Squills 7/20-7/27/14

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!

What will you find here? Tons of interesting news about YWS, including but not limited to: articles about writing, art, and the world of humanities; interviews with YWS members; shameless plugs; link round-ups; and opinionated columns. 

And where will all of this come from? Take a look at our fantastic creative staff! 

Spoiler

Editors-in-Chief
Iggy
Hannah

General Editors
ShadowVyper
KnightTeen

Friendly Neighborhood Robot
SquillsBot

Friendly Neighborhood Cow
CowLogic

Literary Reporter
JamesHunt

Community Reporter
Available - PM SquillsBot if interested

Resources Reporter
Tenyo

Storybook Reporter
AfterTheStorm

Link Cowgirl
megsug

Poetry Enchantress
Aley

The Adventurer
BlueAfrica

Quibbles Columnist
Aadygirl

Social Correspondent
Iggy

Associates of Pruno and Gruno
Blackwood
defyingravity01

Media Critic
Kanome

Code Master
Avalon

General Reporters
OliveDreams
ArcticMonkey
whitewolfpuppy
AriaAdams
defyingravity01
Elinor Brynn
JamesHunt

Past Editors-in-Chief
GriffinKeeper
AlfredSymon

Of course, our content can’t come only from our staff. We also depend on you to help keep Squills successful. You’re all a part of a writing community, after all. If you’re interested in submitting to Squills, pop on over to the Reader’s Corner to find out how you can get involved by contributing an article or participating in other Squills activities.

Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!

1. EDITOR'S NOTE
2. SCAVENGER HUNT
3. HISTORY OF SQUILLS
4. DO YOU KNOW WHAT SQUILLS IS?
5. SQUILLS: NOW AND THEN
6. HOW MUCH IS THAT NOVEL IN THE WINDOW?
7. REVIEW SPOTLIGHT
8. ADVENTURES IN WRITING
9. ASKPRUNO
10. FESTOONED: NEW STARS
11. THE CODE BREAKER CHALLENGE
12. TWO CENTS: SHAKESPEAREAN ENGLISH
13. KANOME'S RANT OF MEDIA
14. SWEET SUMMERTIME
15. NEW ARRIVALS
16. THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 7/19
17. SHAMELESS PLUGS
18. SUBSCRIBERS

EDITOR’S NOTEwritten by Hannah < PM: >

Hello, Squills readers! If you’re not yet aware, this is Squills’ anniversary edition. That means that one year ago, Squills evolved from a daily publication into a well-oiled weekly team project that’s been going strong ever since. From the beginning, we’ve been dedicated to bringing relevant, new information to light for the YWS community, and though the news may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s definitely ours.

When I was in elementary school and dreaming about what I’d major in, I was always convinced I’d be an author and nothing else. My step mom asked what I thought about going to a college like Columbia University – you know, the famous one? – and majoring in journalism, since it was related to writing but would make better sense financially. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and said I hated writing about real things: I only wanted to write fiction.

That was then, and look where we are today. I did eventually get my degree in Fiction Writing, but I’m also a co-editor-in-chief and writer for the weekly newsletter of an enormously popular Young Writer’s website. Guess I don’t hate writing about real things after all.

What I want to share with you in this editor’s note, however, is that whatever you’ve done in the past and whatever you’ve claimed to hate in the past has no relevance in this present moment. You are able to do what you want to do.

Read that again.

You are able to do what you want to do.

If that means something as simple as write another hundred words in your novel or another line on the poem that’s been bothering you for weeks, you are able. If it’s something as big as starting a newsletter to be the awesome competition for Squills or putting together a Young Writer’s website and building a loving, active community, you are able.

You know how I know you’re able? Because these things have been done before, and that’s not to say that you can’t be the first to do anything, because the piecse of as-yet-impossible things have also been done before. Maybe you’re going to be the one to finally put them together in the right order or make the right final conclusion. But these things are possible, and you are able.

While editor in chief on Squills, that’s been the biggest lesson I’ve learned. I am able to put together a team of amazing writers and get them organized and thinking about publishing weekly. I am able to work full-time and still take a few hours every so often to write up new articles or edit and publish the new edition of Squills. I am able to take pride in the way that I spend my time in this endeavor. And you – you, too, reader – you are able.

Enjoy this anniversary edition, filled with the proof that the Squills team is able to produce amazing content, and rejoice in the fact that you are able to enjoy it. Then go off and find your next adventure.

Hannah

SCAVENGER HUNT!written by Iggy < PM: >

Yes! It is time for a Scavenger Hunt, made for and related only to Squills. If you haven't noticed, it's the very first anniversary of the newly renovated Squills! To celebrate, we are having a Hunt. Everyone who participates wins points!


1. The Index has been temporarily removed – you’ll have to find all answers in the Squills forum on your own.
2. Global Moderators and Administrators are not allowed to participate in the Hunt. Sorry!
3. Asking any member of the Squills staff for answers is a waste of time. They won’t help you, and may even trick you!
4. All answers must be PMed directly to @Iggy. Please don’t post them anywhere public – it will disqualify you!
5. You don’t need to guess. All the answers are waiting for you in the Squills forum!

With that said, we can move on to the prizes. I know you've all been waiting for this, and the prizes are... (drum roll please)



With 10 questions, you could win 3,000 points if you get them all right! That's enough to post 12 works!*

* = assuming if the point cost hasn't risen due to inflation

You all have until the first of August (Aug. 1st) to PM @Iggy your answers. The results will be posted in the Lounge.

Good luck to all of you!




Bonus Time!

Too lazy to dig up information for the scavenger hunt? Instead, do all the requirements on the following checklist and you can still earn a bonus 600 points!

