Young Writers Society

Count me amongst the fresh meat as well. A friend of mine posted about this place on her livejournal, so I took a chance and well.. here I am! Seems very interesting and exactly what I need, even if I'm hesitant to share my writing (not afraid of reviews, rather I'm afraid of theft -- but I'm a ridiculously suspicion person so please don't be offended =[ ). Regardless, you all seem to be really lovely people and I look forward to mingling and sharing things with you.

My name's Kristin, by the way. I mostly write stories that I guess have potential to be novellas or novels, and I'm almost done with my first novel. I started it last year for an Advanced Creative Writing class and was encouraged to keep going with it after the course ended and to seek a publisher when it was done, heh. I live and go to school in NY where I'm studying Asian and Asian American Studies, focusing on the Japanese and Korean languages (Japanese is basically my major with Korean as my minor).

Ummm, my favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, Jane Austen, Sylvia Plath, Francesca Lia Block and Edgar Allen Poe. My favorite books are Pride and Prejudice, Dance Dance Dance, The Bell Jar, Missing Angel Juan, White Oleander, House of Leaves, A Very Long Engagement and The Scarlet Letter. I've wanted to be a writer and have written for as long as I can remember and have spent many an hour during junior high and high school jotting down ideas and plot points in notebooks instead of paying attention in class. Now that I'm in university that habit hasn't died out completely, to the chagrin of my grades, but I've managed to balance the two responsibilities now.

I hope that's sufficient for an introduction post~ I'm pretty awful at things like that, because I hate talking about myself and it just seems really awkward and weird to me... um. Yeah. Happy to be here!

Hiya Mazo! Mind if I call you that? Welcome to YWS!

I love your avvie! It's very cute. ^_^ Is it just a coincidence that your name is Kristin and you have a Kristen Stewart avvie? o.O Haha, I just found that funny.

And you have two of my favorite authors as your own favorites! I adore the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Jane Austen. I like the stories from Jane Austen mainly because of the romance, and I like the creepiness Poe weaves into his prose and poetry. Haha, they kind of contradict each other, don't they?

Anyway, YWS just has a few main rules:

~Please rate your work. If there are sex scenes or the F-word, please rate it R.

~Please refrain from the usage of chat-speak and CAPs.

~Please review at least two pieces of work before submitting your own. This is the 2:1 ratio rule and it keeps balance within the forums.

Also, if you'd like a review done by one of our lovely and talented Instructors, please PM them from this link-

post580878.html#580878

If you have a question or would like a review, feel free to PM me.

Hey Kristin. Here on YWS I have alot of nicknames. You can call me Ellie, Thorn, Rose, TR or Teddy, which ever one you prefer ^.^

Anyway, that is really cool about your favorite authors. I've always wanted to pick up Jane Austen.
In your time here, there are a few awesome people you should meet.

Nate- He's the creator of the site.

Snoink- Awesome writer, mod, and organizer of a lot of contests.

Juniper- Mod, very friendly, does alot of important things.

Angels-Symphony - A lovely instructor and a great friend.

I'm sure they'd all be very happy to accept your friend requests. I will, too. I'm always open to new friends. Drop me a PM if you have any questions.

Hello Kristin! Welcome to YWS!

It's great that you're almost done with a novel. On YWS, we have a bunch of usergroups for people who share interests, or for classes or the like. You can find them at the top of the page, with the icon labeled 'groups'. In particular, there's one group called the Novelists, and it's for people who are writing or have written a novel. You can look at it sometime, maybe it'll catch your interest.

Anyway, nice to meet you. You're learning Japanese? That sounds great. I've been studying for more than a year and yet my grammar is still atrocious.

Well, I hope to see you around sometime. If there's anything you need, then you're free to PM me. See ya!

I hope it's okay to respond to these... Thank you all for the welcome! Everyone's been so kind here, that's such a relief


Selene (may I call you Selene?) - I don't mind being called Mazo XD That's actually a cute take on my screen name. And I didn't choose Kristen Stewart for my avatar because we share a name, but that's funny you mention it. I chose it because I found it funny how her face stayed the same in so many different shots. Bless her, she's a good actress regardless.

I feel the same way about Austen and Poe. I think Austen's romance is just about the only romance-y novels I can stand, while Poe is just so eerie or bizarre that I can't help but love him. Thank you for the link and the tips


ThornedRose - I started off with Austen by reading Pride and Prejudice. Some people found that to be a little.. blah so you could always try Pride and Prejudice and Zombies :3 The story is essentially the same, except the Bennett sisters are all zombie fighting Shaolin trained warriors. It's quite funny, and it made me like P&P a lot more after reading it.

I'll remember those names I appreciate your help!


WaterVyper - Thanks for mentioning the groups! I never would've thought to look for one based on interests or classes...

Good luck with your Japanese studies. I can't wait to start my class in the fall, as I transferred to this school in the spring and couldn't take the elementary level course just yet. I only know phrases and words, so my Japanese is very broken and probably laughable at this point but hey.. that's what studying is for. I wish you the very best :3



Thanks again~

Hiyas Kristin and welcome to the site!

Before I go on, I'm just going to tell you a bit about the different types of members on the site. They're all distinguishable by the color of their name, so I'll go ahead and start with that. ^-^

Black - Regular members (like you and me ^-^)
Blue - Greeters! These awesome people greet all the new members and make their start on YWS as easy as possible.
Purple - Instructors! They are the best reviewers on the site and help each member find their inner author.
Light green and dark green - These are moderators. Light greens are junior moderators and look over a certain portion of YWS, while dark green moderators are the real deal and look over a lot more of the site.
Red - Administration (Nate, Jack, and Mesh). They run the site and are all just plain awesome. ^-^

Anyway, let's get away from the boring stuff and back to you!

Austen is a wonderful author, though unfortunately I've only read Pride and Prejudice from her... It was a great book, though, and I look forward to reading more of her work. Since you seem to know a bit about her, do you have any recommendations? ^-^

It's amazing that you're learning Japanese. I know that's one of my goals, to at least learn a bit of Japanese, but it'll probably never happen. lol Especially since I've been learning French for three years... But, anyway, you'll probably do great. ^-^ Just don't go all Japanese on us, because I know I totally won't understand what you're saying.

You're almost finished with your first novel? That's great! May I ask what genre it is?

Anyway, I'm really glad to have met you. Just PM me if you need anything, and I'll try to help you as best as I can.

Smiles!
~Mira