Hello there! I just joined the community and would be greatly appreciative of any tips anyone can give me regarding the site. I'd love to get to know some people and read some new pieces. If anyone can tell me how to follow other members I would be really psyched as well...
Hi here! Welcome to YWS! Tips on this site? From what I learn from being on here, would be kind and be helpful around the community. Also to follow some members, you go to their profile and it will say 'Follow so and so'. You click it and it will you say 'you are following so and so!'. They can follow you back first or vice versa. You review for points, which you can use to publish novels or poems or whatnot. I hope you enjoy YWS! if you have any questions, just ask a person in green or me!
Okay, so first you thing should notice when (you're feeling like mingling) are the tabs. Besides following a member (also known as Yewis), you can join a club (or create one). Just head over to the Club section by clicking on the respective tab.
After you follow a few people you'll be to filling you feed, which is on the People section, with all sorts of adorable (and awkward) randomness. Once you start feeling lost while scrolling through other people's walls... well, don't worry, that'll mean you're one of us now
Oh, there's also the blog section, but it might be too early for you. What you should focus now is on getting your first Review Star. There's a lot of perks, like using the chat, creating a club or... giving cookies (yeah, that'll be it). There's the Storybooks section, but I'm not covering that. You have the Books, Shorts and Poetry tabs, but you can also look up "All literary" section, where you can look for your beloved Fantasy Article/Essay (I didn't made that up, there's all kinds of stuff in there, and when I mean "all", it's literal).
Okay, the "All literary" section might be too much for you know, so head over to the "Green Room" (the tab on the right) if you want to earn some extra coins points. You can earn more 50% for a work there (being there actually means they have less than two reviews), but you should aim for the Oldest ones. Three days old or more means 75% more points, and the longer your review the more points you can get (100 max is the default for a review with more than one review).
You can also check individual members' walls and profiles for a link/list of works. When you find something you think you'll like, you can either review or comment. Just make sure you check the "Is this a review?" before you start writing.
About reviewing, there's a lot of study on that field, like the famous The YWS Critique Sandwich, but don't dig right into it. I'd go along with @Tuesday on this:
be kind and be helpful around the community
You must give your all, but that doesn't you can't take it easy, relax and take a long, long time to get the fifth review. But from that one on, it's up and up till the next star, and the star after that, and... you get the idea.
Right between the Home icon and the "All literary" section, there's a gear icon. Click that to go to the Settings Dashboards where you can tweak some features in a way suitable to you.
One thing you might have noticed is that people here use a lot of code. Everything here is BBCode except for the Works you publish (HTML, can get a bit trickery). I'll let you in a little trick. If you click the Reply with quote button (right on the corner of this post) you can look at the code (I actually had to write it like that) so you can learn from it by comparing. You can also check The Big Book of YWS Codes if you feel like it. Sometimes you'll have to write your drafts in the PM editor, but you'll (probably) get used to it...
If you don't feel like reviewing, you can also wonder through the forums. Just check the stickers (the threads pinned to the top) before you post.
I hope you'll like it here. There are new members in their mid twenties, and older ones on their teens, but we're all Young Writers so don't be afraid of interacting (in a safe way, just check Internet Safety).
Thanks for reading this *gives everyone a cookie* Phew!
There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.
welcome to YWS bro/sis (Pls tell gender so I know which to call you)! I' sure you'll enjoy it here. Pls tell me your fav reading/writing genre. Mine are sci-fi, dystopian and fantasy. Oh and pls tell ur age @sCrAwL unless you really don't want to. See you on the forums! Oh, and I totally agree with what dracula said. I'm often on those forums too.
Thanks everyone for the much needed advice! I'm so glad to have finally found such a welcoming and supportive writing community and look forward to reviewing and writing with all of you. I am definitely going explore the site in a deeper depth now that I know (relatively ) what I'm doing, and will "mingle" to the best of my ability. I'd also really appreciate any suggestions or feedback on my first and latest story, "Gossamer Hearts." Thanks once again!
P.S. @LordZeus My favorite books are usually fantasy/fiction, mystery, or autobiography based. Do you have a current favorite book? Mine is "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel; it's a post-apocalyptic book that kinda has a little bit of a deeper, philosophical side to it that I admire. I highly suggest you check it out.
Gender:
Points: 448
Reviews: 3