Young Writers Society

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!

What will you find here? Tons of interesting news about YWS, including but not limited to: articles about writing, art, and the world of humanities; interviews with YWS members; shameless plugs; link round-ups; and opinionated columns.

And where will all of this come from? Take a look at our fantastic creative staff!





Of course, our content can’t come only from our staff. We also depend on you to help keep Squills successful. You’re all a part of a writing community, after all. If you’re interested in submitting to Squills, pop on over to the Reader’s Corner to find out how you can get involved by contributing an article or participating in other Squills activities.

Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!

1. ADVENTURES IN WRITING
2. LINGUISTIC, OR LAZY
3. TWO CENTS: DEVELOPMENTAL WRITING
4. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW
5. NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS TIME
6. CHRISTMAS CHEER
7. KANOME’S RANT OF MEDIA
8. SOCIETY PAGES
9. A CALL TO REVIEW
10. NEW ARRIVALS
11. THIS WEEK’S ROUNDUP – 1/11
12. SHAMELESS PLUGS
13. SUBSCRIBERS

ADVENTURES IN WRITINGwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

You may not remember, because it was last year, but when we last published Squills I was writing a short series on description. Back in 2014, I focused on writing character descriptions without getting too listy. I don’t know about you, but articles on character description are so last year. To start off the new year, let’s talk about describing your setting instead.

Why is describing the setting important? You may dislike description, it’s true, and you can definitely find readers who don’t like it, either. But a story without any description of the setting leaves readers ungrounded. Rather than moving through and interacting with a world, the characters seem to be floating in nothingness. Did you ever have an art teacher tell you to fill in the whole page, rather than drawing a tiny person right in the center and leaving tons of white space around it? The concept is the same. Your tiny drawing of a person floating in the center of an otherwise blank piece of paper is what your characters become when you don’t describe the setting.

That said, you don’t want to describe the setting to the point many of the classic authors did. People in the Victorian Era might have appreciated detailed descriptions of an ornate bedroom, including furniture and where it was placed, and the layout of every street and building in Paris, but readers today generally aren’t interested. If you drone on and on about your world, you become like the teacher who gives dreadfully dull lectures. Pretty soon, your readers will stop listening and start doodling in the margins of their notes, instead.

In some ways, the rules of character description apply to setting description as well. You want to avoid lists and long strings of adjectives, use metaphor where applicable, and experiment with different methods of description. However, when describing setting there are a few extra things to consider.

Unusual or important details. When you’ve done a lot of world-building and can picture your setting in your head perfectly, it’s hard to avoid describing every detail of it. However, what you need to focus on are the unique details. What makes your haunted castle different from every other haunted castle in Gothic literature? This goes along with cutting down on adjectives, as I mentioned a while back in this article . Rather than describing “green grass,” which is what most people will picture when you say “grass,” describe dry grass, dead grass, grass that crackles underfoot like dead leaves in autumn.

This brings me to my next point: important details. Naturally, you’ll want to describe any important settings, places where your character will spend a lot of time. But you also want to describe aspects of the setting that add to the story in bigger ways. For example, look at the opening of Natalie Babbit’s novella, Tuck Everlasting.






In this passage, Natalie Babbit describes the long, hot days of late summer. But she’s not only describing the setting—she’s setting a mood. What emotions come to mind while reading this passage? You might get a sense of boredom or oppression, even gloom, despite the fact that summer is often associated with fun and delight. In one passage of description, we get a sense of place, weather, and mood. In addition, Babbit ties the metaphor of a wheel, used in the first paragraph to describe the first week of August, into the plot as a way of catapulting into the story. Making your description relevant to the story in multiple ways can make it better.

The lens of character. One thing to remember about description is that we’re not really seeing what you, the writer, are envisioning. We’re seeing what the viewpoint character is seeing.

What does that mean? As an example, think about the things you notice when you first walk into a new room. If you’re the artsy type, your eyes might be drawn to décor. You might notice that everything matches, or that none of it matches at all, or you might be drawn to a particular painting on the wall. If you’re a neat freak, you’re more likely to focus on expert organization or messy patches. If you love books, your eyes are drawn to the shelves as you try to pick out whether the room’s owner is bookish as well and if they’re interested in any of the same books you are.

