Young Writers Society

1. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: FARQ4D
2. NAPO 2024: INTERVIEWS WITH SIX POETS
3. GREEN ROOM GALLERY
4. ICY'S READING LOG: APRIL
5. CAMP NANO APRIL 2024
6. IN ONE SENTENCE, SHARE WHY YOU LOVE YWS
7. A NAPO QUICK REVIEW
8. SHAMELESS PLUGS
9. SUBSCRIBERS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: FARQ4Dwritten by EllieMae< PM: >

If you have spent time in the Green Room lately or browsed the people's tab, you may be familiar with @farq4d! From her beautiful, touching, moving, literary masterpieces to relatable people's tab posts, she really is a kind, sweet, and active member of YWS. Farq was recently Featured Member on the site, from March 22- April 9th, so I took some time to interview her about her experience. Stay tuned to read all about her writing history, hobbies, motivations, and experience joining YWS last year.



Farq4d: I was pretty surprised. Partly because I didn’t know it was a thing since I still struggle to navigate the site and partly because one of the works Leya mentioned in the post was one that didn’t get a ton of attention



F: Aha, I guess it’s sort of complicated. When I joined September of last year, there was a lot happening in my life. In 2022, my dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a specific type of blood cancer. We caught it pretty late but we were hopeful for a while. In August, he had to undergo [96] hours straight of chemo because of how much it had progressed. Three days before I joined on my birthday, the doctors told us he was going to die; basically like the strongest treatment didn’t work so there weren’t any more options.

When I joined (and some days still now) I was sort of manic, my mom and dad decided to put their entire life savings into a treatment center in Mexico as a last ditch effort to try and give my dad more time. My first post, “I’m growing up” was written that day. I say in its description, “Growing up and other things I can’t say out loud.” And ultimately that’s sort of why I joined YWS.

For my entire life I’ve loved writing. In middle school, I wrote an entire 142 page novel over a period of 3 months, for no other reason than to just write it. I took creative writing classes in high school and in college. But with all that writing, I never really wrote about myself. Everything I wrote was fantasy and fiction.

I joined YWS while I was trying to make sense of myself and everything I was feeling. I legitimately felt (and sometimes still feel) like I am going insane. Describing that first work as, “growing up and other things I can’t say out loud” is still true for pretty much everything I’ve posted here at this point. As a kid, I used to post excerpts from my fictional works on this site called Descriptionari, and I wanted to post there but found my account had basically been deleted from years of disuse, and I couldn’t find a way to post on it again. So I looked up writing websites where I could post what I had to say and I ended up here.

I wasn’t in a place where I could say most of the things I was posting. In a lot of my pieces leading up to my dad’s death, I said very plainly that my dad was going to die. You can’t really say that out loud in real life. When I did, I’d get asked, “well why would you say that?” or “that’s not a good way to look at things” even though it was undeniably true (at least to me).

Basically, this has been a place for me to make sense of everything that has been on my mind and heart for the past two years. I’ve felt pretty alone through all of this, despite how big and close my family is. There’s just a lot of things you can’t share with family. YWS and the people here have made me feel less alone, and less insane.



F: The novel I wrote was this insane (because it sounds insane now) science fiction novel about this alien chick living on earth to hide out because her race is basically being eliminated. Her ancestors were from this moon and when the moon ran out of resources, they migrated to the moon’s planet and just became part of the people who lived there. But like the people from the moon were super cool and had crazy powers and stuff and the people from the planet didn’t. As time went by and the populations intermixed the power from the moon lineage weakened. Then there’s this war that breaks out between the planet and another planet and they use these super-powered individuals for war. Afterwards, when they win the war, they realize how dangerous these individuals are and decide to eliminate them all. That’s basically that book’s whole premise. But yeah the universe I made was insane like I had started writing five other off shoots and wrote a timeline and made a huge character map.

The other two books I wrote as part of my creative writing classes in high school for NanoWrimo. Those two didn’t end up as good because something about being required to write doesn’t bring out the best in me, plus you had to write the entire thing in a month which is insane, and we never did anything to prepare for writing a book like that. One of them was basically like the matrix I think and the other was a retelling of the little mermaid where the mermaids are actually sirens.

