Young Writers Society

Hello, my name is Dahlia and I enjoy writing (obviously). I'm currently in Creative Writing and I enjoy it a lot. I love to read and I'll read anything that I find interesting which is quite a large range. My current favorite books are Invisible Monsters, Persepolis, My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, Fight Club, and Haunted. My favorite book series is Harry Potter (cliche I know, but I've been a follower of her books since the fourth grade). I'm also gaining interest in comic books/graphic novels. After seeing Watchmen trailers I've started getting into that and I plan to (hopefully) get the graphic novel soon and see the movie.

I don't have a really interesting life. I usually waste my time watching TV shows such as House MD, The Office, Law and Order SVU, Psych, and Monk. Or watching action/comic book/book adapted movies. Or reading something random. I'm a member of the Academic team at my school and my allotted specialties are Literature/comics/potpourri which I'm really happy about. I love reading. At the moment I'm reading Frankenstein for English (which I'm enjoying) and if I don't get the Watchmen novel soon I plan to read Lullaby, a random Picoult novel, or something off of list of frequently mentioned books for quizbowl.

I also like to write in my spare time. I don't really have a genre I guess...but I prefer to write fictional prose. I hate writing poetry because I feel that I'm terrible at it and I usually end up throwing my poems away. I'm by no means a prolific writer...I tend to write at random. I get writer's block a lot, but creative writing is really helping me to write more even though my teacher tries to keep a balance between prose/poetry assignments. Bleh.

Well...I'm done rambling. Sorry this was so long.

Hey Dahlia! Lovely name, by the way. It has such a pretty ring to it.

So, I see that I have the privalege of Greeting you first! Well, let me officially welcome you to the wonderful, magnificent land that is YWS. Here, we strive to improve your writing skills and help you learn everything their is to know about reviewing other people's work.

See how my username above my avatar is purple? That means I'm an Instructor. We are the people you can go to whenever you're in need of a review, and you can count on us Purps to give you thoughtful critiques that will be of help to your writing.

Those Blues are Greeters; they're the ones to call when a new member such as yourself has a question or needs some help getting around YWS, It can be a huge site at first, and seem very intimidating, but just PM those lovely Blue Greeters and they'll help you immediately.

The Greens are Mods, who keep everyone in line, and Reds are Admins, the rulers of the site. ^_^ You may go to them if you have major issues, but not before.

Alas, now for the rules !

-----No chatspeak! This means you must type out every word; no 'plz' or 'thnx' or uncapitalized 'i luv u'. We are a site for literary excellence, and we prize our grammar!

-----Also, we have a strict 2:1 ratio here. This means that for every piece of your writing that you post, you must have reviewed at least two other things contributed by other members on the site. It keeps our economy working!

Harrp Potter! We all love Harry Potter. You'll find a lot of people who share your interests here at YWS, don't worry!

See you around, dear!

~Evi

Hey Dahlia! That's such a pretty name. Welcome to YWS!

Somebody likes Chuck Palahniuk! My favorite book by him is Invisible Monsters by far. If you like him, I'm really interested in seeing what things you write!

This is a really great website for young writers -- your writing will improve, and you'll receive great constructive reviews and meet many other writers. I know since the time I arrived, I've gained sooo many insights on my own writing and I know for a fact I have improved. It's just so obvious. Of course, I'm not amazing, but writing is hard and there's a lot to the process!

There's a lot of great ways to meet people on this site. First, there's the community forums, which has so many topics I can't even begin to detail them all. Then there's the Usergroups, where you can join a group that focuses on something that you're interested in and talk about it with other members. There's so many groups, I'm positive at least several groups will have interests of yours in it! Also, we have the Blog section. Personally, I'm in the blogs all the time -- each member gets a blog, and depending on whether they have it as private or public, other members can view and comment on it. Taking part in all these things can help you get to know people, other writers, really fast. =)

As for me, my name is Clo -- I'm an Instructor (as you can see by my purple name) and I'm here to help you with any writing problems you may have! I'm available for reviews, so always feel free to PM (Private Message) me for any help!

I hope to see you around the forums!

Yours truly,

Clo

We're TV show sisters! I love all of those. And, a ha! Another Chuck Palahniuk & Marjane Satrapi fan? Excellent.

*cough* Okay, proper welcome now.

WELCOME TO YWS!!