In addition to personality, your socioeconomic status, gender, race, or job might affect the things you notice about a place. For example, I’ve worked in grocery for almost seven years. So when I go to a grocery store, I notice products that careless customers have put away wrong, shelves that need fronting, and potatoes that have been under the florescent lights for too long.

So what about your characters? When describing a setting, consider your viewpoint character’s experiences and personality to determine what aspects of the setting this person would notice. Also consider the character’s current mood. A cheerful character might notice the flowers blooming in a field and the blue sky overhead. On the other hand, the same character, in a bad mood, might feel oppressed by the solitude, see the ugly weeds mixed in with the flowers, or notice gathering storm clouds in the distance. Rather than telling readers what each setting looks like objectively, consider the setting through your viewpoint character’s eyes.

Interactions between character and setting. This is similar to the direct effects of a character’s physical appearance, as I discussed in my last article . What effects does your setting have on your characters? One potential failure of description is to write characters who wander around without either acting on or being acted upon by the world they’re in. Don’t just tell us what your main character’s house looks like; show her digging through drawers for a lost screwdriver. Instead of telling us she has hardwood flooring, let us hear the sound of her dog’s nails clicking on the floor as he ambles over to beg for food. Show us the snow stinging your character’s face as she hikes through the mountains, the pollen from a meadow making her sneeze, or the way shadows looming in the corners of a dark room make her shiver. We’ll better remember a setting’s appearance if it’s connected to a character’s actions, senses, and emotions than if it’s merely described to us by the writer.

Here’s your homework for this week:

Write a list of physical traits of your setting. Go through the completed list and ask yourself these questions:

1. Could any of these traits be described using metaphor?
2. Could they be used for foreshadowing or setting the mood?
3. How would they affect a character traveling through the setting? How might the character interact with this setting?

Brainstorm appropriate metaphors, possible moods, and potential effects on or interactions with a character, and write these in the margins of your list. Then, practice writing a description of your setting, using some of the annotations you just brainstormed. Don’t forget to have fun! And remember that you could even use this assignment complete the day’s #15in15.

Stop by next week to see what else is cooking with Adventures in Writing…our first ever competition!

LINGUISTIC, OR LAZY?

written by AstralHunter < PM: >

In the first edition of this column, I discussed why spelling is important, and in the second, I explained why spellcheckers are not to be given the final say. This may leave you feeling hopeless, but fear not, for in this edition, I shall show you six ways through which you can learn to improve your spelling.

Number One: Learn the spelling rules.

If you know why certain words are spelled in certain ways, then you will automatically improve your spelling of these words. I made this method the first because it truly is the most important of them all, so I highly recommend learning these rules before you try anything else. (I shall discuss the basic spelling rules in the editions to follow.)

Number Two: Use mnemonics.

Mnemonics are catchy jingles or interesting patterns that help you remember those difficult-to-spell words. There are many existing mnemonics to aid you in spelling, but if you don’t know or cannot find one to help you with a particular word, feel free to make up your own.

An excellent example of a mnemonic is this one:
~ There’s a rat in separate.

Number Three: Employ syllabification.

Syllabification is the breaking down of words into syllables for reading and spelling purposes. It is advisable that you sound the words out by either saying them aloud or “clapping” out the word. By sounding out those difficult words into their syllables, you will be able to spell with greater ease and accuracy. At first, if you are faced with a new or difficult word, it will help if you employ syllabification, but eventually, it will no longer be necessary.

1. Every syllable contains one vowel, either long or short.
~ mea-sure-ment (3 vowels = 3 syllables)
~ ro-man-ti-cal-ly (5 vowels = 5 syllables)

2. Where there are double consonants, the two must be separated.
~ spel-ling
~ ac-com-mo-da-tion

3. Start each new syllable with a consonant if you can.
~ re-gu-la-tion
~ ses-qui-pe-da-lian

Number Four: Apply your senses.

