Who were you so long ago?

Today is no special day. It is neither YWS' birthday nor mine nor Nate's. It is, however, the first of a month and the day following the first server migration in four and a half years! So, perhaps, today might just be a special day. It's also a special day because you are here, and you are part of a very wonderful online community. By that logic, that makes every day here a special day.

Reflection is good for the soul and I'm a hopelessly nostalgic human being, so I'd like to bring a little bit of that to YWS today. Who were you when you joined YWS? Did you go by a different username? Have you grown up significantly? What have you learned since your first YWS days? Did you discover a passion for poetry or found yourself suited to storybooking? I want to hear your story, so post below! Who knows, maybe this will develop into something more!

If you want to hear my story, look no further than the spoiler below.

Spoiler

I joined YWS when I was just thirteen and now I'll be twenty-one in a couple of weeks. Then, I went by LavenderBlue, and I was an enthusiastic young teenager who irritated the hell out of many users, I am sure. But then, we've all been in that situation, right?

I have grown into dreams and out of them over the course of my membership in this community. I have struggled through heartbreak and loss, and celebrated my accomplishments and adventures. I've logged into to YWS from Canada, Germany, France, and the USA – to name the countries I've lived in for extended periods of time. There is no denying that YWS is a site like no other, because the community is tight-knit and welcoming, and feels more like a village than an anonymous online forum. In my awkward teenage years, when I often felt like an outsider at my high school and in my world, YWS was there so that I could be myself and fully immerse myself in a world of interesting dialogue and creative minds.

Over the years, I have not always been active on the site. I have certainly taken my breaks, but there has never been a day where I didn't think of YWS. Writing will always be my one true love (don't tell my boyfriend), and YWS is strongly connected to that love. I've learned a lot from the users that have merely floated through and also by those that came to stay awhile. While I'll always consider myself a patron of prose, YWS was where I dabbled a little in poetry and storybooking and pushed my creative boundaries. I think I'm better for it, too. (I'm still really horrendous at writing poetry, though.)

Now that I am older, I am more independent and confident, which contributes to a life outside of YWS - something that I probably did have much of when I was in the middle of teenagerdom. Nevertheless, I am always here, always thinking of this place, and deeply protective of this place I might really consider a second home of mine.

Essentially, as the people I surround myself with in my life or the travels I undertake greatly influence who I am, my involvement with YWS has contributed to the formation of who I am today. It's cheesy, I know, but it's also the truth.

This is a lovely idea, Lavvie c:

I've always been Holysock by name, but I think it used to be pronounced differently, haha. When I first joined I was 15, and I didn't know much about the Internet at all. I was a lonely writing, who thought I was probably the ONLY 15 year old who longed to write a novel (*cough* naive *cough*). I could barely spell to save my live, and I used to put like three exclamation marks at the end of any given sentence with a smiley face so everyone would for sure know I wasn't being snarky or mean.

When I first joined YWS, I was afraid of writing reviews to anyone, but especially friends because I was worried I'd offend people. It took me a longggg time to realize you can tell the truth nicely and people will appreciate far more then a surgery.... I don't want to say lie but, something like that. Nowadays, I have a habit of making sure I'm heard if I feel I need to be heard. Even in person, which would have never happened before YWS.

YWS has giving me the skills to be a leader, of all things. So much of what I've learned on YWS I use in my everyday life all the time.

(I gotta go right now but I may be back because there's more sappy stuff about YWS to say <3 )

Why not.

Spoiler

I joined about two years ago under the name PhoenixGray, causing trouble here and there while lurking around in chat. That's all I did for awhile and I never bothered to explore the forums as Atsmai or Yams. I reviewed, but for the most part I wasn't active on the site as I am now except for in the chatroom. I joined without knowing boundaries or to be honest, knowing much at all. There have been a couple of aspects of my person that have stayed the same over time, though YWS changed me into who I am now. I'd like to think that person is better and learned a lot.

