So until I head off to camp for five weeks, I'll have some free time to do just that.

Thanks everybody! Anyone else?

So I'm just going to admit I was too lazy to read anyone else's posts. Yeah. Except for yours, of course!

I've been on YWS since late 2006, so I've seen this site go through a lot of changes. In fact, I took a year off, came back, and it didn't look like the site I had been apart of before! But you know what? It still had the amazing, wonderful, friendly user base it always had. I fell right back into the swing of things, and it was amazing.

I'm sure everyone else has talked about the nice users, reviews, and all that. ^^ You know what is my favorite part of this site though? Something I hadn't seen on other forums? Our administrator, Nate, is active on this site. Just look around, there are tons of posts by him. Not just YWS based moderation or info posts. He posts jokes, news stories, he talks with members in the chat. Heck, he's designed bookmarks to go out as part of the donation system.

He cares about us so much, he's worked to publish 2 Lit Journals for this site. Now, not to say we're all focused on publishing and cut-throat work here, but he did spend a lot of his own money to get that rolling, and he got young writers published from this site and from off the site for the first time. He's not just looking to run a super popular site and make a quick buck - he's looking to help young writers. It's amazing. If he wasn't as dedicated as he is, this site would not be like it was.

Oh, and our great team of moderators help too. (I'm one of those!)

So, yeah... This place is my writing home. We've got people from middle school to college age. And you don't have to sweat it and try to give someone else a review first before getting one! I just... couldn't say enough to prove to you how awesome this site has been to me. And I'm not saying this just because I'm a moderator. I'm a moderator because I want to give back what I've received, and help this beautiful place.

I hope our opinions sway you to stay. And, hey, shoot me a PM if you do! I would love to give you a review and learn what kind of stuff you write!

Oh, yeah, and the thing I like least? This place is addictive.

Off topic, but I found this amusing.

Hi!

So, I'm glad that you found this site, and I hope that you decide to stay. We're definitely not at all like what you had before-most people just critique out of their own free will, and there are requests set up in the WRFF (Will Review For Food) forum. Despite having about 1,000 active members or so on the site, everything is really close-knit; there's a real sense of community, which I absolutely adore.

The thing I love about YWS is that everyone is equal, from the new members to the moderators, from the thirteen year olds to the twenty-one year olds. It's so deserve, and everyone seems to genuinely care about helping you get better. The others pretty much covered everything else, but I just wanted to extend my welcome and say that you can always PM me if you have any questions, need a review, or just want to chat!

I'll look forward to seeing you around!

We are the YWS. Lower your shields and surrender your time. We will add your biological and literary distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

@ Dreamer: Roffle! That is kind of funny. XD Four out of five were me-related. >.<

@ Elinor Brynn: Oh, thanks hun! You sent me a gift! *hugs*

@ Prokaryote: If assistance in taking over the world is required, I bought a giant TV remote at a garage sale yesterday, and I'm pretty sure the largeness will make it work on human beings. Shall we test it?

I'm liking this site so far.

Oh, that site sounds horrible. Probably you get by now that this online writing community is exactly the opposite from your old one! I guess that's the quickest way to say it, right?

silentpages wrote:Most users won't review something unless you do a swap, and promise to give a review back.

Gah! That's horrible. On YWS, everybody tries to make sure that every piece gets at least one good review, and on average, I suppose that each piece gets three or four; and if you find you need some more feedback, just ask (politely, of course!) in the Will Review for Food forum. Actually, on YWS, writers are supposed to review three other pieces for every piece of their own. So it makes everything pretty even.

YWS isn't just for getting reviews, but it's also for connecting and making friends with other writers in the Chat, etc., which is pretty awesome.

This site and all its writers are amazing! I know you'll love YWS; hopefully you already do. You'll fit in with us just perfectly!

Cya round! Post some work soon! Enjoy yourself.
~KD

Like I always say "This is the best web page I've ever join" I recommend it to everyone that likes writing!

Dreamer... that screenshot is awesome. XD

Anyways, since this is the first time I've seen it, YWS is more about improvement and less about popularity, I think. We don't really care about whether it's publishable or not -- we want to help you through the writing process so you can learn the basics and so you can really fall in love with writing. We encourage people to review and often there are many people (myself included, but I'm not the only one) who will spend hours critiquing stories and poems of people who are complete strangers to us and have not actually reviewed any of our works at all. But, since we have received the same sort of mentorship from others before, we're willing to volunteer our time to help out the new people.

Our novel section *is* a bit lacking at the moment, lol. We don't have as many people reviewing novels as compared to those reviewing short stories or poems. But maybe you can help us change that around!

That's the other wonderful thing about YWS... if you want to volunteer and have wonderful ideas, we want you to help transform YWS into something better. We're constantly trying to improve YWS and how it works and there are a lot of dedicated people behind the scenes who are actively trying to change things.

So yep. You probably know this already, but whatever.