Your sense of sight, hearing and touch can greatly help you to remember difficult words, and don’t underestimate the power experience either. It has been scientifically proven (by Dr. Caroline Leaf, among others) that the more senses you stimulate while trying to learn something, the better you will remember it. The mnemonic “Senses Help Teach English” can help with remembering how to stimulate your senses:

Senses – Sight: Visualise the word and try to remember the letters of the word, but also the configuration of the whole word. If you do this enough, an incorrectly spelled word will seem wrong when you look at it, even if you don’t realise it immediately.

Help – Hearing: Sound out each of the letters (silent letters too). Exaggerate the pronunciation of the word enough, and you will be able to hear whether it is correct or not. (Although knowing the correct pronunciation does help.)

Teach – Touch: Draw the difficult word in sand, on sandpaper or with crayons and trace the letters with your fingers. This helps with the experience of writing the word, which is actually the next point.

English – Experience: Write the word repeatedly until you no longer hesitate. This will allow you to feel the flow of the letters, which will make their movement and direction come naturally to you.

Number Five: Look, say, cover, write, check.

This five-step process is a simple, effective way of employing your senses to aid your memory. First, look at the word and note its configuration, and then say the word aloud. Then you cover the word, and try to picture it. After having visualised the word, you write it down (sound it out whilst doing so) and then check it against the original word. Mark the errors in a different colour, cover them, and try again.

Number Six: Utilise a dictionary.

While many may cringe just by the thought of using a dictionary, we are writers, so there may be no such excuses. As soon as you encounter a word that is new, confusing or strange, play it safe, and look it up. However, I often forget some words soon after looking them up, so if you want to, write the new words down on a paper, in your notebook, or even in a digital document, as long as it’s in a place where you won’t forget about it. Whenever you feel like expanding your vocabulary, return to this list and look up the words once more.

I usually find that I don’t remember three quarters of the words I had written down, but after looking them up for the fifth time, they begin to linger. Sure, some of them I’ll use but once or twice on any given occasion, but you never know when a certain word might be needed. For example, “acerbic” is a word I am not likely to use during the next two years, but what if I want to describe the intense bitterness of a character’s tone? I would prefer, “Her remark was like bile in my mouth,” but, “The acerbic remark made me wince,” works just as well. Remember, the only thing worse than ignorance is deliberate ignorance…

There you have it – six sure-fire ways to remember a word. It isn’t necessary to use all of them, so find a combination that works for you. I am certain that after reading this article, you will never have difficulty with spelling a word again. Given you meet the only condition, of course: you must be linguistic, not lazy.

TWO CENTS: DEVELOPMENTAL WRITINGwritten by Aley < PM: >

When we stand at the bottom of a bridge
__________ staring out across the expanse
______________________________________ don't all the end points look the same?
___ all the trees, and the water, and the leaves, and the street
_____________________ all blending together, forever
______________________________ to that point.

When there is no bridge to stare across, we see the hills, and the horizon, far away
too big

I'm writing this Two Cents about development as a writer and a poet, because poetry is a pet project of mine. We can all see it on Young Writers Society because of its placement in ages, and I feel like, in watching this for yourself, you might feel more comfortable with feeling as though you're failing every time you write.

I'm not trying to say that all of us suck at writing and feel like we fail at it. But I think that a lot of us hit that point sometimes, where we just don't want to write any longer because it is too much and we don't feel like we've improved. So today I'll be talking about development as a thing which happens. Perhaps I’ll even get into some of my pet project's specifics about the layers of development. Maybe you'll see where you're at yourself, or maybe you'll see where you've been.

Development in writing happens just like development in everything else. As we develop, we head farther into the skills we've managed to acquire. As they become more natural to us, we see the mistakes other people are making with the skills we've developed. This becomes how we review other people, and as we review other people, we learn from their mistakes as well.

A couple articles ago, I talked about John Milton, who said, "Read promiscuously." The reason this is important to development is because the more we read, the more we can pick apart what is good and bad about a work. The more we read that is good, the more we can imitate it. Likewise, the more we read that is bad, the more we can avoid doing it ourselves, like seeing a man fall to his death off a cliff. We can be more cautious around cliffs, because you know that if you fall off there, you're going to die.