Saying the website changed me isn't exactly true. The people changed me. The people who I've encountered over time and made friends with and I've met so many people who have helped me find more out about myself. I'm grateful that those people were and have been patient with me seeing as I wasn't always willing to listen or change.

I'm still learning from the site and I hope that I can do the same that others did for me and help others out. I came to the site in pursuit of improving my prose and after awhile, I discovered an interest in poetry. The rest is history from there. I love reviewing and I love giving back to the site that gave me so much. That is, to be honest, why I do what I do.

There's a certain joy that can't be obtained anywhere else from someone that is grateful for a review that I've done or helping somebody navigate the site. I want to pass on what I've been taught and give all my love, because YWS deserves that much. I guess I don't remember who I was so long ago, but I'm glad that I changed into who I am now.

YWS taught me a lot about not only writing but life skills and how to grow as a person. Over time I've sort of used name changes as stepping stones to improve and with the transition from Kaos to Nikayla, I'm finally content with who I am. Doesn't mean I still don't have room to grow, I'm just more comfortable in this name than before.

Love ya YWS.

End sapfest!

Well, in 2007 I was Kitty15 or Kit or even K 15 to some. I came across from a site called The Young Writers Club with some bad habits and a few misconceptions about what kind of place this would be. I didn't come to stay and I'm sure a lot of people say that but at the time I really meant it - I came to ask the site owner (that would be Nate) to stop his members from advertising on the TYWC chatwall as the inundation of posts was crashing the site. I was an angry, passionate 17 year old who loved one place and one place only and how dare these people from a rival site invade my home.

But it didn't take long to see that there was something special here and in fact it was great to see a writing community which was thriving when I came from one which had all but died out. I first saw YWS as this aggressive ship come to edge TYWC out of the waters but in the years to follow, YWS became my lifeboat and while it didn't become my home straight away, I was made to feel very welcome.

I thought I was a very old and mature 17 - I'd been a moderator/ administrator on writing sites since I was 11 and I actually considered myself a bit beyond that/ had grown somewhat cynical (though that didn't stop me agreeing to admin for BT4T of course). YWS gave me a safe environment to vent and to eventually grow out of my teenage drama. It also has given me the foundation for how I conduct myself in a working environment and I have no doubt that I owe much of my success and my ability to communicate/ socialise with others in both professional and non professional situations to this site.

I've cried here, but more often I've laughed here and spent many a night (or early morning) in the chatroom and around the forums. I'm not around so much these days but I try to still help out when I can and YWS is home. That's the only word I need to describe this site.

I was Stegosaurus when I first joined in 2015. When I came here, I didn't expect to make such a big impact on people's life from in the beginning. Anyway, I did join during RevMo (which I beat surprisingly) and gained my stars quite quickly. Then when that was over, I slowly went into doing something more challenging and helpful to me writing novels: storybooks. In the beginning of this, I think I was in 16 storybooks (I don't actually remember but that's a rough estimate) and I did surprisingly good in that, too. From there, I made some new friends and got some fairly good ideas for some my own storybooks (some of them didn't go off or died off) and novels (including Madly and some others).

I think after some time I changed my name to Steggy because it was simpler and most people were already calling me. Anyway! I got more into doing things around the site, like welcoming people and such. I did come from Wattpad (and haven't gone back since thank god) and I realize that YWS in different in many ways and with each way, I love it more than before. Then after Steggy, I went from Dinosaur then back again to Steggy, then after a short month break, I came back and became Dino, which is the person I am today.

I believe in the future that there will be changes that we aren't ready for and changes that are have to be ready for. With those changes, I think we will all have learned that YWS is like a big family (yes, I know that sounds sappy but whatever) and I'm proud to be apart of it. In any case, don't change YWS (emotionally and stuff, not like program wise); continue being the greatest writing site I know.

It's time for me to also get sappy and talk about my love for this site.

Spoiler

A little less than two years ago, my dad noticed how passionate I had become about my writing. I had already written a very rough draft of a self-insert novel, and I was in the middle of writing several different fanfictions. He did some research and discovered this site.

And that was the start.