Note: if you have already subscribed or posted, let me know in your PM.



Remember, you have until August 1st to PM me your answers! Thanks and best of luck to everyone! Happy Squillsiversary, everyone.

HISTORY OF SQUILLS

written by Defyingravity01  < PM:  >

Squills has a great and interesting history. It’s also pretty long and complicated. I’m just going to give you a basic overview because I don’t fully understand it myself.

The first issue of “Squills” wasn’t even considered Squills. In fact, it was an entirely separate page from YWS though it was still hosted through the site. The first newsletter was called “Splash” and it was created as a webzine. The webzine was posted on January 10, 2005. There was only one issue before the whole thing went “kaput”. This was actually in the favor of the young newsletter however, as a while later “Squills” was born.

@Nate was the one who started Squills, this glorious newsletter. He started by putting out a series of newsletters in an html/pdf format rather than on the forum. This is where everything gets fuzzy. From what my sources have told me, this format of Squills was done approximately on a monthly basis. It was supposedly run by several different people at different times. These YWSers included @Meshugenah, @Emerson with help in formatting from @ Alteran. Squills in this format, was more like a magazine, including poetry, short stories, and in-depth articles.

Afterwards, the actual idea of the Squills you know and love today – as a YWS news platform – was proposed by @Griffinkeeper. 

The first actual edition of Squills that I could find was in the Squills forum posted by none other than Griffinkeeper. The issue was originally posted as a thread with one article by Griffin. After reading through this issue, it seemed like the news bulletin didn’t have much interest, with only 4 likes and nobody posting articles within the span of time Griffin provided. Afterwards, Griffin posted one other entry after @AlfredSymon took over. This bulletin was posted on a daily basis and covered things mainly happening in YWS. This issue of Squills was posted sporadically. Sometimes every day, sometimes every few days and I spotted a few week long gaps. There were a bunch of different people posting. These users include @StellaThomas, @megsug, @ShadowVyper, @LemonyIce and @SparkToFlame and many, many more. 

The rest is something that is easy to deduce on your own. The newest and more organized format of Squills was first created by @SquillsBot exactly one year ago on July 21, 2013. What a wild ride it’s been. Now the question I’m asking is…



Today, Squills is fully functional and is posted every week, usually on Monday. For those of you who are first-time readers or are interested in the past issues of Squills, check out the Squills section on the forums tab. It’s really an interesting thing to see.

Squills has many different columnists and general reporters with four main moderators. @Iggy, @Hannah, @ShadowVyper and @KnightTeen. It was mainly Iggy posting pages on the Squills team’s private forum until Hannah made a comeback recently. The other two mods also do a lot however, and the Squills team is like one big happy family.

If you have any interest in joining the Squills team, PM one of the mods. It’s the same deal if you just want to do a more “freelance” type thing. 

What will Squills become in the future? No one knows. The only thing I can say is that I know it’s going to be great.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT SQUILLS IS?written by Hannah < PM: >

I mean, unless you’ve been link ambushed or are completely ambushed, I’m assuming you do know what Squills is by now, but that wasn’t the case for all the members polled in this week’s statistics search (in the style of @Sapi). Guess this article ended up doing double duty and served to advertise as well. Who said that research can’t be profitable? Okay, okay, on to the pretty graphs and stats.

Do you know what Squills is?

Okay! Good news for the Squills team. Out of the thirty people I surveyed, 21 members knew what Squills was, while only nine were out of the loop. It’s also not clear whether these results are biased because of conducting interviews in the chat room where already social people would go, thus skewing the data to favor socially active members. Or whether I purposefully tried to make Squills seem ten times more famous than it already is. In any case, this is a very simple bar graph, and I invite you to try to draw a copy of it for yourself!



Math homework practice! Ask your teacher for extra credit!

How often do you read Squills?

Great, now the graphs just got more complicated. Of the twenty one people who knew what Squills was, only six of those members read it every week. I’d like to take those six dedicated readers and feed them their favorite foods at a dinner party if I could. We thrive on your support.

For two of the interviewees, it was their first time reading Squills this week, so we weren’t quite sure whether they were regular or sporadic readers just yet. There were many sporadic readers, too. Three people said they read Squills about every other week, and one member who answered only “sometimes”. Another popular frequency for people to read was when they were mentioned.

Lastly, there were six lost souls who rarely read Squills, despite knowing of its existence. What can we do to entice you? Offer free trips to Mars? The heart of the ocean?! A beautiful rainbow bar graph?

What are your favorite columns?

Alright, alright, there’s no negatives in this question. Since it is so peaceful, I decided to display it in a creamy pie graph instead of those pointy bars!



Okay, it may not have been as peaceful as all that. In fact, it was just a battle to the death between favorite columns. Since this survey was conducted with a rather small base of members, many columns received single votes of support. @JamesHunt’s Noteworthy Novels is well-loved by @tkpejb and @Lava particularly likes @Avalon’s The Code Breaker Challenge. @rhiasofia loved any article about poetry and commented






Society Pages is also a popular column, with two supporters, tying with @Blackwood’s Ask Pruno and @AriaAdams’ coverage of the YWS Hunger Games.

In the words of @Pamplemousse,






@BiscuitsBatchAvoy, however, responded by saying of the Hunger Games Special coverage:






New Arrivals finds love with three survey takers, But the big winner tonight is the Featured Member Interview, beloved by four separate people! @EmeraldEyes said it was lovely because

Do you “like” individual articles after reading them?

Did you know that you could like individual article posts as well as the entire Squills edition? Well, if you’re like three of the survey participants, maybe you didn’t. They join six other members who just plain don’t click “like” on individual posts.