So what are the developmental stages of writing? It has been theorized that everyone goes through their own trials in writing as they develop their craft, but the sorts of things they do can be similar. One of the most common ones is a mistake that Hollywood never grows out of. It becomes a "Hollywood Cliché," even if Hollywood has never done it before. This is great if you can get hired there, but what are the chances of that? (Seriously, someone do the math, please.) This first thing is the Spectacle. Pushing something to push it, to make it Big, and Bright, and Bold, and BANG! Let's kill them all because we can! What a shock! What a Spectacle!

Spectacle is fine, sure, if it is worked into the story as a device that is going to be used well and the writer won't forget about it. But the type of spectacle that usually occurs when writers are developing are dubbed a One Trick Pony. While revision could add these devices to earlier parts of a story to give such devices greater purpose, they become pointless Spectacle when the writer doesn’t bother editing or decides leaving the device out until the end gives for a bigger surprise. In poetry, Spectacle usually comes in the form of rhyme. Rhymes can become overused through generations, like this one:

_________Roses are Red,
_________Violets are Blue,
_________It's so overused,
_________You can finish it too.

These types of things are great if you're making jest of them, but sometimes these spectacle rhymes sneak into poems that are supposed to be serious. Alternatively, the spectacle becomes writing a poem so confusing, you don't even remember what it means after you write it!

I have to admit, I've totally done that. It's development. Sometimes it can be fun to go back and revisit the spectacle in a trash story, so that you can get it all out of the way when you're trying to write something serious. This is a great thing to do if you've got a plot you haven't really fleshed out yet. Just write the story in multiple documents. Then write out the different paths and ideas. Pick the best one, and then here's the trick to developing faster: edit.

Editing is important for development, because, when you're done with the novel, you've grown into a better novelist than the writer at the front. It is practically like seeing a time capsule! Not only can this be really fun, but also you can add personification, consistency in metaphor, foreshadowing, and any new devices from the end of the book to the front of the book, so they're not One Trick Ponies.

Another thing that seems to be fairly consistent in development of writing is the sudden belief that you know everything, especially when faced with something you're just not aware of. At some point, writers begin to realize that they are a single voice in a larger conversation which is being carried out around them [Read Promiscuously]. What they have to say has been said before, and it will be said again. What they have to read has been read before, and it will be read again. Right before this realization, people are usually unaware of something and attempt to help or correct someone else towards their way of doing things. A great example of this is with correcting people for capitalizing, not capitalizing, not having punctuation, or having punctuation in poetry. For novels, it is correcting clichés.

When people do this, sometimes the individual they're correcting has made that as a stylistic choice. It just went over the reviewer's head because they're not a part of the conversation yet. Sometimes, they are ignored. Other times, something wonderful and terrifying happens. The individual who is trying to correct the other is invited into the conversation about what they're trying to correct.

If they don't shy away, and they don't fight it, a new development is made towards the standards of excellence of the two individuals combined. Useful stuff happens, like talking about the differences between the feel of capitalized or capitalized stanzas, or the impact of "i" on a reader.

These conversations not only develop the individual who was unaware of the conversation, but also the one who invites them in—because we're all developing, really. We're all still heading back towards that horizon, and it will always be in the distance, or just a point.

For this reason, I invite you all into the conversation. Look for spectacle in your work, and see what you think. Am i right? Am i wrong? If you think i'm wrong, talk about it! If you think i'm right, talk about it too, because i am just an individual in a larger conversation, and so are You.

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEWwritten by Omni < PM: >

As the newest Featured Member, @BiscuitsBatchAvoy is a prominent member in the Storybook forum, in the chat, and all around the site. She's done it all, been all around the site, there and back again, all in just over a year! I'm here to sit down with her to learn more about what makes her tick.



BiscuitsBatchAvoy: Hiya!



B: In Scotland, particularly the west, we have this inherent self-effacing trait that really, really sucks and is going to make this answer sound totally clichéd. I was utterly shocked that I had achieved this. I thought I might be in consideration someday but that was only because pretty much all of my friends had been FM at one time or another. I basically wanted to hug someone, which was difficult because I found out while lying in my bed at 1 am.