As far as other passions, I love to bake. I make amazing pies. I also love to read. I’m in two different book clubs and I’m on my 22nd book of the year. My goal is 52 books, but I’m hoping to pass it. My favorite books I’ve read this year so far are The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Some notable mentions though would be The Stranger by Albert Camus and Clytemnestra by Cortanza Casati. I’m currently finishing the 1,001 Arabian Nights (which I’ve read before) and The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai (which I’m already enjoying SIGNIFICANTLY more than No Longer Human)

I also love playing video games. I am an actual Mario Kart God and I actually went viral on tiktok in 2020 for Minecraft building tutorials. My favorite games ever would be the following:

Outer Wilds: an indie game where you are the first in a generation to travel and explore your solar system to uncover more about an ancient civilization that explored the solar system before your people even existed.

Inscyption: a pixelated card building game with an incredible story (if you don’t want to play it I reccomend watching Markiplier’s playthrough)

And of course Super Mario Galaxy: the best Mario game of all time. I will be walking down the aisle to the song Gateway Galaxy



F: That's a hard question. At one point in my life, it was my dream to write and publish a novel, but I found that the process of writing and publishing a book is a difficult one for me. It's been hard for me to sit down and write an entire book, mostly because I think I've excelled the best at writing short stories or flash fiction. The works I'm most proud of are the ones that aren't hundreds of pages long.

But aside from just the process of writing and publishing a book, the other thing that would make that hard is the vulnerability of it all. What I write is as much a part of me as my hands and my feet. When I write, I leave part of myself in it, even when it's fiction. One of the characters somehow becomes me, or at the very least, becomes someone I want to be, which is as personal as the former.

If I were to publish anything, it would probably have to be anonymous, but even then, the details would be too damning (or condemning if I'm not allowed to use that word here). Removing the details or changing them isn't an option for me, because that's what I think makes my work good. I think a lot of what I have written would make my family and friends mad, not because it's not true, but because it is true and they would rather not think about it.

For example, I don't think my best friend would like how I shared our text messages in my piece, "there's something wrong with me." I don't think my mom would like how I mentioned her tardiness in "how i've been doing," and my sister wouldn't like how I mentioned she misplaced all my dad's pool cues in "the first christmas without you," even though both are true. And that's not to say that any of these examples make me feel any negative feelings towards these people in my life, but I think they would just miss the point of everything else because of a single part being about them. Or they would ask me why I feel the way I do and I've always thought that's a stupid question to ask someone, like anybody can choose the way they feel.

This is all pretty much to say that I think I write mostly for myself. There's only one piece that I've shared with my family and that was "planet of the apes and other movies that are hard to watch," because it was the least damning of them all; it doesn't show too much of myself and it doesn't show too much of everyone else.



F: when you have something to say, keep writing.



There you have it, friends! I encourage you to go take a look at Farq’s amazing literary works, such as chess, rocks, and finger tattoos . Also, feel free to leave a message on her wall to congratulate her!

NAPO 2024: INTERVIEWS WITH SIX POETSwritten by Liminality< PM: >

Earlier this April, I interviewed six YWSers participating in NaPo on how the month-long poetry event was going for them. With this issue of Squills coming to you after an eventful month, it seems like a good time to look back on these thoughts and impressions. I had the opportunity to chat with @avianwings47, @yosh, @AmayaStatham, @Que, @Rook and @Meshugenah, who represent a wide range of the NaPo experience, from those who are doing it for the very first time and those who have gone through over a decade’s worth of NaPos.



avianwings47: This is my very first NaPo!

yosh: This is my third time participating! Unfortunately, I have never actually completed a NaPo, but hopefully I get all 30 poems done this year.

AmayaStatham: This is my first NaPo which certainly makes things interesting.

Que: I did NaPo for the first time in 2016, one year after joining YWS! I didn’t really see myself as a poet back then, but thought I’d try it. I’ve done it 6.5 times, and skipped last year.

