Young Writers Society

We all love YWS. It is a special place on the internet where you can find other people with a shared love of writing. Whether you are here to receive reviews on your novel, read poetry works, or collaborate with roleplay, YWS is a community that welcomes everyone and encourages everyone to be creative. We may have all stumbled on to YWS to share our writing, but we often stay for the community.

Last year we celebrated Social Week for exactly that: our community. This year we will celebrate it again, but this time for a whole month!

During the month of February, there will be new prompts and challenges that will encourage conversation, discussion, poetry, silliness, chaos, and more!

For Social Month, we are celebrating the community on site! There will be challenges that promote conversation and joy, and this spreads across all areas of the site. Each week will have new exciting challenges and wall post prompts, hosted by each of our crews:: Roleplay, Poetry, Resource/Community, and General Literature.

Here's how Social Month will work:

Each prompt or challenge will be introduced in this thread and in wall posts. Participation is easy: simply follow the prompt or challenge to get involved! It will involve posting on other's walls.

We ask that you include the hashtags included in the prompts so that we can link all that kindness together. Feel free to share as many wall posts as you'd like (without spamming people's walls). Let's fill the site with poetry, kindness, and fun! If you'd rather share a different type of poem on a friend's wall, that's okay too! These are just to get you started.



This year there are 2 Badges you can win during Social Month!

* Social Month Socialite - You can't do anything to earn this one but you can help other people earn it! Just give them a nomination over in the Nominate a Socialite Thread - give a shoutout to someone who you've appreciated during Social Month. Nominations are accepted until February 27. Link to Contest Thread.

* Social Month Participation Badge - We love your contributions to YWS, no matter what area they're in! That's right, during Social Month to earn a badge all you have to do is participate! Complete any 10 of the events throughout the month and then log them over in the Social Month Participation Thread to claim your badge. Participation can be as simple as participating in a hashtag challenge or an entry in any of the activities that are happening. Have fun! Entries open until February 28. Link to Contest Thread.

Check back in here if you have any questions. Make sure you subscribe to this thread to see the weekly updates!

Welcome to the first Social Month challenge! This week we'll be focusing on the roleplay section of the site, but first, we're going to kick off with some ~chaos~ and fun!

Let's play truth or dare! To participate, set your status up with hashtags #truthordare and #socialmonth. Commenters can post a truth or a dare for you to choose from, or they can comment those options on your wall. Remember to keep this only within YWS, and all site rules apply.

This challenge will last for three days. Check back on February 4th for the next challenge!

Congrats to everyone who completed the first Social Month challenge! But don't worry if you missed out on that one. We've got lots more fun coming up, and this week, it's all roleplay themed.

Create a roleplay meme! For this challenge, post a meme about a roleplay you're in with the hashtag #rpmeme and #socialmonth as your status. Feel free to tag the other people in the roleplay when you share! Remember to keep them appropriate, as site rules still apply.

Bonus points (well, the bragging rights kind) if you make them for an LSS roleplay. We'll be back on February 5th with the next challenge!

Another Social Month challenge has come and gone-- but don't worry if you missed it, because we've got more roleplay themed challenges heading right at you for the first week!

Talk and post as your character! For this challenge, make posts from your character's point of view, respond to other posts in one of your character's voices, and learn what it's like to live a day in the shoes of them! Use the hashtags #ocforaday and #socialmonth. You can use characters from roleplays, personal novels, short stories, poems, anything!

If you want to go above and beyond, use a character from LSS if you're participating, and leave some info on your character in spoilers so others can learn a bit about them! Be on the lookout-- we'll be back February 6 with the next challenge!

February 6

Week 1

ARRRRRRRRGH MATIES! Enough lolly-gaggin'! It's time to go back to RP's roots on YWS with some good, ole-fashioned pirate speak! That's right! Today's challenge is to hear the call of the sea (or is that scurvy?) with the hashtag #pirateforaday! Use this hashtag to speak your love for pirate language with as many ARRRRRRs as your heart can handle!


While you're at it, you can continue the love for roleplays and pirates by sending words of encouragement to the Last Ship Sailing Ships, which are currently roughing their first week at the seas! Linked below:



Bonus Carina nickels if you speak like a pirate while doing so

Congrats to everyone that's participated in Social Month so far! Roleplay Crew has had a blast leading the charge this week and we've got one more roleplay-themed challenge for you today before Poetry Crew takes over tomorrow!

Fire up your inner poet! For this challenge, your task is to write a poem about a character -- it can be your own OC or you can write poems about your friends' characters as well! Use the hashtags #RPpoetry and #socialmonth. Feel free to use characters from roleplays, personal novels, short stories, poems, anything!

Welcome to week two of Social Month: Poetry Week!

Poetry Crew has some great activities and challenges planned for you this week! Subscribe to this thread and watch out for wall posts for more information on the different activities we have in store.

• Share a Smile: Encourage and support your fellow users on the site, whether they're experienced poets or are just dipping their toes into the world of poetry. Challenges are ongoing, so you can do them anytime during the week, though we will be highlighting a few on different days!
  