B: I've had a couple of works in the Literary Spotlight here and there, but on looking back at the works that got there I'm still not sure why for many of them.



B: Since December 20th 2013, so just over a year.



B: I got an imaginative essay back from a teacher and she talked through the feedback with me. YWS had helped me get so used to criticism that I was happy to roll with it and totally surprised her with how willing I was to co-operate and make changes.



B: I don't know... maybe the fact that, for the past two weeks, I've barely shut up in the chatroom. I'm in there so often it's almost like I'm advertising my name.



B: Well, chat for a start. I tend to stay away from the forums, though I did take part in the LGBTQIA discussion if you see that forum come up on your feed, run, run like the bloody wind which proved an interesting insight into the minds of teenagers and young adults from all different backgrounds. I post literary works less and less these days, which is probably because I've learned to take my time more with my writing, and because I've spent so much time in chat. I've also recently gotten involved in Storybooks and made the discovery that I do not enjoy being a GM.



B: I used to play a lot of sports, now just tennis (as @thewriter13 knows). I am in my final year of school, taking 3 Advanced Highers, which is the Scottish equivalent of A-Levels which are the English equivalent of I don't know what in America. I have applied to study at Cambridge, and I will find out probably within the next week whether I am getting a conditional offer or not. Oh, and many, many exams.



B: Become friends with a moderator and never leave the site.



B: Thank you for thinking I was interesting enough to do one.


That's it for this Featured Member. If you haven't gotten around to saying hi to her, go do so . It'll turn into a wonderful and crazy conversation for sure, if her chatroom conversations are anything to go by!

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS TIMEwritten by Omni < PM: >

That's right! It's a new year, which means that the year of many types of gate-conspiracies and a lot of backside battling has passed to a year full of possibilities and... resolutions?

That's right, with the new year comes the New Year’s Resolutions! I went out to ask people about their resolutions this year, but it seems someone else got to it before me! @unknown391625 put up a forum topic in The Lounge asking people about their resolutions here.

Unknown's own resolution was:






@Deanie and @WindSailor had the same crazy resolution!






@InformalTraditions had a completely understandable (if hard to do!) resolution for 2015






@AstralHunter has quite a few resolutions, so go check them out on the thread, but I quite agree with this one:






Many people have more writing oriented resolutions, like finishing a novel or writing so much each day. @ScarlettFire, for example, wants to:






@Holofernes was quite the comical one!







However, some people don't believe in the power of New Year’s resolutions, and they get quite philosophical! @VeerenVKS starts off with:






@Noelle also elaborates:






...Deep

Whether or not you believe in having or keeping a New Year’s resolution, it's certainly keeping a lot of people busy, with the 15in15 Contest and other topics, there's going to be a lot going on both in YWS and out of the virtual world. I wonder how many are going to keep with their resolutions until they finish it!

See you guys next year, with more resolutions!

CHRISTMAS CHEER

written by AstralHunter < PM: >

While it may be a week after the festive season has ended, I would nevertheless like us all to remember those who contributed to making it such a wonderful holiday, and be grateful. I would like to thank three people in particular: @Lumi, @Rosendorn (previously known as Rosey Unicorn), and @Widdershins (previously known as fortis).

What did they do? Why, they Christmasified people's avatars, of course! They created the Christmasify My Avatar! thread, where users could request to have their avatars modified for Christmas. Here is Lumi's full explanation:






Anyhow, I decided to interview these three extraordinary mods to learn more about the joys and challenges of spreading the holiday spirit.



Lumi: It's a yearly tradition! My first go at it was in 2011 with Rosendorn and @JabberHut, and from the looks of things, it's much more popular now, with almost 150 posts in the thread (note that that's roughly 75 posts by us and 75 posts by folks who want their avatar Christmasified). But it's crazy how happy everyone gets for a Santa Hat.

Rosendorn: Mostly the fact I'm a sucker for pulling out photoshop, and Lumi asks very nicely.

