Young Writers Society

Welcome to Squills, the YWS news bulletin.

This thread is the equivalent of a YWS newspaper, with each post in this thread being a news article. The focus of this paper is on the happenings of YWS at any given day, but members are welcome to submit their own news items. Keep in mind that all postings must comply with the YWS rules.

Submissions will be taken over the span of the day. Tomorrow, this thread will be locked and a new one will take its place. This feature runs all week long, featuring special coverage during events and certain occasions.

If you have questions, news tips, letters to the editor, or if you would like to join the Squills Team, then please PM Griffinkeeper or AlfredSymon.

Creative Staff
Technical Adviser: Griffinkeeper
Editor-in-Chief: AlfredSymon
General Correspondent: SparkofDoubt
Community Reporter: ShadowVyper

Share the Love
This month of love, hear tips and experiences from our own YWS writers about writing romance and, well, love itself!

Good evening everybody (morning to those who're in a different time zone)! Here we are in Squills' newest featurette, Share the Love, wherein we can hear from our own YWS writers about the month of hearts!

Poetry, like the flowers, are blooming at this time of the month. Why not talk with a poet, you ask. Well, we will! For tonight's guest is one of the hundred resident poets of the Young Writers Society, PenguinAttack!

AlfredSymon: Thank you again for granting us audience for today's Share the Love!
PenguinAttack: Oh it's beyond my pleasure. I'm always up for love, even if I have to share it.

Alf: Okay, so let me hit you with my first Q: Is writing romantic poetry best during February, the month of love?
Peng: I wish it was! If that were the case I might be prolific in art amour. There's no good month for writing poetry of any kind, you just have to hope something appropriate happens when you put pen to paper, as it were.

Alf: How about inspiration? Where can writers find inspiration about luuurve?
Peng: Chocolate boxes!
No, I joke.
Inspiration is super accidental. If you want to be inspired about anything, engage in life and culture. Love will inevitably appear. Sometimes you look back into the sordid history of your love life. For me, I just let it appear.
I like to say that all of my poems are about love, some of them are just hiding it.

Alf: Oooh, excellent. Love is a great topic in poetry huh?
Peng: Love is one of the grandest of poetic experiences! If a poet is not in the deepest of despairs (usually due to a paramour) then he is on the highest wings of love. Blind or otherwise.

Alf: Wow. Even when you write there IS poetry! Next question, in writing poems about love, what aspect do you think is most important to capture?
Peng: Like any poetry, love poetry is easy to write, and incredibly hard to write well. I think it's most important to capture the moment inbetween the action. I like little moments and little shots of love, as well as anguish and sadness and the other emotions.
Sometimes we forget to see the trees for the forest, even when we're looking for them.
I'm sounding awfully pretentious tonight!

Alf: Not at all!
So the emotion in love is the one. Okay, now, how about experience. Why did you start writing poetry about love?
Peng: I haven't chosen a topic for a poem in many years. More often than not I'll put down a line or two and suddenly it will mean something. Sometimes it means love. I suppose the moment my subconscious realised love is a ripe, rich element for poetry is when I first began.

Alf: Can you also spare some tips about writing poetry--in any genre, but most likely about love?
Peng: You can have all of my tips, my friend, just post a poem and I'll pour them on it.
Alf: Hahaha! Then I'm sure the readers will.
Peng: But static tips? Be honest. I don't care about facts at all in poetry, and that's a very personal thing, many will disagree! But I think facts get in the way of truth. When you want to say that he loved you, say he loved you.

Alf: One final request before our time ends.
Peng: Request of me, and I shall provide!
Alf: Can you write to us an on-the-spot poem about love? I know it's a bit difficult, but it would be wonders to read something fresh

PenguinAttack wrote:There are so many things
I forget in the morning;

the sound of footsteps
on bare wooden floors,
smooth cold tiles,
how your mouth feels.

I leave notes on my bedside

fluttering by the fan,
always too warm from the lamp,

but never read them

until they slip unstuck and collect
in the corner of my sheet,
my bag, my fist.

When the ink washes from my palms
I remember again
Just this once.