  
  • Poetry Shoutout: Let's share some smiles around the site by recognizing poets that have made us smile! If you see a great poem in the publishing center, the people tab, or in the forums, please give that poet a shoutout with the hashtag #poetryshoutout during the poetry session of Social Week. You can also add your praise in @starlitmind's Report a Good Poeter Thread if it's an extra special poem. Let's spread some encouragement to each other!

• Get in on the Conversation
  
  
  • Jump into the Poetry Forums: The forums are a great place to test the poetry waters and find new challenges and prompts. Here are your threads for more poetry fun during Social Month: Haiku Train, Write the Worst Poem Thread, Tanka Train, Poem Spot, Prompt Attack, One Word Poems, and more.
    
  • Poetry Readers Discussion Opportunity: Have you heard of Amanda Gorman's famous inauguration poem The Hill We Climb? It is truly a remarkable piece of history where writing took the center stage to make an impact. Join the Poetry Readers Discussion on Friday, February 11th (6 pm EST) for a discussion of the poem led by @alliyah. We'll host the chat in a WFP writing pad; no prior preparation is needed, and all are welcome to join in! Poetry Readers Club will post the link when it's ready.

Freindship Poems

The best poetry is poetry shared with friends, don't you think? And sometimes poems are even better if they're chaotically bad - so this week, don't hold back and leave all your friends some fabulously chaotic haiku, misspelled acrostics, aesthetic poems, ill-counted sonnets, and forced rhyme accolades. Make sure to connect them with the hashtag #freindshippoems <- please notice the spelling is incorrect for maximum chaos.

If you get a poem that you absolutely love don't forget to give it a shout-out over in the "Report a Good Poeter Thread".

We hope you've been having a blast so far! We have loads more fun stuff planned for Poetry Week, and it's easy to get involved! For all the deets on the next event, just head to the directions below.

Mad-Libs Poetry Event

Why not take a stab at some [adjective] Mad Libs poetry! Simply find a poem (it can be one you've written or one from a well-known poet), replace some of the words with the type of speech they are (noun, verb, verb ending in -ing, adverb, adjective, etc.), and then post it on your wall in a spoiler with the parts of speech above it! Here's an example, in case that [adjective] description was confusing.

Once you've got your poem parts arranged, post it on your wall with the hashtag #MadLibsPoetry. Then go around the People tab and fill in others' templates with the [adjective] words you come up with! If you feel like it, you can provide the code to make filling it in much easier for anyone who might want to fill it in. Poetry Crew is very [emotion] to see what sort of wacky, weird, and maybe even surprisingly meaningful poems you all come up with!! For questions about this event, you can contact @Plume.

Remember: if someone fills in your poem and creates an absolutely [adjective] new creation, give them a shoutout in the "Report a Good Poeter Thread"!!

Poetry Readers Discussion Today

Our discussion of Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb" is today!

Join the Poetry Readers Discussion on Friday, February 11th (6 pm EST) for a discussion of the poem led by @alliyah. We'll host the chat in a WFP writing pad; no prior preparation is needed, and all are welcome to join in! Poetry Readers Club will post the link when it's ready. For questions about this event, you can contact @alliyah.

Poetry Topic Challenge

To end the week, PCrew would like to issue a very eggcellent poetry challenge to everyone! Have I beaked your interest yet? The prompt is very simple; chickens! You may interpret that however you like. Once you've written your poem, post it on your wall with the hashtag #ChickenPoetry or publish it in the Publishing Center, and let someone on PCrew know you've completed the challenge. You'll be awarded an impeckably adorable badge on your wall, which comes in a variety of colours (including dark cyan), along with a prize of 50 points! And if you choose to post via the Publishing Center, you can get a reimbursement of the 200 points, as well, if you desire! For questions about this event, you can contact @Seirre.



Don't forget that if you see a super snazzy chicken poem, you can give is a shout-out in the Report A Good Poeter Thread or with the #poetryshoutout hashtag!

We've loved seeing all of the awesome creativity you've all shared so far -- and are excited to keep the momentum going strong! This week will be focused specifically on building community and making new friends -- as well as engaging with old friends!

Welcome to the first event of Week Three! For the next two days, we're going to be playing an old classic: Two Truths And A Lie. The basic premise is exactly what it sounds like -- via a wall post, you share two true statements about yourself and one statement that's a lie. Then everyone else will guess which of the three statements they think is your lie! And you, of course, can guess on everyone elses' posts~

Welcome a new member

How many lies did you manage to tell and how many did you detect? Or maybe you didn't get time? Don't worry, there's a lot more. Why not welcome someone new when you have had fun here? Simply go to All members and leave a friendly welcome message on their wall. You can also put some links which you found helpful in the past.

It's time to be social in the Social Month! Go ahead and help a new member know the community of YWS. For questions about this event, you can contact @ForeverYoung299.

Don't you think that the best part of a community is its members? Has it ever happened to you that you have seen a member very often in the people's tab, thought of talking to them but never got the chance? Here's our opportunity!

It's simple, interact with someone whom you have never talked to before. It can be a very old member or a kind of new member. It doesn't really matter how long they have been on YWS. Go ahead and say hello!