The YWS Event Calendar

So you've just joined this writing site and they're throwing around all these acronyms and everyone's talking about something called LMS and you want to know what's going on? I've got you! Here are regularly scheduled events with links and a short summary as well as some descriptions / explanations of our recurring events. Add them to your calendar too and watch for updates. Also if you see any reoccurring YWS events we missed, feel free to add a note in a comment to this article and we may incorporate them in the official list.

December & January

We have a few recurring Holiday Events held most December / January so these months are lumped together with an explanation and link to recent years below. Usually there's a general Holiday Event Thread (recent link) where all the events are collected and advertised.

Most and Best Awards - A yearly awards ceremony organized to appreciate members, their achievements, and their works, where people nominate other members or even themselves for some awards. These range from serious to very silly. For example: Best poem, best novel, and fun titles like Most Classified!

YWS Yearbook - It's like your old-school Yearbook, but for the Young Writers Society! This is a place where you can grab a spot and share your favorite moments and memories from the year! Everyone is invited to make a post regardless of how long they have been a member, you'll look back on your post next year with a smile ^-^

Secret Santa / Worst Gift Ever - Secret Santa is a wonderful and legendary event organized every year where those who choose to participate are assigned a person to give a gift to. You get to make and receive gifts anonymously from the members of YWS. The gifts are something that can be shared online, ex- banners, poems, art, gif or other creative things. The Worst Gift Ever Exchange is a fun opposite of Secret Santa where people gift each other the things they hate for fun. Usually the gifts are very humorous!

Draw me a Holiday Avatar - Some great artists of YWS take up the responsibility of creating some cool holiday avvies for the members, so you will find some amazing holiday themed avatars floating around YWS during holiday season! This event sometimes shows up during other holiday seasons too like Spooktober (October).

February

Social Month / Social Week - started in February 2022 as 'Social Week', Social Month has become an annual tradition on YWS, typically occurring throughout the month of February, YWS hosts a month of social/community geared activities for users to participate. Previous events have included contests, challenges, hashtags, tagbooks/roleplays, and mini-events and write-ins with an emphasis on community interaction. The event typically runs through February, with each crew (General Literature, Poetry, Resources and Community, and Roleplay) leading one week of fun, games, and writing activities!

March

Pre NaPo / Countdown to NaPo - we love National Poetry Month (April) so much here, that sometimes we do some pre-event planning and events in March! These events sometimes include gathering prompts, brainstorming, or write-ins.

April

NaPo: National Poetry Writing Month - April is all about poetry on YWS! Users are challenged to write 30 poems in 30 days (or another goal that fits with their schedule) and share their poetry in the NaPoWriMo Forums. Typically there are different contests (like April Madness, badges, write-ins, and challenges for writers to participate in all hosted by Poetry Crew.

Camp NaNo: Camp National Novel Writing Month - Sometimes people do a mini or just Spring version of NaNo in April.

May

May-Haiku - Since May is the 5th month, it is celebrated as "May Haiku Month". This is almost like a more chill version of NaPo where users participate in popular Haiku writing activities or collections around the site and post Haiku poems on their walls.

June

The Great Tortoise Race - While every month reviewers have the opportunity to participate in Team Tortoise by reviewing every day, in June everyone is especially called upon to attempt this great feat and if you're able to write at least one review every day you'll earn a special badge!

Golden Goose Search - In the Summers of 2023 and 2024, a Golden Goose Search / Reviewing Challenge was held over the Summer months of June-August. Users were challenged to clear the Green Room to find the elusive Golden Fowl. link to recent search

July

Camp NaNo: Camp Novel Writing Month - Every year, besides NaNo which happens in November, we also run a few mini-NaNos called Camp NaNos. (NaNo is a short form for 'National Novel Writing Month') The aim of Camp NaNo is simpleː you set your own prose writing goal, and you work to achieve it.

Christmas in July - Some years YWS will have a "Christmas in July" event where we bring some of the joy of the December holidays into the Summer - users are encouraged to exchange gifts or even don some holiday apparel. Some years we have a designated "Gift Giving Weekend" or "Friendsgiving" with a competition of who can give the most YWS Gifts during Christmas in July.

RP Month - Traditionally RP Month or "Roleplay Month" is run during the month of July. Classic aspects of the event include daily bounty challenges, a tagbook storybook, RP workshops ran by RP Crew and other RP themed events. Members are challenged to start up new RPs and SBs and join in on the fun.

September

RevMo: Review Month - It's a YWS classic! Reviewing is part of the cycle that keeps YWS going, providing valuable feedback for authors and exercising our literary and editing skills. That's why on YWS we have a full month dedicated to celebrating reviewing with fun challenges, contests, and hashtags. There is normally a goal set (both as a site and for individuals) to encourage our members to try to do as many reviews as they can! Sometimes users can even earn limited edition username colors for their participation. Join the RevMo Club here.