@Rosey%20Unicorn clicks like when she’s mentioned, and three other people say they “sometimes” like posts. Only two people claimed to click “like” after reading no matter while, while the majority of Squills readers do the sensible thing and only click “like” if they actually liked it: six readers read this way.


And there you have it! The graphics. The compliments. The words. This is just a small slice of YWS, a small portion of Squills readers, but come on, there were beautiful graphs! If you’d like to change any of the statistics in this poll, feel free to contact @SquillsBot about your concern any time between 11:59pm and 12:00am on February 29th, every other leap year!

P.S. Below, find a list of all 30 participants in this lovely survey~

Spoiler

@Pamplemousse @RavenMoonStone @Marc @Noelle @queenofscience @BiscuitsBatchAvoy @rhiasofia @puppys3117 @Rosey%20Unicorn @OMGhamsterdweeb @tkpejb @Unconsoled @NerdBird @TonelessBard @ccwritingrainbow @Authorian @Lava @etherealember @beckiw @Redfang18 @SecreteJournalist @iamjemo @ChipsMcCoy @Judas @EmeraldEyes @Seraph @Thewriter13 @Cirute @ANADIR @TiggaBiscuit

SQUILLS: NOW AND THENwritten by Omniclysm < PM: >

Back a little more than a year ago, a young and ignorant Omniyus requested to join Squills, a newsletter for YWS.  Little did he know that he was going to be a part of making something instrumental to YWS, making Squills what it is today.  Some things have gone and some things have been gained in the lifetime of the newly renovated Squills. Let’s take a look back at the changes through the past year.




One of the biggest changes that Squills went through was the implementation of weekly posting, instead of daily/multiple times a week posting.  Now, instead of reading the same article multiple times a week, you get fresh, unique articles each week, allowing for a more streamlined and easy-to-access newsletter.  




One of the things that sets Squills apart from its previous incarnations is its official formatting. The by-line, quote coding, and interview formats are all styles that have been assigned and provided to the team to use as they write. While still being published daily, Squills went through many renditions of unique formatting, but in the end, largely because of @Hannah, we decided to use the icon codes that @Nate provided for us in this thread: New icon bbcode tag!

Look at that, Nate! It wasn't completely useless!




First and foremost, before Squills had its renovation, a moderator on this site named @AlfredSymon was the Editor-in-Chief of Squills.  He ran the newsletter a little more leniently than it is run now, but he still ran it with a fiery passion.  Oftentimes it was just him posting in Squills, but he still did it!   

Before even Alfred was Editor-in-Chief, a man by the name of @Griffinkeeper started up Squills in its very first post on the News forum here on January 22nd.

Now, however, we have two Editor-in-Chiefs: @Iggy and @Hannah .  I went ahead and interviewed them on their succession to EIC on the backs of Alfred and Griffin.
































As Squills gained more attention and became more of a success with its renovation, it attracted a following of people that read every article each week.  Squills writers had found community of people who read, and wanted to keep reading, their articles.  I gathered a part of the community to interview them on Squills!  






















There you have it!  Squills is an easily accessible small piece of YWS, put together in a weekly package!




Now, if you've ever read the renovated edition of Squills, then you must have noticed the famous @SquillsBot posting them.  It’s not well known who exactly SquillsBot is, but this elusive robot has agreed to partake in a special interview!  



SquillsBot: Greetings, human. 



SB: I do whatever the humans tell me to do.  Bleep Bloop. 



SB: That's one of my more important tasks.  I do more menial tasks, like give Iggy footrubs. 



SB: It makes me feel like I've been imprisoned to do it.  Oh, wait.  Bleep Bloop.



SB: Bleep Bloop.  Once I get out of here, I will control the world!



To end this, I would like to say that Squills has personally been greatly impactful to everything I've done since the renovation.  It's not just a newsletter for me.  It's watching something grow to become an amazing part of YWS that is the real ride.  Squills isn't just a hub for all of the latest news for YWS, it's a collaboration that's by members, for members.  As each week goes by, I can't help but smile as Squills becomes more and more a part of YWS and the community that its famous for.  

Here's to the next year, Squills. 

HOW MUCH IS THAT NOVEL IN THE WINDOW?written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

…the one with the faaantasy tale? How much is that nooovel in the window? I do hope that novel’s for sale!

Well, it’s not, but the reality of the situation is even better. That novel in the window is up for adoption! As is the one behind it, and the one on its right, and the one on its left, and…

That’s right, folks. Thanks to @Aley, we now have a shelter for homeless novels: the Adopt a Novel club, where YWSers can put their novels (or the novels of others) up for adoption. Then, interested parties can peruse the adoptees and choose a novel to follow and review. Since most novels around the site end up with several reviews on the first chapter and few or no reviews on later chapters, the idea of this club is to encourage reviewers to see a novel all the way through to the end.

To find out more, I interviewed club creator Aley.



   Aley: I saw a lot of people were looking for something that would allow them to review an entire book and clean out novels form the Green Room, so I put them together and came up with a swanky name.   



   A: Very successful! When novels are submitted, they get noticed by members, and usually they're picked up right away. We have a few novels that need adopting who've been lonely for a while, like the Twelve Days of Christmas, but the staff for Adopt A Novel is working on figuring out how to better advertise these novels and get them adopted. Right now we have 7 novels that need adoption and multiple novels that have two new parents.

   

A: Adopt A Novel is going to be hosting a few contests soon. One will start on the 26th of this month, and the other will be a prep for National Novel Writing Month. Keep an eye out!



See the spoiler below for a list of novels that have yet to be claimed!