I settled on the name TheLearningWriter. I had wanted something original because this would be the place for all of my original writing. (A view that has changed considerably since then.) The irony was that my username was inspired by someone's name on Fanfiction.

It took me awhile to adjust to how the site worked. My reviews were admittedly horrendous, and I was hesitant when it came to posting the few original works I created. I tried acting the way people did on Fanfiction - they were the only examples of online interactions I had really gotten a chance to see.

Roleplays also occupied a large majority of my time on the site. I eventually discovered the beauty and fun of storybooks, and I've been writing and joining them ever since. (I still haven't been in a completed one, but I'm hoping to change that in the near future.)

Then came my time as Magestorrow. I was still trying to understand who I was on here and as a person, and that was where my positivity began. It continued when I shortened my name to Mage. I don't think of those two usernames as different periods of time. They just blurred together. I became more dedicated to the site and spent more and more time on here. I met lots of amazing people that I'm still friends with. At the end of January, I even became a moderator.

YWS definitely has helped me change for the better. I'm still learning who I am as a person and as a writer, but I know that YWS will always be a constant when I feel lost.

Even now, nearly two years later with a new name and a rough draft of a new novel under my belt, I still feel the same love and appreciation to the site as I did when I first joined.

When I first joined this site in 2012, it was under the username FallenAngel97. I was 14 years old. I don't remember how I came to find this site, but I instantly fell in love with it. I was constantly writing and doing reviews and I had big aspirations of actually becoming a published author someday. I told all my friends about this site and made new friends here and it was just really great. Then, life happened. My mental health rapidly declined and I found myself facing the worst writer's block I had ever experienced, thanks to my depression. I abandoned all of my dreams of becoming a writer, and left the site. Between the time I left and the time I came back in 2015 as InfiniteRectangles, I had many ups and downs. I fought depression, anxiety, and psychosis. I occasionally logged onto YWS to see if I could write anything, even just a review, but for a long time I just couldn't write anything. Finally, in 2015 I decided to get help and became well enough to write again. I rejoined the site and all was well for a while. I left again for several months while I had a relapse of my symptoms, but recently I've come back and hope to stay for good this time. I finally got over my writer's block and while I still struggle sometimes to write, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. I'm mostly mentally stable (for now) and I'm finally finding joy in writing again.

Anyway, that was my long, rambly story of how I got to where I am right now.

Well...

I joined the site 3 years ago (I still can't believe that) as unknown391625. I was only 13 years old and I wasn't greatest writer. I'm not the greatest writer today either, although, but I did, and of course I still do, have a great passion for writing. I remember that I really wanted to write books, but I wasn't the best person for staying on long term tasks like that. Of course I learned new things and I learned somewhat of a basic knowledge on how to write poetry.

The past two years were somewhat of a blur. I remember one week I would be a very avid member, but then the next week I wouldn't even visit the site once. I decided to take a hiatus, in 2015 and somewhat 2016 I believe? Not sure, but I just was busy. I would pop on a few times to check how everything was until I finally decided to make the commitment of being here. I really enjoy it. I mean, ya know to others it's just a site, but to me and a lot of other people on the site, it's our passion. It's something that can make us and break us. It's something that molds us as humans and a community, whereas we can write things together and someone across the world can read what we have to offer. Thinking about it, it's really amazing and beautiful. I'm glad I found this website to share what I have to show you and make new friends. I love you all.