So! As Clo said, this site is so great for getting feedback and insight on your writing. Besides reviewing, there's also the Knowledge Base (under Resources). It has all sorts of handy tips for writing fiction and poetry, grammar, research, and even on YWS. Link:
writing_tips.php

Also, we like it when you rate your works! As long as they're not rated R, rated works will show up on the front page, too, so it's cool for everyone. It should be R if there's bad language and/or graphic scenes.

Gosh, I love your name too. It's so pretty; I don't think I've met anyone named Dahlia before. Anyway, don't hesitate to PM me if you need any help/a review, and I look forward to reading your prose! (and poetry, maybe, someday?)
-Mars

Yay! I don't know a lot of Palahniuk fans nor Satrapi fans! At my school everyone's still on a Twilight high or reading Sarah Dessen.

Thanks everyone for helping me. I'm very appreciative. I'll review something for you guys if you wish - I like to give feedback on works. Just tell me if you want me to.

Hello there, Dahlia and big, huge, warm, fuzzy welcome to YWS!!

I'm a fellow Harry Potter lover too - you just can't beat them!! =P There's a Harry Potter usergroup called the Hogwarts Express that you may be interested in joining (I'm a member of it), and loads of other groups. If you just click the link at the top of the page named 'Groups' and you'll find a long list of usergroups!!

I'm with you there on poetry, although, unlike you, I don't even attempt it, so well done for trying it!! You never know, maybe this is the site that can help you out with your poetry? In the Community Forum, there's a Subforum called 'Will Review For Food' with lots of people willing to review stuff for you - some even specialise in poetry!! Just make sure you have a big bag of cookies to bribe them all with .

Well, I hope you have a great time here, and I hope to see you around some time. PM me if you have any questions or want a review
--Lucyy xx

Hello, Dahlia!

I have to tell you this – your name made me think of my first piano teacher whose cat name was Dahlia It's a lovely name!

So, welcome to YWS! Nice to meet you! I'm Demeter, and I'm one of the Instructors, too! You've gotten a lot of Instructor greets but there's a reason for it. You see, us Instructors and the blue Greeters have switched places for this week. So Greeters are out there reviewing and we're here greeting!

You seem like a great addition to this big cuddly family of ours! So welcome again You'll come to notice why so many of us are addicted to this place...

A great way to learn to know people is the Chat, but it's not always open. So it's a place worth checking when you notice there is someone there!

Well, I hope you love your time here, and PM me anytime you feel like it!

See you around!


Demeter
xxx

Hi Dahlia! Glad to see that you've decided to join YWS. We're always happy to have new people come in and join our community. I'm Conrad Rice, one of the Instructors here. If you have any questions, just send me a PM and I will endeavor to make your YWS experience as smooth as possible.

You like Fight Club and Haunted? I love them! Palahnuik is an awesome writer. You're going to have to tell me about Lullaby if you read it, I haven't gotten around to it. Oh, and Watchmen is made of win. Graphic novels don't get any better than that.

You guys do switchover days? That's interesting. How often does that happen? Oh, and random question who are the people with orange names? Are they like a combination of everything haha?

Thanks everyone. It's nice to join a writer's forum.

Yay! You replied back! Some noobies post a welcome thread with two words about themselves and then disappear off of the face of the planet. You've passed the first test for remaining loyal to YWS!

Orange people are Distinguished members. That means that, even though they're not really active in the forums any more, they still left their mark on YWS nonetheless. If Mods become too busy to devote a lot of time to the site, they oftentimes become DMs. That answer your question?

~Evi

EDIT: Oh, and this whole Blues and Purps switching places? That doesn't happen very often. You've just come during our epic battle week, and it should end on March 7th or 8th; I can't remember which. It's a special time, and a crazy time to join!

I can't see why. I think this site is a lot of fun.

Thanks for answering that. Tehee...I just realized that you could scroll down and it had a description there though. Another random question: I want to review something, is there a specific way to do it? Should I do grammar and stuff. I see that people use "quote boxes" to fix grammar and what not...

EDIT: Another question...the point system...do you get to buy stuff with them or something? I don't understand...

Hey Dahlia! Welcome to YWS!

I'm June! Sorry my welcome is so late , my fellow writers have covered mostly everything already.

Ah, you ask about reviews?


Well! There's no specific rule to follow in reviewing, and you will sometimes here people talking about critiques and reviews.