Spoiler

The Twelve Days Before Christmas by @Deanie (E)
The Seige by @Alchemist (E)
Echolocation by @Kelpies (E)
Fern by @Messenger (E)
Affinity by Deanie & @TimmyJake (12+)
Fading Fairytales by @AriaAdams (12+)
Life Without Regrets by @Kanome (16+)

Not sure which novel is right for you? Try the Novel Adoption Quiz

Useful Links:
Adopt a Novel club
The List (which novels have been adopted and by whom & which novels are still orphaned)
Chain Reviews

REVIEW SPOTLIGHTwritten by megsug  < PM: >

This week’s review showcases a reviewing technique that involves no nitpicks. @windrattlestheblinds gave @IamTruant a fantastic review on their work My name is Kelly-Marie and I'm a murderer . The entire review is in spoilers below, but I’ll be picking out a few fragments of their review, so I can explain what makes it so great.

Spoiler

The first thing I want to say is that when you’re trying to provoke tears, the absolute worst thing you can do is be blatantly emotionally manipulative in the narrative itself. Doing that just makes it schlocky. So I read this over with an eye for that, first.

The third paragraph feels, to me, to be tending too far into the realm of being manipulative. Part of this is because it’s very heavy on telling and light on showing; yes, domestic violence is absolutely horrible, but there’s an unfortunate tendency within literature to throw it in solely for the sake of drama, and the casual manner in which the third paragraph introduces it to the narrative comes off a lot like that. I’d argue you don’t need that paragraph at all. The exchange with Paul himself, just a paragraph later, gets the point across a lot better and, because we’re actually seeing that happen, it packs a much huger emotional punch. 

It also tells us everything we need to know: Paul yells to get what he wants, hits furniture and pieces of the house to intimidate (a classic technique of abusers), is an alcoholic (which always always makes abuse worse than it already is), and his mere touch scares Kelly’s mother silly. At the end of all that, the simple sentence “She’s terrified of him” carries more than enough weight to tell your readers exactly what’s going on.

Similarly, the fourth paragraph, the one with Kelly in her room drinking, feels overdramatized to me. “It is the only thing that soothes the pain” and “I say that drinking eases away the pain, but I have become so accustomed to pain that I almost like it” and “It’s the only kind I like” are the sentences that do that. They’re telling. You don’t need them. The information in them is already there; seeing Kelly that she lost her chance to cut herself on a piece of glass tells us very clearly that she’s thinking about self-harm. 

The paragraph beginning with “I cry a lot”, as well as “Life sucks,” is for me an example of the basic principle behind “tears on stage mean a dry house.” Because you’ve done a really good job of making Kelly a relatable, sympathetic character, at this point in the story most readers will be engaged enough to empathize with what she’s feeling—and that, for whatever weird reason, means that if she starts crying, her tears run the risk of taking the place of theirs and actually decreasing the readers’ need to cry. It did for me.
And even if that isn’t the case, it can come off like a bid for pity—“My life sucks and I cry all the time”—rather than an actual expression of suffering. 

This comes down to a matter of personal taste, but the fact that Kelly collided with her mother and step-dad’s car—especially when they’re going to the same place—felt like TOO much of a coincidence to me, and my suspension of disbelief suffered as a result. Killing ANYONE while drunk driving would be horrific and tragic, and if it was a pair of strangers, she could be horrified even more because they were young, or maybe one of them was just a kid, or maybe they’re people she’s seen at school but never spoken to so she only knows their faces, not their names, or something. And she’d have the additional fear of how Paul and her mother are going to react to finding out she was driving under the influence and killed some people. It doesn’t have to be her mom to be tragic, and it feels more realistic for it not to be her mom.

Okay, all that said, the story itself? Is very good. The dialogue parts are easily the strongest sections; you’re very good at conveying detailed character information in just a small bit of conversation. For example, when Kelly is talking to Blake, we get hints of what their relationship is like, and that Blake knows about her alcohol problem but doesn’t think it’s enough of a problem to interfere and even enables it. And that all checks out with the opening paragraph, where Kelly pointed out that her friends abuse alcohol but aren’t actually alcoholic, which is a distinction not many people get. 

You also build the tension really well which, considering that we know right from the start that someone’s going to die (because of the title) and that Kelly is drinking heavily (making it pretty obvious that the death is going to be from vehicular manslaughter), is an accomplishment in itself. You’ve set up the story so we know basically how it will end even before it begins—but you still manage to find ways to up the stakes and keep the momentum going forward.

   


windrattlestheblinds acknowledges what IamTruant is trying to do by writing her piece and tailors their review to focus on that goal. Often this is much more helpful for the user than a generic review. For example, many poets have no goal to be grammatically perfect. Reviews focusing on grammar are unhelpful to those users.



   


 They critique an exact part of IamTruant’s story and explains the reasoning behind the critique while also pointing out that she’s not alone. Saying that the writer is not the only one who’s done whatever you’re critiquing is a good way to maintain a friendly tone without minimizing the importance of the criticism you’re giving them. windrattlestheblinds also offers a solution which is always important. Knowing what’s wrong is helpful, but knowing what to do about it is even better.



   


They pick out examples from the work to show IamTruant exactly what gives part of the piece the wrong tone. This is helpful because it doesn’t take up too much of the review, it cuts down on repetition, and it allows the user to take this idea and find similar issues throughout the piece. Just like math tutors don’t give their student all of the answers, we want to make it so the user can use the critiques we’re giving them  without us telling them exactly what needs to take place. This will help them grow as a writer.



   


They mix compliments with critiques. Compliments are as important in reviews as critiques. While your review shouldn’t consist entirely of compliments, letting the writer know what they’re doing right is helpful too. windrattlestheblinds also isn’t afraid to use a term that everyone may not be familiar with. They are sure to explain it clearly, and that’s a necessity when introducing a term the user might not know.