Widdershins: Well, The Boss was looking for help soo... Also, I had my avatar Christmasified last year by @Blues, which started me off on modifying my own bacteriophage avvie, which in turn gave me the experience to do this. It's all very circular.



L: Nah; as long as you have photoshop and either a.) know how to draw, b.) know how to recolor, or c.) know how to manipulate png images, you're set. The way I do the avatars is by png manipulation. I have a few of my favorite additions saved to my computer, so I just whip them into the image where needed and adjust for aesthetics.

R: Not really. The mechanics themselves are super simple, but you have to have an eye for colour to preserve the look of the avatar while getting it Christmasified. Sometimes colours do not play nicely with filters, so I have to adjust more to get the look I'm after, be it within the filter or with touch-up painting. And if I end up doing a bunch of detailed work to turn clothes into Christmas colours, then it takes a certain amount of time and patience.

W: Not really. Not unless they had a fairly complicated gif that involved changing whatever modification in its entirety, which didn't happen. Wow, that made a lot of sense. Basically... no.



L: About 15 minutes, maybe 20. But that's only if I have rock blaring in my headset. There's no way to get work done if you're listening to sad or slow music.

R: 20~ minutes. Can be as little as ten, can be as much as thirty. Depends on if the colours play nice, if I have to do touch-ups to the background so it's not a blurred, multi-coloured mess, and if I have to do any nit-picky work such as multiple layers of coloured painting.

W: Depends on what it is. I can stick a Santa hat on something in a few minutes, but the gifs take longer because usually I have to take it frame by frame.



L: My personal favorite was @Pompadour's, because I got the unique opportunity to replace the 8-bit text with my own. I think @Zolen made the original, but after even a few weeks, I've forgotten what the original text was. It was funny, though, so I tried to update the threat accordingly for Christmas.

R: @EscaSkye's! I had a ton of fun painting the soft colours.

W: I liked doing @RoyalHighness's the best, because the way the woman's hand moved just looked like it needed a little of Elsa's snow magic, so I had her shoot some ice from her hand. ^-^
Also, I'd be lying if I said my own wasn't super fun to do.



L: I should've hired more help. It worked out, though! All three of us cranked out about the same amount of avatars. I haven't done the official count yet, but I know it's above fifty. Maybe above 70? If you want that specific flavor for Squills, I'll wait to find out with the rest of the world.

R: Somewhere along the lines of "ohgoodlord MORE?!"

W: I didn't even realize it was that popular until The Boss started falling over himself about how many posts were in the thread. So mostly I rolled my eyes. *coughs*



Here are the three mods' favourite avatars:



And since the avid readers of Squills demand nothing less than our best, here are the statistics of the Christmasifying thread for 2014:
~ Avatars Christmasified by Lumi: 22
~ Avatars Christmasified by Rosendorn: 14
~ Avatars Christmasified by Widdershins: 17
~ Total number of jpegs Christmasified: 45
~ Total number of gifs Christmasified: 8
~ Total number of avatars Christmasified: 53
~ Total number of YWSers still using their Christmasified avatars: 19

I hope you had a fantastic Christmas, and may 2015 be the best year yet!

KANOME’S RANT OF MEDIA

Written by Kanome < PM: >

Hello, Kanome here. Due to my busy schedule, I was unable to contribute for a while. Now, since I have time, I am back with a new hot review for you, the members of YWS.

Recently, I have been reading this book which turned into a movie, which became a huge hit. This book is about a girl who is severely sick and only has a few years to live, until she meets a boy who turns her life for the better. I am talking about one of the best-selling novels written by John Green, The Fault in Our Stars.



Okay, even though I haven’t seen the movie, the book is amazingly good. I love the lame jokes and how the characters were developed. I admit, I haven’t finished reading the book, but it’s so good so far.

I recommend this book to young teen readers who love a little romance, especially funny and goofy romance, to spice up their life.

Main reasons to read this book:
- It’s different from any other novel I have read in my lifetime.
- The character development is highly interesting.
- The plot blows the mind.
- Plus, the main characters are super cute.

I won’t say that book is better than the movie, because I have not seen the movie yet. So this is a continuous review for you. Stay tuned for the next update. I bid you adieu.