There's not much difference between the two, honestly.

A review can be brief; it's simply just a summary on the story, what you liked most, and you offer positive feedback in it. Just follow what you think is best!

Critiques are generally lengthy. Instructors are those who offer critiques, because they don't mind sitting for hours reading fun literature and being helpful.

In critiquing, we normally read the story, and the point out any errors we noticed. That's when we use the quote box; So that the author can see their error as they wrote it.

Should I do grammar and stuff. I see that people use "quote boxes" to fix grammar and what not...

Yes! It is very, very helpful to the authors around here to point out grammar errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors and all other mechanical errors. As the authors of stories, our eyes can often "skip" over something that only the audience will notice.

Then, we offer an "overall" at the end of our reviews/critiques; an overall is simply a summary of all that needs to be improved. You can also provide suggestions on how to improve the piece. Critiques take a long time, but they are definitely worth it!

If you would like a review/critique done on your work, you can ask for one here in these boards: forum188.html

Also! The more reviews you have, the higher your review count goes. The higher your review count, the more stars you earn. Review count is displayed on both your profile and beneath your name when you post on the boards, but stars are only displayed beneath your name/avatar.

Here's the basic legend for the star system:

Yellow/Gold

5 Reviews = 1 Star
25 Reviews = 2 Stars
75 Reviews = 3 Stars
150 Reviews = 4 Stars
250 Reviews = 5 Stars


Blue Stars:


350 Reviews = 1 Blue Star, 4 Gold Stars
450 Reviews = 2 Blue Stars, 3 Gold Stars
550 Reviews = 3 Blue Stars, 2 Gold Stars
650 Reviews = 4 blue stars, 1 Gold star
750 Reviews = 5 blue stars

Red Stars:

850 Reviews = 1 Red Star, 4 Blue Stars
950 Reviews = 2 Red Stars, 3 Blue Stars
1,050 Reviews = 3 Red stars, 2 Blue Stars
1,150 Reviews = 4 Red stars, 1 Blue star
1,250 Reviews = 5 Red stars



Also! This reminds me of our ranks. The more posts you have on here, the higher your rank goes. Here's how we roll:


New Member: 0-4 posts
Novice: 5-14 posts
Junior Writer: 15 - 49 posts
Writer: 50 - 99 posts
Senior Writer: 100 - 249 posts
Novelist: 250 - 499 posts *
Speaker of the Forum: 500+ posts
Master of the Forum: 1,000 posts.


* - At novelist, you have permission to have your own custom title; a custom title appears beneath your name; you can change it as much as you like.


Hmm... it seems like everything else has been covered...

Oh! We have blogs here! You're welcome to open your own to ramble and rant whenever you need to . You can also comment on other people's blog entries.

We also have Squills, our E-zine. It's published every few months, and when a new issue is about to come out, you may have the chance to write for it!


Also! In the community forums, you'll find the Lounge and Randomness. Those are two epic forums-- you get to see how slightly crazy we can become!

And! We've got usergroups-- clubs for those members who share a common interest.

Pft! You do have an interesting life! I mean seriously-- you watch cool TV shows, and you sound like a pretty good writer. What more can you ask for? I certainly look forward to seeing your work around here .

Well! If you have anymore questions, post them here in this thread, or feel free to PM me!

Welcome aboard, Dahlia! I'll be keeping an eye out for your work!

June

Oh! The points system!

That's mostly for motivation, really.

You need points to make a new post-- you need 150 for each story/poem you post, but you get 50 back in return. So, basically, you're only losing 100 points, but you need the full 150 to post. (However, it costs 500 to post a novel in the Advanced Critiques forum)

You get points doing reviews and greeting new members. The most points you can get per post is 50; you can also donate points to other members if you want to in return for reviews and such.

The points also help in choosing the new featured member; the most helpful member with the most points is usually chosen for the featured member.

But! That sounds slightly unfair. Suppose one person had a zillion points for the longest time?

Our dear Admin, Nate, came up with a solution! The points are reset to 300 every few weeks, so don't get too attached to them! It's fun to stock up on them, but you'll lose all but 300 every few weeks.

So, to answer your question, you spend your points on a post in the literature forums . It's kind of fun, actually, because it motivates other members to review more and greet more .

Haha, I hope I'm not confusing you! This sounds like a lot to remember, doesn't it?

Anymore questions?

June