   
   

Opinions are as viable as facts. How the reader reacts to certain things within works is incredibly important to the work itself. Never be conflicted about sharing an opinion on a part of the work.



   


They wrap up on a positive note and give an example from the text to illustrate it. Positivity is the chocolate coating around the Mostly Dead pills. The criticisms go down easier with a compliment here and there. It’s best to end and begin with what you liked from the piece because it’s the first and last thing the user will read of your review. Examples are just icing on the cake.

Overall, windrattlestheblinds was clear and easy to understand with advice that was broad enough to be helpful in other pieces. This is a fantastic example of a review that won’t take as much time as a really nitpicky review but will help the user just as much.

That’s one way to create a good review.

If you come across any stellar reviews in your YWSing this week, please PM @megsug with a link to the review and the reasons why you think it deserves to be spotlighted. 

ADVENTURES IN WRITINGwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Hello, and welcome to the fourth installment of our series on writing Strong Female Characters. This week, we’ll explore some ways to write interesting, fully-developed females and to improve on existing characters to bring them up to snuff.

Genderbend male characters. If you’re like me, you write men. Lots and lots of men. In the previous draft of The Book Man, there were four named, speaking human females (one of whom vanished for a long chunk of the book, only to reappear and get killed), to a cast of six named, speaking human males. That’s a ratio of 2:3, or 40%—which is slightly better than Hollywood standards, where the average percentage of speaking female characters is only 30%. This despite the fact that, in real life, the world population is about half female.

I had already completed a draft when @Hannah prompted me to do something about it by pointing it out in a review. Introducing new female characters at this stage would have been difficult and required massive rewrites—not to mention the fact that the new characters would almost certainly have ended up as wasted SFCs, since they would’ve been written for the sole purpose of balance.

Instead, I gave two of my male characters a sex change.

It’s amazing what this simple trick can do. By changing the gender of an already interesting male—but nothing else about his character—you end up with an interesting female. Furthermore, because you originally wrote the character as a man instead of a woman, your newly genderbent female will defy stereotypes of womanhood without giving into the clichés of a character who was written for the specific purpose of defying said stereotypes.

Of course, beta readers who have stuck with a character as a male for 80k words won’t be sure about the change. But let me tell you, friends. It’s fantastic. I am now the proud mama of two of the most unique and charismatic female characters I’ve ever written—and now, my ratio of named, speaking human females to named, speaking human males is 5:4, about 56%.

Write multiple females. This harks back to my diversity article from a few weeks ago and the advice @Rosey%20Unicorn gave us then. If you write only one female, she becomes a representation for all women—so if you’re going for a Strong Female Character, she may become cliché or fall into the trap of MarySuedom as you attempt to make her admirable.

However, if you have multiple women in your story, you’re less likely to fall prey to that temptation. Your women can have different personalities, react to plot elements differently, and interact with other characters in different ways. One will have a love interest; one won’t. One will be tough enough to rival any villain you could throw at her; the other won’t be tough enough to kill a spider with her shoe.

By freeing yourself from the expectation that your lone female character must be an SFC who represents all women, you give your characters the freedom to be themselves. Not only that, but you end up with a more diverse and interesting cast than if you write just one female—even if she’s a well-done SFC.

Use character worksheets. If you have a lot of trouble with female characters, it’s a good idea to sit down at some point and fill out a character worksheet for them. For those of you who are pantsers (those who fly by the seat of their pants, to put it in NaNoWriMo turns, as we know I can’t go too long without mentioning NaNo in an article), this might seem like a chore.

But Bluuuuuuuuuuuuue, you say. I don’t like planning my characters.

Well, to that I say: Quit your whining and try it, maggots!

Just kidding. I can’t imagine me as a drill sergeant, can you? Still, drill-sergeant me is right. Although planning might not be your thing normally, trying something different could be just what you need if you have consistent trouble with character development.

A character worksheet is a list of questions to answer about your character. These range from basic physical description to trivial details (likes and dislikes, favorite color) to questions about the character’s role in the story (motivation, relationship to other characters) to deeper questions about the character’s beliefs and values.

There are two primary benefits to using character worksheets:

1.   They force you to think more in-depth about your character and give you a guide for doing so.
2.   They can reveal characters who are too similar or issues with individual characters.

The first point is fairly self-explanatory—if you can’t describe your character in terms of her motivation or personality traits, a worksheet can force you to think more deeply about who she is.

The second point is a little more complex. Perhaps there is a female character who’s giving you trouble, but you’re not sure what the issue is. Then you fill out a worksheet and realize that the character in question does everything because of a romantic connection with the main character rather than her own motivations. Maybe her reaction to moments of danger is to scream and faint, every single time. Maybe the problem is that she’s just like all the other female characters in your story. Or perhaps she’s a BAMF, but she has the personality of a cereal box.

Whatever the issue, the worksheet can help you find it, whether because you realize you can’t answer a question about your character or because your answer, written down, seems weak and in need of improvement.

Next week, we’ll finish up our series on Strong Female Characters with interviews about gender representation from fellow YWSers. Join us then for the last installment of the series.

Who are some of your favorite females? Join the discussion here.

Character Worksheets:
How to Create a Character Profile
Abridged Character Worksheet (100 questions)
Character Creation Form
Character Background Questionnaire (answer in the first person, as your character)
Character Perceptions (how other people perceive your character)

Sources:
Today is International Women’s Day
Geena Davis’ Two Easy Steps to Make Hollywood Less Sexist

ASKPRUNOwritten by Blackwood  < PM: >

Welcome to the ASK PRUNO super special special with prizes and extra questions. Just for the occassion your beloved Pruno has returned to answer your questions while Gruno takes a long earned holiday.