Peng: Oh man. That's pretty bad, but there you go.
Alf: Bad? Why, it's simply beautiful!
Well, I believe I've not only learned new things in poetry, but also about you.
Thank you for your time, Ms. Peng
Peng: It is totally my pleasure! I hope that you enjoyed interviewing me, it was rather fun to be the viewed.

*Insert humorous conversation here*

Alf: Once again, thanks for that wonderful interview with you and our great interjecting conversations. Don't worry, they're not included in the final post

With a wink our show comes to a close today. Learned a lot? I'm sure I did?

Wait for more of Share the Love at this week's Squills!

SRMeredith is talented writer who's already posted some of her work on YWS. Her work 'Wasteland' is definitely a piece to be read.

derplolcyan also posted a work. It's called 'DERP', and gives us an insight into his wit and sense of humor.

cookiez too has posted a piece for us to enjoy. It's calld 'True Friends' and gives us a glimpse of the interaction between two girls who are very close to one another.

styxe is our newest member, and hasn't yet had a chance to post any works to YWS, but I'm sure with a bit of encouragement, we'll be able to read a sparkling piece.

None of the new members chose to post in the Welcome Mat, but you can still go to their walls and give them a hearty YWS welcome!

A quick announcement from the YWS Fleet...



For more information, please PM Griffinkeeper.

Well, our dear LouisCypher has written a very nice and all inclusive post detailing everything and anything there is to know about God-Modding. You can find the post here.

Very nice job, LouisCypher!

Column:
Stereotyping.

Goths, barbies, nerds, computer geeks, potential doctors and maybe even an actor in disguise. None of us know for certain what type of skills each of us have. But one thing for certain, we all must love writing.
Each of us has one genre we specilise in, or a way in which we write. But, you have no idea what that person looks like, until you see a picture or meet them. You only have their personality to go on.
Let's say you're out in the street, and you see a girl with bleach blonde hair, an orange face and perfect 'doll' makeup. You're going to pass judgment on her and think she's dumb? Slutty? Clueless?
BUT, for all we know, she could be the next J.K Rowling, or the next Terrance Tao. Who knows? So, don't pass judgment and don't stereotype someone for something a minority may be.

I'll use myself as an example of both image and writing preference stereotyping. I guess you could call my fashion sense somewhat 'punk', but all I hear from people is 'Oh my god, you have to be goth!'
Um, no I am not. As a matter of fact, I do not know what has caused these people to suddenly jump to conclusion and launch me into a catagory, before they even know me. How about the fact I love to wear skulls?
How on this god-foresaken earth does wearing skulls make me a goth? Classic example of stereotyping. Another example, my makeup. Fair enough, I wear slightly more eyeliner than a few people, but how does
that make me a goth? The way I choose to wear my makeup is because I think it looks nice, and better that way. NOT because I think I have to look that way to fit into some sort of social group.
I may not 'look' the same as 'normal' people, I may not listen to 'normal' music and I may not be interested in 'normal' teenage activities, but that does not give anybody the right to automatically presume I
belong to one, and one only social group, and class for that matter.

Now, moving on to my writing preference. I am more comfortable within the supernatural genre. I prefer fiction, and things based on reality with a twist. I write better in a more... alternative way. I cannot sit
myself in front of the laptop and start writing about rainbows, unicorns, princess' and that crap. It simply is not me, and does not suit my personality in the least. Well, this also causes yet another stereotype:
"Oh my god, you are so emo!" For the love of god and a journey to hell and back, how the f*ck does that make me emo? In fact, what is it that classifies someone as 'emo' in the first place?!

Well, I'm sure you can see for yourself, that my example could clearly happen to anyone. Has it happened to you? Maybe just the smallest assumption, but if it relates you to a certain catagory, guess what it is?
Stereotyping.

I get fed up of seeing, hearing and sensing stereotypes. It happenes everywhere. School, work, outside, inside, verbally, mentally and via the internet. Stereotypes are practically hardwired into our brains.
And there is pretty much to zero, nothing we can do about it. We all do it, even if we hate it ourselves, it still happens. Even if it's an unconcious thought.

So, I'll leave you with a question to ask yourself: What causes one person to be subject to a sterotype?
Don't go for an obvious answer, this needs real thinking. It needs to be something that gnaws away at you, until you finally figure out the answer.
So, get thinking.


Have a nice day/night/evening.
-Clarity'xo