October

Spooktober - This a spooky, month-long or week-long event between all parts of the site. The events change every year but can range from Halloween themed workshops, writing activities, Spooky tagbooks and contests are often involved.

Inktober - On other places on the internet there's been a challenge to artists to do an ink drawing every day in October. We actually have an area to participate in this on YWS too - though you don't have to be limited to ink drawings to join in. Activity usually takes place in the Inktober Enthusiasts club which has hosted Inktober participants every year since 2017.

November

NaNo / NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month - along with writers in other online communities across the world, YWSers celebrate NaNo in November where users often have a goal of writing 50,000 words or completing a Novel! You can choose goals to fit with your projects, but it's fun to write together and support each other's writing. Our YWS NaNoWriMo forum can be found here.

YWS Birthday Week - The Young Writers Society was created by Nate on November 14th, 2004. And on YWS we like to celebrate the site's birthday with a week-long birthday party! During this week we celebrate our wonderful community with various fun events organized by mods during this week!

Other Recurring Events

Review Day - Held typically the last Sunday of a month, Review Days are a time the site comes together to write as many reviews as possible in a twenty-four hour period. Sometimes there are Review Teams where we split members into teams for some friendly rivalry and each team elects a Team Captain and votes on a Team Name then works together to write more reviews than the other team(s). Other times, we hold team-less Review Days where it's every person for themself. Occasionally, we even offer prizes for the winners! See the February 2023 Review Day thread for more information. Winners are selected by the amount of points earned (rather than number of reviews written) and reviews only qualify if they are not Review Spam (users may be subject to disciplinary action if they participate in Review Spam -- please contact a moderator if you have any questions!).

YWS Olympics - You've heard of the Sports Olympics, but have you heard of the YWS Writing Olympics? Typically lining up with Olympic years, YWS will host a week of special challenges that users can compete in using a range of writing skills or even a scavenger hunt. Each event has an opportunity to win a Bronze, Silver, or Gold badge and at the end an overall Bronze, Silver, and Gold winner are awarded too. This is typically a Summer event. Here is our 2021 activity thread.

PlanMo / Plan Your Novel Month - Sometimes in a month that comes before Camp NaNo or NaNo (typically the month of October) our excitement for NaNo spills out, and writers endeavor to get ready for NaNo with different workshopping and planning events hosted. You can check out the 2021 PlanMo Journal Challenge here for an example of the activities.

LMS: Last Man Standing - LMS is an individual competition where participants write at least a certain amount each week. For prose, the requirement starts off as a minimum of 1000 words per week, for poetry, it's 14 lines per week, and for scripts, it's 60 lines per week. Near the end of LMS, it turns into a competition of who can write the most each week. LMS is a great way to motivate yourself to write.
Club link: clubs/1852/wall
Rules, Guidelines, and FAQs link: clubs/1852/forum/80058

LSS: Last Ship Sailing - LSS is a team competition based on roleplaying, where groups of people compete to write 2500 collective roleplay words each week. Participants first sign up in the Tavern (last time, it was this thread: LSS Tavern) and choose their crews. Then they start roleplays together! LSS is a ton of fun.
Announcement post link: Last Ship Sailing: Round III
Club link: clubs/3172/wall

LRS: Last Reviewer Standing - LRS is an individual competition where participants have to do increasing numbers of reviews each week. Week 1 starts off with one review, but the Review Challenge number doubles each week, so week 2 is two reviews, week 3 is four, and so on. It gets tough pretty quickly! Definitely a good challenge, though.

Camp NaPo: Camp Poetry Month aka Poetry Week - Camp NaPo or NaPo Week is just a mini version of NaPo! Typically it has fun prompts and challenges to go with the week of poetry. Read more here.

Friendsgivings / YWS Gift-Giving Weekend - These are organized once in a while when people on YWS give each other gifts to spread joy, appreciation, and reach the designated site goal. One of our recent "Friendsgiving Events" broke the most gifts given. Yay!

Write-In - A Write In takes place on Writers Feed Pad or a Rise-Up Pad and users can join to write, roleplay, brainstorm, or chat in the same document together. YWS Rules Apply and all users should rate their spot appropriately if there is language or mature material. You can post a link to your write-in here and all users are able to host these!

Poetry Jam - A Poetry Jam is a Write-In but with a Poetry Focus. Sometimes it features a specific poetry prompt, and if hosted during NaPo can even count towards earning NaPo badges. They are posted in the Poetry Jam Club: here