SOCIETY PAGESwritten by ShadowVyper < PM: >

The holidays are over. The trees are put up. The ridiculous New Years’ glasses have been burned put on a shelf. The lights are… well, most of the lights are down and packed away to wait for next year. But some of us haven’t returned to school, yet. Which means that I have time to lurk around YWS and gather Intel that’s carelessly thrown up on the People tab.

Interesting things can be found there, really. Especially the quotes that @StellaThomas has been feeding us about her obstetrics professor. That sounds like a scarring fascinating class. But while Stella is still in classes, @Draknghar and @Alvarin are in the midst of exams. Even with the craziness of studying, though, Drak is finding time to play healthy zombie music on his new violin and participate in #15in15.

If you’ve checked your People tab at all, I’m sure you’ve seen that the #15in15 challenge has gathered quite the following. I know my status feed has been overrun with the hashtag laden posts, but, thankfully, on a site of young writers, the posts are rarely dull. The short status updates and occasional teasers keep us all up to date with what our friends are doing in their literary lives.

@Jumpyspot is working on their world building notes, @YastikaReads wrote down a plot summary of a novel-in-progress, and @Lauren2010 did the ever so important task of writing up the descriptions of the YWS Best Awards

If you’ve looked at the home page then you’ve probably seen @Widdershins’ #15in15 project, a quite amusing fanfic of YWS called Yewis and the Terrible Word Eater each part of which gets featured nearly as quickly as she posts them. Also focusing their creative talents, @Flite is currently working on a story involving mind transportation, while @AriaAdams writes about using body parts as currency. Maybe that’s why the minds need transporting? Either way, they should be kept safe from Aria’s necrotrophic fairies. @SushiSashimi333 is also currently writing a gory and descriptive scene, where there are attempts to mend someone’s detached limb. Can’t help but wonder if someone intended to pay an arm and a leg for something. Ba dum tiss.

@SecreteJournalist took a slightly more serious approach, and wrote something about Marie Antoinette for a school project. At least I’m hoping that poor Marie didn’t have flesh eating fairies in her life. @Noelle is also having to do research for her #15in15 project, but she’s been researching spies. Either she’s planning on joining the CIA or we should start prodding her to post whatever her mysterious new story idea is. @RavenMoonStone is helping Noelle on with her project by word warring with her to assist with motivation, which is exactly what @pretzelsing and @Arkhaion admitted to doing with each other. No doubt they all used the brilliant new app that @Nate installed to help us out with the word wars.

On a less competitive note, @Auxiira got in her fifteen minutes of writing through a role-play with @Lumi that he mysteriously referenced without any details except for the obvious: Xiira’s a fantabulous writer. Speaking of great writers, @AstralHunter spent his fifteen minutes writing a wonderful article for your favorite newsletter—Squills. What a coincidence, Astral, that’s how I’m getting today’s fifteen minutes in, too.

@Sunshine1113 decided they would also contribute to the overabundance of hashtags in the People Tab by attempting to resurrect the #FF trend, promoting herself as someone who needs more followers. @ISABELL also hopes to attract new fans, and offered the incentive of a “prize” to the next person to follow her. I’m sure that @racket also knows people who could use followers, since they convinced three friends from real-life to join Yewis. Well done racket! ;D

Other people, however, are being decidedly less social. I, personally, have spent this past week camped out on the couch in my pajamas, watching Sherlock and House when I’m not working on my new story that I’m writing for #15in15. @Alpha is right there with me with watching absurd amounts of TV, and binge watched an entire season of Breaking Bad. @BlueAfrica seems somewhat more temperate about getting caught up with season three of Sherlock…



In an alternate form of creation, @WindSailor recently started a club called Daily Devotions for Christians of all denominations to come together and share challenges for each other.

In the real-life realm of things, @RomanceWriter gets to be the Godmother of her cousin’s new baby. Yay! Meanwhile @Rosendorn wants to become nocturnal, even while running the risk of ridiculously pale skin.

Well, that’s all the time we have, folks. Be sure to keep us your wall updated with your current goings-about, and you just might be featured in a future edition of Society Pages!

