How Has The Young Writers Society Helped You (if at all)?
December 29th, 2007 by Nate in
Miscellaneous, Tips
I’m thinking of putting together a testimonials page for YWS, so any comments here will help me in putting it together. But caveat scriptor! If you post a comment, you may just find it out on such a page!
In any case, has the Young Writers Society helped you with your writing? And if so, how? If not, why not? I want to know!
December 29th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Has Young Writers Society helped me with my writing? Of course it has! I came here around a year ago as illiterate as any of those little kids who constantly use chat speak. I was pretty good at writing without YWS but when I came here a lot about my writing changed. I couldn’t grasp the idea that tenses had to be the same throughout a piece. I tried again and again but I kept using different tenses.
Then my friends pushed me into YWS. I looked around, made some new friends and wrote a bit more. After reading tons of amazing pieces, I finally got it. Today I’m doing awesome and writing a lot better. To get better at something, I think someone needs to throw you into the next level and then help you adjust. YWS was the wall I was thrown at and it has helped me a lot.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
The very first message board I ever joined was a very bitter and hostile place that left me with a bad attitude and a shattered self-confidence. It wasn’t a literary message board, but it had a subforum for literary works. That was back when I was trying to be a poet (an endeavour which I’ve since stopped) and the responses I got were unreasonably cruel. Needless to say, I felt like I’d never amount to anything as a writer.
Then I was extremely bored one bleak October, and something that had been bouncing around my head came to the surface. I vaguely remembered reading or overhearing about a site for young writers. I didn’t put much faith into my dim memories, but I Googled “young writers site” anyway.
And hence, I discovered the Young Writers Society.
As a result of that earlier message board, I was terrified as all get-out to even show my face on this site. I felt like I was going to be attacked just for posting in the Welcome forum. But I sucked up those feelings, made my post, and fled for my life to hide from that inevitable flaming.
It never came.
In fact, I received the exact opposite. I received a very warm welcome (from complete strangers nonetheless) and thought, “Hey, maybe there’s more to this after all.” So I tried my hand at a few different forums. And it was the same everywhere I went. Even when I posted my (absolutely horrid) first piece, it was received with kind but firm hands who taught me and are still teaching me what it means to be a writer. I hardly even noticed the change, but what I write now makes me much happier than what I used to write. I’m so much better and wiser about my craft. The goal of being a novelist — a published novelist — is actually a more realistic possibility now.
Now it’s a year later, and I can honestly say that joining YWS was the best decision I ever made. This website revolutionized my life. I don’t know where I would be without everyone here.
(sorry, that was kind of long. xD)
December 29th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
The Young Writers Society taught me to critique. This is not taught in school, or by parents or friends; editing is a skill that all writers need, for use in their own writing or other’s. To be able to ‘comb’ through text and untangle strands of meaning is … great fun! YWS has shown me what I love to do, and given me the ambition to become a fiction editor (not to be confused with a ‘fictional’ editor).
Thanks, YWS!
Charlie
December 29th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
YWS is perhaps the only website that has shaped my development. Twofold: in writing, by giving me a place to talk to fellow writers my age, going through the same highs and lows, and allowing me to learn things I might never have come across, making me appreciate poetry; as a person, by giving me great friendships and allowing me to meet people I never would have otherwise.
In short, YWS is the best thing I have ever found on the internet. It’s like my digital home. I have friends & family, familiar places that make me smile, and a comfortable sense of belonging. I have to say the members here are the best people I have ever talked to: intelligent, funny, creative and crazy. Just what I like.
It’s been an honour just helping it develop.
December 29th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
There is no question as to whether YWS has helped me. Not only am I a much better editor (extra thanks to Suzie for some tips in that area) but I also found ambition. Until I came here, I wrote on storybooks and spilled the occasional structured, unimaginative poem but I went no further than that. After seeing the variety of styles on YWS, it encouraged me to try a looser format with my poetry and I even wrote a few short stories.
December 29th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
YWS hasn’t helped me…it’s given my life purpose.
Haha, to be serious, I’ve grown so much as a writer and an editor through my membership here. It’s taken me past the level of my high school literary magazine and it’s inspired me, in part, to pursue a career in publishing or journalism.
YWS is much more sophisticated than other young writers’ forums on the web, and I’ve always been impressed with the people I meet on this site–many of them are incredibly dedicated writers, people whose talent I admire quite a bit. I’m proud of be part of this community.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I think the YWS is one of the most unique websites in my favorites list. And perhaps the one that’s lived there the longest. I can say it certainly has helped me. A friend of mine had their works their and wanted me to read them. I did, and after seeing the community responses to every post, I decided to join. I had been wanting to try my hand at some poetry and what I started out with was… let’s say less than I had wanted. But, with the positive comments, and constructive critique, I believe I have grown into a better poet than I had imagined. Heck, I’ve even stuck with it. I thought, maybe I’d become a poet, write a few poems, then quit. But I find that I’ve kept writing and I’m still coming back, two years later, to improve through the community’s critique.
December 31st, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Friends, more than anything. I have made amazing, life long friends. My writing has improved one-thousand fold from what I have learned and from being in a community of so many smart, amazing people. I’ve matured as a writer, and it is only because of YWS.
*hugs YWS*
January 8th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Serendipity; The art of looking for something but you find something else.
That’s pretty much how I feel about YWS. I went on the search for things to read and found so much more and it’s helped me a lot in my actual school work too.
The people are really friendly and, yes I know I may complain about harsh reviews, they give some absolutely top notch advice that I could use in lots of places.
It’s a love thang.