When I first joined in 2015 I went under the name of MadWriter7. I knew I wanted to be a writer ever since I was 12 when I wrote a crappy remake of the Hunger Games. I was thirteen/fourteen when I joined. I didn't understand poetry, I didn't like poetry, and was adamant that I would never ever write it (since I couldn't and still can't rhyme). I was also super sensitive and passionate. I would often get into trouble with mods (even once went as far as PMing Nate and oh god I still cringe at that) and people who reviewed my work (how dare they not praise me!). I gave reviewing advice when I was a horrible reviewer which got me into trouble and that sucked because to this day I avoid talking about review advice (for some reason people are really sensitive about review advice or at least I've noticed that they are so I just don't talk about it) I think a lot of people might still feel irritation towards me because of how I used to behave. I used to suck at receiving criticism, like how dare these people write extremely long reviews and vocabulary that I don't understand and condescending writing tell me what I need to do (I didn't realize that reviewers were people with opinions and good intentions). I was naive and I wasn't even a good writer. Though I was very sociable and would constantly being have eight different conversations with people on the chat bar. I quickly made so many friends and because of that my horrible novels got lots of attention (mostly because I would never shut up about them and always linked them to people in conversation). Then I began writing poetry. I don't remember why or how. I know that I had a conversation with some poet about poetry and how I would never write it. Then the next day I got an idea and that idea could only be expressed through poetry. That's where my first poem came from and that poem will be the death of me. It's the worst thing I've ever written. It's so bad. Please don't ever read it. I think I unpublished it because I cringe even thinking about it.

I changed my name to AliceAfternoon and began writing more poetry and less novels. I had gone through so many novels by then and you can look in my portfolio and see all those unfinished novels. I think my most popular one was Mad as a Hatter which is now called Death's Reign. Of course, there's New Haven which is the first novel I started but I think that novel is just popular because people liked me (or because they just wanted me to stop talking to them, hahaha).

Eventually I changed my name to marmalade because I loved the sound of the word and I wanted to be cool and only have one word as a username. I also found my poetry style around this time after writing "I Planted A Seed". And that's where I am now (a lot of things have happened outside YWS which has completely changed me as a person). I'm so much better at receiving criticism. I'm way more mature. I'm a better writer and I'm writing a novel that is going to get finished because it's my first novel with an actual message to be learnt from it. I haven't given up on it yet. And that's something.

I hopped on board the YWS train later than most old folks around here.

Spoiler

It was 2010 and I was already 19. I'd been on a different writing site whose name escapes me now, but I didn't get much out of it. So I went looking for a new writing site and found YWS on a "top 100" list somewhere.

I'm ashamed to say I started YWS life as the kind of person whose response to reviewers was "Thanks for the feedback, but..." (Sorry, everyone.) I mean, I wasn't a jerk about it, but I definitely wasn't as open and appreciative as I should've been. Which of course is the magic of YWS. I accept critiques with grace now and weigh the suggestions I've received, thank the person who left the review for me without caveat.

And my own reviews have become generally better - not to mention ridiculously prolific. (This summer, at least). KotGR: level unicorn, May 100, Team Tortoise in July, plus I'm pretty sure I did 100 reviews in April just because I was so close by the end of the month that I figured I might as well go for it.

(I'm sure I won't review that much normally, but while I have the time...)

I'm generally more active, which you can probably mostly blame (thank?) Book Man for. I had so many installments to post, and I would post regularly because my first draft was done, and I would write two reviews for each installment I posted. I still don't spend much time on the forums and none at all in SBs (sorry), but I'm more active overall.

I definitely do more as a JM than I used to (although not as much as other, better mods). I was originally on P Crew but retired because I just didn't do much. Once I started to really get active while posting Book Man, I returned as a Gen Lit mod. I joined Squills as a journalist, then a general editor, then Editor-in-Chief.

YWS has really given me a sense of accomplishment that most other areas of my life don't offer. And it's helped me through some difficult times, simply because it's a place to write it all out and because I know that it's a safe place for me. I know I can write about how I'm really feeling and what I'm dealing with without extended family seeing it and getting involved. It's improved my writing, and, I hope, my people skills (at least a little, but I still frequently feel really annoying).

So I rewrote that twice and it still feels dumb, but YWS has really been good for me, anyway. (Isn't it funny that when I was a teenager I could write about my feelings with no problem, even if the writing was technically bad, but now when I do it I feel stupid, even though the writing is probably better?)

So I joined YWS back in March 2013 at the age of fifteen... some four and a half years ago, which seems like an absurdly long amount of time. I don't think I was all that active until maybe December of the same year? This was when I really, really got into reviewing and I remember having multiple days where I pushed out 10+ reviews in the space of 24 hours. Which is something I never quite managed to pull off after that.