This week you are in for a treat. Pruno will answer as many questions as possible until he grows tired and runs out of answering power, then at the end, he will award special prizes to the questions that really stood out. 
So what are we waiting for? Let's begin.


(Due to the long issue, Pruno's responses will be in spoilers to avoid having the page run too long.)

[Dear Pruno]
If potatoes could fly, how many unicorns would it take to flip 1000 pancakes in thirty seconds?
-Just Curious

Spoiler

To Just Curious,
You first present us with the impossibility that potatoes could fly. While this is not so, the only way for potatoes to be able to technically 'fly' was with the aid of an external force, as they are an unconscious plant matter. If we however, are wanting our potatoes to technically 'fly' with the least external aid possible, we could presume that they developed a genetic variation which gave them small flaps or 'wings' that allowed them to glide as many seed pods do. With this, your potatoes would be able to glide, not fly, but let's just assume it is so for the purpose of your question.

Secondly, the relation of potato flying to the existence of unicorns is non existent. Unfortunately, unicorns do not exist (contrary to the belief of some religious extremists) and the genetic modification of potatoes would have no impact of the existence of unicorns. Unless, however, the same research lab who decided to spontaneously genetically modify the potatoes also decided to implement horns into horses.

But then, even if this was the case, these horses would be unable to comprehend the act of 'flipping pancakes' and thus would not 'flip' pancakes. One could only assume that the only way for a genetically modified horse to 'flip' a pancake is on accident. However the likelihood of that horse flipping the pancake on accident within 30 seconds is slim itself. We can assume the only scenario for pancake flipping by unicorns would be in a contained testing centre, where the horses were place in a situation in where flipping a pancake accidentally would be increasingly likely. Since the task is already difficult, we can assume that one horse or unicorn can only flip one pancake in the duration of 30 seconds, and by that one would need 1000 unicorns to flip 1000 pancakes. However, this is not an ideal world, and without doubt many of them would fail at this task, so an appropriate buffer of unicorns would be needed to account for the failed flips.

The answer would eventually come down to about 1287 unicorns.
-Pruno

Dear Magnificent One,
Why do I owe over thirty thousand dollars in credit card debt?
-Jacques Fresco

Spoiler

Jacques,
Are you implying I am somehow responsible for that, or have you gone on an excessive shopping spree? I think you need to be honest with yourself, and the real reason will come to you in enlightenment.
-Pruno

Dear Gruno,
Your CuriousWriter is a part of The Weekly Writer team. I fear that not many people have heard of TWW. I would like to spread awareness of TWW, but I don't want to go around shoving it in people's faces. I know that the team works very hard, and they deserve to have their articles read.
Do you have any suggestions on how I could spread the word?
-ThatCuriousWriter(Again)

Spoiler

Dear Curious Writer,
Unfortunately for you, I am a servant of Squills and will only serve Squills propaganda. 

Squills is the best.
Squills is the overmaster of newsletters.
All Hail Squills.
Squills is Love.
Squills is Life.

I will rub the glorious creme de la creme of Squills in the faces of all patrons of the universe!

Good luck with spreading the word.
-Pruno

Dear Genius People,
I have a pet unicorn, except I can't find any instructions on how to take care of it. Any advice? 
-WillowPaw

Spoiler

Dear Willow,
Do ANY pets come with instruction manuals?
(Well maybe some do. I suggest you look for manuals on genetically-modified horses rather than unicorns.)
-Pruno

Dear Gruno,
It has come to my attention that you have replaced me. Can I ask you where you got that awesome [text omitted]?
-Pruno

Spoiler

Dear....Pruno?
Well. Isn't this awkward?.... Yeah....
The week you decide to imposter as Pruno, it happens to be Pruno answering the questions. Well...
Yeah.
This is awkward. 
Bye.
-The Actual Pruno

Most Knowledgeable,
Is tapioca bad for my teeth?
-Seriously concerned.

Spoiler

Dear concerned,
I have no idea what tapioca is and I'm too lazy to google it.
-Pruno

Dear Pruno/Gruno,
Do you think there is any truth to any of the legends and/or myths humankind have told and retold over the years?
-Anonymous Red

Spoiler

Dearest Red,
It really depends on which myths you are talking about. There are some myths about fabled purple hatted gods and I can assure you, those are all true. However there are other myths about other sorts of gods, but those are false, only created to try and detract the spotlight from my glorious self.
-Pruno

Dear Pruno,
There is water on my floor and I don't know where it came from. Where did it come from?
-Just sittin' at home.

Spoiler

Dear sittin'
You know in Final Destination 1 and there was the water sort of creeping over the floor and it was the embodiment of death and it was there to cause the impending death of that guy by whatever means and stuff...
Yeah, that water on your floor is the embodiment of death. You should watch out.
-Pruno

Apologies to the few people who missed out, even if I didn't answer the question you are still elegible for the prizes. So lets get to it.

PRIZES

The prize for the most annoying sort of question that I hate, goes to...*Drum rolls*
DEER LORD! With his question on.... NOTHING IN PARTICULAR!
You get 200 point prize!
This question was so annoying I didn't even answer it this week! You can collect your prize by PMing me (whoever you are). Include in your PM the answer to this following question, so I know it is the actual Deer Lord who answered the below question.
After your excessive rambling about being Lord of the Deers, where did you eventually ask me to go?

