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. You can also subscribe to the Squills Fan Club , or PM SquillsBot to receive a notification each time a new issue is published!

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

1. Society Pages
2. Adventures in Writing
3. Ask Gruno
4. New Arrivals
5. The Week's Roundup - 3/1
6. Subscribers

Society Pageswritten by ShadowVyper < PM: >

Hello, my lovelies,

I climbed out from under my stack of homework, endured the glowering of my professors as I carefully skulked past, and did a little digging to bring you the latest dirt on the coolest people of YWS. Some of them used their walls to vent, others to voice opinions, and others to brag. Let's take a look...

@megsug is having an "existential crisis" (AKA mini-mental breakdown) by foolishly choosing to flip through a course catalog right before bed. Ah. The mistakes of freshman year. Hopefully she'll learn that the course catalog should only be approached if equipped with Kleenex and a bowl of ice cream.

@AlexSushiDog never really said what caused his existential crisis (my guess is something to do with accordions), but he posted in all caps that he was having one, so it must've been serious. Speaking of serious traumas, @StellaThomas has more of a reason to sob than most of us, as she faces the daunting decision of what to rewrite of her 30K word novel.

@Snoink is facing an existential crisis to a slightly lesser degree, as she has to humble herself to the point of *le gasp* reading rhymed poetry aloud. Ah, the sacrifices of motherhood. Meanwhile @Lumi and @Iggy insist on FLOODING MY YWS FEED WITH MORE ABOUT THE STUPID DRESS. #WHYCAN'TYOUKEEPTHEDRAMAONFACEBOOK?! weighing in with their opinions that the dress is, in fact, blue and black.

However, some people are choosing to actually make good use of their time. @Firestarter posted the information for the first round of The YWS Cup II and @Blues is learning how to strike that perfect balance between respectful yet relaxed when emailing professors.

Other YWSers are entering the weekend with high spirits, as @Auxiira rejoices in the healing of her feet, @Gravity made a 100% on her math quiz (as well as winning the Squills article competition!), and @Noelle gets to see her babysat squirt move up to her preschool class.

Well, that's all the time we have. Be sure to keep us all updated with your latest news by writing lots of yummy status updates! Until next time.

XOXO
~Lady S

ADVENTURES IN WRITINGwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

I’ve talked about motivation a lot in the past, mostly in reference to developing and revising characters. But if you, like me, have difficulty with figuring out what motivates your characters to act in their story, that isn’t much help. So this week, I’m going to start you off by talking about the basic types of motivation.

Extrinsic motivation. This is the fancy psychological term for motivation that comes from the outside. That means that an external force or person pushes your character into action. For example, a scientist might search for a cure for cancer when his father dies. He might relocate when a tornado destroys his home. He might enter a magical park when his injured friend shows up at his front door and begs for help…

As you can see from that last example (if you’re familiar with The Book Man, since I only talk about it all the time), my characters tend to be driven by external events or people. However, this isn’t the only way to motivate your characters.

Intrinsic motivation. This is the fancy psychological term for motivation that comes from inside your character. She is driven by her own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, rather than an external event. The character might act on principles of morality or religion, a dream or goal she had as a child, or emotions like love or anger. Of course, any one of these things could have come to influence her because of an external factor, but an intrinsically motivated character acts because of the now-internalized thoughts, feelings and beliefs, rather than constantly remembering the past experience that led to their formation.

“Beware of either/or.” This is a saying of which my psychology textbook was fond. In the context of the book, it meant that you shouldn’t accept either of two conflicting theories as absolutely true but rather look at them as two ends of a spectrum on which the human psyche probably falls somewhere in the middle.

I’m using it similarly. As previously mentioned, motivation gives me a lot of trouble when writing stories. The main problem is that my characters tend to be motivated only by external influences early on in the writing. They may have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that motivate them in their everyday lives, but most of them would never dive into an adventure without a pretty big push from an outside source. (See: injured friend; missing husband.)