I have always been TriSARAHtops, and would never have the heart to change it (aka couldn't deal with seeing some newbie strutting around with it). It's a name that in some ways I feel as though I've outgrown, but mostly I am very, very fond of it, and it's a fundamental part of who I was in my early-mid teens, and who I am today.

I'd written dribs and drabs of projects prior to joining YWS (short stories for school, a couple of attempts at NaNo/Camp NaNo) but most of what I've written has been during my time here, and although this past year or two I've been pretty slack, YWS was such a big driver in getting me to write more than I would have otherwise.

YWS was always somewhere I felt comfortable to be myself, even though looking back is occasionally a little cringey, for the shy, awkward teenager that I was in high school, having this place to be able to express myself was so important. I did a lot of growing up and maturing over my time here.

I'm not around as much here as I once was, and wish I were more active, but YWS remains very, very dear to my heart.

Wow. So I've been a member of this site for nearly half my life.

Somewhere around when I was 14, I decided I was really into writing and a super-good amazing writer. I think I originally wanted to write fantasy stories, though I ended up writing more poems and lyrics. I originally joined writing.com around September 2004, but it's a really pay-to-play site so not the greatest for me. In late November, I saw a post from a guy name Nate on said site advertising his new forum for young writers. I wasn't sure about it at first, especially because it was so small, but I signed up as member #52.

Back then, I was really annoying. I posted way more literary works compared to reviews, and my reviews weren't that great. I mostly posted in what is now Randomosity and spammed people with smilies as a welcome "gift". I also posted probably way too much personal/identifying information. Over time though, I grew as a writer, focused more on poetry and lyrics, and YWS was a huge part of my identity (even though I didn't talk much about writing IRL).

In my undergraduate years, I was mostly off YWS and didn't really write creatively as much. I came back sporadically in 2012, I think prompted by mass PMs. However, my big comeback came in 2013, where I did 300 reviews, joined the ranks of Big Brother, and grew a lot as a writer even though I was supposed to be more focused on grad school (um...oops. ). Now, I think I'm more mature (at least sometimes), and my activity level comes and goes but I honestly have trouble picturing my life without this site.

Embarrassingly enough, before YWS I was writing fanfiction and super active in the Potter forums via the Leaky Cauldron, but my activity there was coming to an end as the last HP book came out and most of my fun there was in speculations c: I was tired of the fanfic community though and wanted to write my own stuff so I joined a few creative writing sites, along with a good writing and penpal friend of mine Ray112 and if I remember correctly, we both joined YWS together when I was 17 way back in 2007.

I was working on Star Crossed at the time which was my first completed novel that was my own unique characters and completely different from the fanfics I was writing before. It was a scifi adventure story about dystopian time traveling (this was before Looper and Hunger Games mind) but I remember I was hugely influenced by the Jax and Daxter ps2 games c: Even today, video games continue to be an endleas source of writing inspiration for me.

Anyway I finished Star Crossed in 7 months. Clocked it at 123k and found that I knew nothing of editing. So I began interacting with all the members. Writing and reading other's reviews. I started Uni not too long afterwards and in my moving, the entirety of my first draft was LOST thanks to a computer crash ;_; if it weren't for my friends on here, I would've quit writing altogether.

I made a compromise though. I started writing poetry as a bit of a break. It was shorter and also less stressful. I even joined NaPoWriMo for a bit of a break and some fun. My experience with NaPo here on YWS was what prompted my growth and eventual love for poetry and the poets whose writings have influenced me: bubblewrapped, kylan, dreamwalker, kafkaescence- among so many others, these guys really pushed me to grow and develop and view poetry and writing as a thing of craft and art, rather than just a fun hobby.

I devoted myself to learning craft and even took a few classes on thr subject. Though if I had to do it again, I would have spent more time writing for the enjoyment of it and less time worrying if I were any "good".

But from 2009 and forward, I started writing more and more poems as well as reviews (TEAM OSTRICH FOREVER) and even remember my first storybook where I got to play as a flash-esque super hero c; and met some wonderful friends along the way.