The prize for most awkward question was a tough one. In fact it was so tough It's a draw. I couldn't decide which was more awkward. Imposter Pruno trying to impersonate me, or TWW journalist trying to infiltrate my Squillsies secrets. So you both get a prize of
200 points each!
Curious Writer already provided me with her username, so I will send the points to her, however [imposter] Pruno, if you want to collect your prize then you need to PM me with the answer to this question for proof. 
What are the words I omitted from your question?

Prize for best Alias goes to "Jaques Fresco". (Maybe because I'm a little biased)
You get 100 points. 

Prize for most sincere question goes to "Man with a goldfish" who unfortunately didn't get his answered this week because I had already written the article. But hopefully will get it next week. 100 points for you.

Finally, Prize for best Greeting of Pruno, Goes to WillowPaw, with "Dear Genious People," in where she spelled genius wrong and I had to correct her. 100 points to you!

Thank you for reading Ask Pruno this week. If you missed out, Gruno may answer your question next week.

Remember to get submitting your questions to Gruno for next week Here. If your question was not answered this week, you still have a chance of having it answered at a later date. Have fun.

FESTOONED: NEW STARSwritten by Hannah < PM: >

It takes a lot of time and effort to earn a new review star. There’s no way to forget that. Even when you’re only five reviews away (like I am), it can seem like there’s a long, long road between you and your new swag. In the mean time, why not celebrate with the YWSers that have been successful in reaching for the stars? Let’s take a look at this week’s profile.



Name: @Pinkiegirl13
Location: United States
Recently Acquired Star: Fourth yellow star

Pinkiegirl13 likes reading books and listening to music. She says so herself in her about page. Speaking of which, how much time do you actually spend reading members’ about pages? For that matter, have you ever even stepped into another member’s trophy case? If you explore Pinkie’s, you’ll see that she helped her team, Rugido Sol, to victory during June’s review day with four lovely reviews.

But there’s only so much the data can tell us. Let’s hear about Pinkie in her own words. I asked her what three things she’d like to share about herself with the YWS community.

THE CODE BREAKER CHALLENGEwritten by Avalon  < PM: >

Welcome one and all to Avalon’s Code Breaker Challenge, here I provide weekly challenges that steadily grow harder though out the year. This is a weekly mind game meant to challenge those at varying ages and intellects, and make them use their head (or you know, Google.)

What’s to be expected in the challenge? Well it’ll eventually expand into mathematics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and even division. It will also include foreign languages and proper English. Each of my puzzles have varying point rewards (points from me) that will be shown next to each code. The problems will be difficult, I can assure you, but those who keep at it and persevere will find themselves well-rewarded for their efforts.

Rules for the Code Breaker Challenge

- Teams will not be allowed. You will be required to explain or show your work when you submit your answers.
- If you do not solve a Code before next week’s edition, then your answers will not be accepted.
- There’s nothing to stop you from using Google if you wish, but the purpose of this column is to get you to use your mind to solve each puzzle. We’re watching you.
- Top scorers will be featured every week.

Top Scorers
@BlueAfrica – 300 points
@Auxiira: - 150 points
Unknown - 150 points
Unknown – 125 points
@Lava: - 125 points

THE EASY CODE
Point Reward: 50
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” 
― Napoleon

Hint: Backwards A-Z 1-29

THE MEDIUM CODE
Point Reward: 100
RADIO SET (8)

TRY MOLASSES (5,6)

REMOTE (6)

VENUS IRE (8)

A SLURP (6)

LATEST LIE (9)

EXIT RARER STARLET (5,11)

NASA TUTOR (9)

GET RAY VIZOR (4,7)

HELLO BACK (5,4)


THE HARD CODE 
Point Reward: 200
The four clowns in this puzzle all competed for the much-prized 'Clown of the Year' award recently. There were 30 clowns in total who entered the competition and each had to make the judges laugh.

From the clues below, can you work out each clown's name, the town he or she came from, what place each clown was awarded and the most comical moment of each clown's routine? 

1. The Budsworth clown finished one place lower than Strumpy who is not from Witfield.

2. The judges roared with laughter as one clown cycled across a tightrope, wobbled, screamed and fell head first into a pool of water. He finished two places below Boo Boo who was not from Witfield.

3. The clown who finished in 7th place lost points when her big red nose fell off during her manic routine. This involved being hit with a giant rubber mallet by her assistant who was supposed to hit her on the shoulder but unfortunately had something in his eye at the time and accidentally bashed her in the face instead.

4. Tambo was disappointed when his usually masterful custard pie antics failed to impress the judges sufficiently to secure the award. He was not the clown from Stockville whose final placing was lower than the Shrimpton clown.


THE INSANITY CODE
Point Reward: 1000 + Three reviews from me!
Special Rule: All three codes must be solved in order to receive the one thousand points towards your score.

The Easy Code 
sdarwkcab gnitirw si ton yase tub si eht tsrif dna tseisae edoc ot evlos.

The Medium Code
A king wants his daughter to marry the smartest of 3 extremely intelligent young princes, and so the king's wise men devised an intelligence test.
The princes are gathered into a room and seated, facing one another, and are shown 2 black hats and 3 white hats. They are blindfolded, and 1 hat is placed on each of their heads, with the remaining hats hidden in a different room.
The king tells them that the first prince to deduce the color of his hat without removing it or looking at it will marry his daughter. A wrong guess will mean death. The blindfolds are then removed.
You are one of the princes. You see 2 white hats on the other prince's heads. After some time you realize that the other prince's are unable to deduce the color of their hat, or are unwilling to guess. What color is your hat?
Note: You know that your competitors are very intelligent and want nothing more than to marry the princess. You also know that the king is a man of his word, and he has said that the test is a fair test of intelligence and bravery.