This is a problem for two reasons. The first is that people in real life aren’t only motivated by either internal or external forces; they’re motivated by a combination of both. Furthermore, extrinsic motivation alone generally isn’t enough to push a character all the way through a story. They need to internalize the experience that’s driving them, or the further events of the story will ring false.

If you’re having a lot of trouble with motivation, start with a list of external factors that might push your character for one reason or another. Then, make a list of thoughts, feelings, or beliefs that might come from each external factor. Ask yourself how these could be used to move your character through the story. Then, get writing!

ASK GRUNOwritten by Gruno < PM: >

Welcome to Ask Gruno, the advice column in which stuff happens. Gruno will answer any questions you throw at him, be it advice, personal opinion, solutions or philosophy. My cousin Pruno has been busy at the wonderful school for Pruno people, so I will be taking over the column. Every now and again, Pruno may make an appearance, so never fear! May the question answering commence!

Oh Oh Magnificent One,
I absolutely love pineapples! I'm obsessed with them! Do you like any fruit?
-God

Dear Man Upstairs Who I’m Not Completely Sure Exists,
I hate fruit.

-Gruno

Dear Pruno/Gruno
How should I write my alais/alter ego/title?
- Pruno and Gruno Fan
- Pruno&Gruno Fan
- P&G Fan
- Prunoandgrunofan
- Pruno&GrunoFan

Which one's your favorite?

Also, does it make Gruno jealous when I write Pruno first? Should I change it up sometimes?
-Pruno&Gruno Fan

Dear P&G Fan,
You’re new alias should be “The Biggest Fan of The Magnificent Overlord King Dictator of The Entire Universe, Gruno” Because I am the Magnificent Overlord King Dictator of The Entire Universe and you are my biggest fan. I shall make you my Squire or my Scribe. Or Maybe my Jester. Yes, my jester. I like that. So nevermind. You are now: “The Court Jester of The Magnificent Overlord King Dictator of The Entire Universe, Gruno”.

And does Gruno get jealous? No, Gruno does not get jealous because only he can talk about himself in the third person and not sound lame, unlike his lame cousin Pruno. Who is locked up somewhere you will never find him currently unavailable at this time.
XOXO,
Gruno

Sadly that is all for this week. I need more questions to answer! So please, click this link and fill in the form.

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Take a moment to welcome this week’s newest members to the site!

@WeasleyDragonStar is working on a historical fiction about a Palestinian girl traveling to find her wealthy uncle. Check it out and leave a review .

@Teacake013 has already earned their first review star. Head over to their wall to congratulate them .

@ghazal has posted two poems, so if you prefer poems to novels, visit their portfolio to read their work .

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 3/1written by megsug < PM: >

A roundup of mysterious agents, duels, and magic.


@rachellecarter is interested in what agents do in the mysterious publishing world and if they’re worth the money an author would pay them. Predictably, @Rosendorn came to the rescue. She explained quite a bit about the roles of agents:







She also explains the payment process and a few other odds and ends. Anyone who’s ever been slightly curious about the publishing world could get some good out of this article


@CaptainSaltWater asked for book requests, and a huge portion of the YWS community agrees with @speakerskat:







Captain wants to broaden his horizons, so any suggestions are open, but he’s a big fan of the Percy Jackson Series (in case you didn’t know ). Bury him in suggestions now!


@Aley is being brilliant as always, coming up with a new club that has a lot of potential. It’s a tournament club where YWSers show off their writing skills. The roster for this tournament has been set, but there could be others in the future. If you want to read some great work and still be involved during this tournament, Aley has some good news:






Check it out today, and subscribe to stay up to date on the what’s what of this club!


If you live under a rock or don’t have a tumblr (which practically means the same thing ), you may have missed this, but chances are, you’ve probably seen something of the dress. @TriSARAHtops dragged it to YWS. There a link to an article that has a picture of the dress, a poll to see what colors you see, and a bunch of bewildered commentary with some interesting science-y tidbits that could clear some things up for you. @Holysocks had some pretty weird things happen:






Go check out the famous color changing dress today.

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written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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