XOXO
~Lady S

GREEN ROOM GALLERY written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Hey, readers!

Right now, there are 29 works in the Green Room with zero reviews and 56 works with 1 review. Some of these works are leftover from December. Some of these works have been in the Green Room since last year. Whoa!

Let me remind you: you can get hella points for reviewing something in the Green Room! A good, lengthy review with thoughtful commentary can earn up to 150 points on a new work, while a work that’s been in the Green Room for more than three days can give you up to 175 points. And there are plenty older-than-three-days works to go around. Here are a few that might interest you:

Pokemon Ultimate Evolution: Through the Middle, Episode 1: I’m Living

Novel-action/adventure by @dark. Adventures from between the first and second seasons of Pokemon Ultimate Evolution. This work is one of the oldest in the Green Room, so if you’re a Pokemon fan, head on over and give it some love.

Zade the Demon Breaker Chapter One

Novel-supernatural teen fiction by @JohnLocke1. 16+ for language and mature content. If you’re interested in demons and demon hunters, this might be just the novel for you. And since it’s only in its first chapter, there’s no catching up to do.

Beauty of the Moon – When You Dream

Novel-fantasy by @AridaMiku. A loose modernization of the Japanese fairytale of the bamboo cutter and the moon child. If you’d like to read the fairytale before checking out this novel, you can find it here .

The Pale Wizard

Short fiction-fantasy by @mephistophelesangel. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to a novel, try out this short story of fantastical revenge.

Bally The Talking Dog: ‘The RULES’

Short fiction-humor by @Tay01. Part of a planned series of shorts about Darwin and his dog, Bally. However, this is the only part that Tay01 has posted so far.

A Christmas Song: Christmas Present

Script by @WaltzingDreams. A modernization of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, written for stage. If you’d like to start from the beginning, go here . Note: Part 1 is rated 16+.

The View from Here

Poem by @TaliaSankEden. An account of living with depression.

Man O Man (Feel the Surge)

Poem by @CowLogic.

Makeup interest

Essay by @Ilovewriting321. An expression of Ilovewriting321’s interest in fx makeup.

Eight Reasons Why I Kissed Hayden Beaufort (Part 6/8)

Novella-teen fiction by @TriSARAHtops. 18+ for language. If you haven’t been keeping up with this, you should be. A music enthusiast meets a boy at a party, but this isn’t your typical teen romance. Read part one here .

Forever There

Lyrics-spiritual by @WindSailor. Includes a link to listen to the tune.

Head over to the Green Room to see more works in need of reviews. Let’s ring in the new year by cleaning out the Green Room!

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

A lot of new members have joined since our last issue in December! Take a moment to welcome them to the site!

@Jokerwritingworks has been really active in the forums. She is looking for a fellow Joker fan to be her writing partner. Check out her topic in the forums and leave her a reply if you’re interested .

@lydia9 received her first review star in just three days of membership! Head over to her wall to congratulate her .

@silverlady99 has also received her first review star, but her poem “Apology Letter” is still in the Green Room! Take a look at it and drop her a review .

@Tay01 has already earned their second review star. Wow! Head over to their wall to congratulate them .

@Siageo has posted three chapters of a fantastical horror story. Their latest chapter, Chapter 3 – Ouija Introduction Part 2, needs reviews . If you want to read from the beginning first, you can find the first chapter, The Uncanny, here .

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 1/11 written by megsug < PM: >

Four links going strong after a break.


@PassionateReader wanted the tips for passionate poetry, and @Aley came to the rescue. One of the best tips she gave was:







Anyone interested in poetry should check this out!


@Esmé created a thread years ago asking when users had started writing and what that first project was. @Dutiful has a reply I think is true for a lot of us:







Take a stroll down memory lane with us!


@manisha gifted to all of us something she found among the interwebs. She strolled across a reading challenge for 2015. It’s exciting. Here’s the list:







I dare you to do it.


@RachaelElg wrote a little article about linguistics, using the phrase “Can you pass the salt?” to illustrate her point. She explains the point of this article:






Get smart about what people are saying!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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