I think what kept me around for so long (amidst many a haitus thanks to university life and work life) was the community! Long nights on chat exploring the world views and antics of other writers, you couldn't beat that anywhere.

You guys are the best <3

Today I slip in and out of YWS and see other writers grow and develop and watch as they make friends here and I am overjoyed for them, more than that I am optimistic of the future, and counting down the days where I can snuggle into a good book published by one of the writers on here.

I was eight or nine when I joined YWS. I was introduced to this site because I was looking for someplace to write and express my ideas. A lot of people above have claimed that they were annoying or naive when they first joined, and I think of myself as no different. I would often get mad because people weren't reviewing my works or joining my clubs. Now that I look back on it, I cringe because my first two blog posts were just rants about how I wasn't "getting noticed."

At that time, I mainly wrote fanfictions, because Percy Jackson had a big influence on my writing. I always wanted to write like Rick Riordan, and most of my stories were spin-offs of his. I wrote a few poems that weren't bad but weren't good either. Short stories were mostly forgotten. I turned nine, then ten, and now I'm eleven. I'll be turning twelve in a few short weeks.

I'd like to say that I grew less annoying over the years, but I'm not quite sure about that. But people here accepted that fact long ago, and they've put up with me for about three years. I have so many good role models on here (saentiel, Sheytato, BlueAfrica, soundofmind, and Carlito, to name the bare minimum), and plenty of old friends from when I first joined (Iridescence, CuriosityCat, SkyeWalker). YWS has always been and will always be my favorite site in the world. Instead of distant members hiding behind usernames and avatars, YWS is a tight-knit community. At the risk of sounding cliche, everyone's friends here.

I've changed a lot, I might admit. I've been writing more and more poems, experimenting with capitalization and punctuation and whatnot. I've been in the literary spotlight some times, changed my name/avatar a little, and have evolved into the not-too-active-Lupa I am today.

I like this thread! <3 Going to join in on being sappy and talking about YWS memories.

Spoiler

So, I joined back in 2012 as a 16 year old. I joined for one reason alone, to find out what my sister (@tgirly) was writing on this site that she had been spending so much of her time on. I read through her poems and she suggested I write a few myself. The first poems I posted were woefully awkward and were inspired by what I imagined a poem should sound like. I didn't think much of my own work, but put most of my energy into reviewing on YWS.

I didn't have much of a passion for writing, as many other users on YWS did but I enjoyed the interactions I had in reviewing. I felt helpful and liked the challenge and collaboration of reviewing. I loved getting involved in the competitive side of YWS in Review Days and eventually in Knights of the Green Room. I've learned a lot about accepting and giving criticism from YWS, which has sometimes been difficult and other times really rewarding.

Eventually, I started becoming interested in the writing side of YWS too. I started seeing how poetry could be an outlet for processing difficult situations in life -- and a lot of my poetry reflected that. My early poetry is a lot of heartache, cliche, awkward break-up poetry and stuff about me trying to figure out who I am and who I wanted to be. I will always be thankful that YWS sort of introduced me to poetry as an outlet for expression.

Later I was able to take a poetry course in high-school and in college that gave me renewed appreciation for poetry as an art form and a craft. These along with countless critiques I've received from other users have vastly changed the way I review and write from when I first started. Along the way, there were times I was very inactive on YWS and times where I've jumped back into YWS. Becoming a junior moderator this last year, has made me want to interact a lot more on the site and give a helping hand where I can.

From when I've first started, I've finished High School, finished college, and am about to start grad school in a few weeks. I've went from someone who'd written like 5 poems in her life to someone who wrote 30 poems during NaPo. My poetry still is sometimes awkward and cliche, but I'm proud of how far I've come. When I joined YWS I didn't expect that I would ever consider myself someone who enjoyed writing poetry, I never imagined I'd be a junior moderator, or that the site and community would become such an important part of my life.

I'm very thankful to be part of the community of the Young Writers Society and I'm thankful for all I have learned being part of this site.