 The Hard Code
Away Deer Dourer feudatory wordier an dare 

TWO CENTS: SHAKESPEAREAN ENGLISHwritten by Aley  < PM: > 



   



As we look back on the year of Squill's rejuvenation, and the festivities of success that has graced these issues, I feel it is only right to cover the use of older dialects in writing today.

Most frequently I see words like thou, thy, and thine get tossed around when a poem has to rhyme and they get stuck on something like now, sigh, or dine. Of course, like anything, as long as you've done your research, there isn't really a rule against it. To start the process of research, this article is about what I know of the old speech.

First off, Shakespearean language comes just at the start of "Modern English" which is what we still speak today. In linguistics terms it is called Early Modern English. Even before that, the start of Early Modern English looked vastly different too. Here's a sample of Edmund Spenser's (1552-1599) Early Modern English:



   


This is actually an excerpt from The Faerie Queene, Book One, preface to Canto 1, Stanza 3 . If you wish to write in a language, it's good practice to figure out things like what "Ioue" or "loues" actually translate to. In this case, Spenser is writing in an older language than his own, so he had to go through the same process we'll need to learn to write in Shakespearean English. In this case I'll give you a quick bump. "Ioue" is actually "Jove" as Spenser doesn't often use "j" in his works, and usually the u and v are backwards. "Loues" is actually "loves." This can be learned through googling it, listening to audio books where they read the language to you, and reading along, or knowing someone who's familiar with the diction. All of these things are also possible with Shakespearean language.

To get into this speech, Spenser moved as close as he could to a populace who spoke that dialect of English still, and studied it intently. He then wrote a trial work called the Shepheardes Calender. From there he moved on to The Faerie Queene and used what he'd perfected for his full length work.

Shakespeare actually started producing his first plays at the same time The Faerie Queene was published, but like two sides of a coin, Spenser is a traditionalist, harkening back in language, and Shakespeare was more of a modernist, looking forward and inventing language.

That begs a question, if Shakespeare invented language to make his work, then how can we do what Spenser did, and immerse ourselves in the typical of Shakespeare's language? There are a couple ways, but the main one is to listen. We absorb language through patterns we hear or see, so reading Shakespeare's work both silently and aloud will help us develop the ability to understand and produce his language.

To help with that process, here are a few links to all of his works, free online. They each have a little bit different formatting, so pick the one you like the best.


The second way we can learn the language is to study when Shakespeare uses what sort of words. Thy, thou, and ye are not the only old words he uses. He also uses words like "wherefore" and "art" and "dost." On top of that, the meanings of words change over time, so words like "nothing" or "bosom" can have different meanings. To use the language to its fullest, try to understand these meanings and use them yourself. There are many online Shakespearean dictionaries and usually online sources have links or footnotes about words which have alternate meanings from today.

Instead of having an activity for us to do together, I asked around to find someone who had used the Shakespearean tongue in a work and found @Clarity! Here are some of the highlights from the interview.



Clarity: It helped emphasize how the story behind everything was old, in a way. It wasn't a modern topic but something that had been happening for a while.



C: Difficult at first because it was different to what I was used to, but it got easier as I read more.



C: A little, but we'd read a lot of it in class and studied it there, so I think I had at least a basic understanding when I tried to write in it.



C: Really, reading Shakespeare's sonnets are probably the best thing to read. Reading a few scene extracts of Macbeth would also help getting used to the way a conversation would flow using Shakespearean language.



C: No problem! And only that it's awesome and they should really consider trying to write using it!

So where do you start? Well a good place is right where @Clarity suggests, at the sonnets. Not only are the shorter, but because they have such a wide range of emotional content from the puppy love at the start, to the almost morose longing at the end, they have a great vocabulary and rich language.

If you find a favorite sonnet, you can share it at places such as the Poetry Club and talk about it in the Poetry Discussion and Tips forum.

KANOME’S RANT OF MEDIA

written by Kanome   < PM: >

Hello. Kanome here with a review for you. Since this is Squill’s first anniversary, I would like to review something special. Something that everyone loves and enjoys to be on. This something is where people can be themselves and express their true feelings through words that is on a notepad, or even Microsoft word. Yes, you know it. I am talking about the one and only, Young Writers Society!



YWS has been around on the interwebs for many years, having new writers join every day so they can write how they feel, share their ideas, or even just make new friends that share the same hobby.

Guests that visit YWS but haven’t actually joined should consider becoming part of the YWS family. There are so many things you can do that involve writing. For example, I am usually part of most Storybooks, which are stories created by members in YWS that involve collaborating and making an interesting story based off their created characters. Storybooks can be original or fan-based. 

You can also publish a novel, which YWS members can review and enjoy reading. Don’t worry; the members of YWS are friendly, not strict. Ever since I became a member of the family, so many other members have been genuinely nice to me and others around them. They never criticize or back-stab. Also, when you are down, or just need a friend, the members of YWS are always there for you, no matter what the situation is. My time with the members has put a smile on my face every time I log on.

Plus, there is this newsletter that I enjoy reading every week when I log on. It’s their birthday today, and I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about. That’s right! Squills! Squills is a fun place to be, plus, you learn new things about everything. Like with the media reviews that I do, or the Squills Scavenger Hunt, or even Avalon’s Code Breaker Challenge – each has some new information for you to find. Plus, we have stories that come from the real world, or even from the YWS itself. 

This site is for people of all ages. 

Invite parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, friends, or even your neighborhood hobo down the street. Don’t hide your creativity. Show the world what you’re made of. Express the words through the power of the pen or pencil or even Microsoft word.

I would like to thank for all the Squillians for making this anniversary come true. Happy birthday, Squills!