Rook: I joined in May of 2013 and have participated every year since, so 10!

Meshugenah: This is my 17th year doing NaPo, though I still can't find more than a couple of poems from 2010 (all handwritten). Yes, that's where my thread title came from - that and the ribbing from multiple people over the years about the fact that I can't find most of that year anywhere.



avianwings47: Since I joined YWS just at the beginning of the year, I had no idea what NaPo was or what to expect. To be honest, I was initially intimidated! There are so many wonderful and experienced poets on YWS, and so many of them have been talking about NaPo weeks before it started. I will say, though, that I am so glad I'm doing NaPo. It's so nice to see everyone being so supportive, and it really encourages me to keep up with my goals, even when writer's block sneaks up on me. I was also surprised at the variety of goals everyone has this month. I mean, some poets are aiming for five poems, and others are trying to write multiple poems a day. And, again, everyone is being so supportive of each other, no matter what goal we're trying to achieve!

yosh: I was a little surprised by the sheer amount of people participating in NaPo. Nearly everyone on YWS is a poet!

AmayaStatham: The involvement of everyone certainly amazed me. I love the fact that everyone joined and just went for it. In poetry there's no right or wrong, everything is alright. ^^ I admit, I'm not the best poet, but the friendly comments and positivity inspired me. So now, it doesn't matter is my poems are not world class, I'm glad I'm doing NaPo! XD

Que: Honestly, I’m most surprised that I’m doing it! After my break last year and being off of YWS for a while, and away from writing in general, I didn’t think I’d get anywhere this year. But, I got caught up in all of the excitement and I’ve been going strong so far.

The other thing I will mention as being surprising is how hard it can be to write poems! It didn’t feel like they flowed easily and I really had to work to get them where I wanted. But I think that with a little bit of practice, it’s been going a little better now.

Rook: I'm surprised that I've been able to find time every day to write. I have been supremely busy these first two weeks, but I really have been able to carve away a little bit of time every day to write something!

Meshugenah: Every year I think it may get easier, and that's an absolute lie. I end up with a lot of the same general themes, in part due to the time of year. The least surprising thing of mine is that I have days where I can churn out two or three poems, and then others when it's a massive struggle to make a single coherent line. I've done better than I thought, though, considering how little I'd written before this month.



avianwings47: This NaPo, my favorite poem I've written is actually the poem I submitted for the first round of April Madness: Fingertips & the Lines of My Palms

yosh: Definitely my ninth poem. It's feels really raw and emotional and kind of dark and creepy at the same time. But also I'm probably biased cause it's the last poem I wrote.

AmayaStatham: I have two I like the most now: A Glowing Candle Fades & A Girls Choice’s Fictional

Que: That’s a tough call! I did really love viii. , my eclipse poem, because of how powerful that experience was to me. But I also felt good about v. , because it was one where I just let my thoughts flow and played with language and some ideas I don’t usually give voice to.

Rook: I think my favorite right now is either "Small, new animal" or "Postcard Ghazal."

Meshugenah: Oooh. Favorite poem of mine this year is tough, partly because I am my own worst critic, and most of these I'm not done fiddling with. I do like my very first one , and the set I've started titled "california gothic," though that's mostly because those are fun to write and play with.

And that’s a wrap! Hopefully everyone has enjoyed another wonderful National/Global Poetry Writing Month. As we’ve heard from these poets, NaPo can bring surprises despite being a regular event. While writing poetry can be challenging, we can always look to our fellow YWSers for encouragement and support – and the comfort that we’re not alone!

GREEN ROOM GALLERYwritten by Spearmint < PM: >

Psst... do you hear it? Those soft little cries for help in the distance? I suspect they're coming from poor forgotten works in the Green Room, who've been buried there for months. Quick, let's don our trusty Knights of the Green Room armor and rescue them with some reviews!
As of the writing of this article, there are 90 works with zero reviews and 185 works with one review in the Green Room . I know a lot of us on YWS are busy with NaPo and/or Camp NaNo right now, but hopefully we can find some time to review and help clear out the Green Room soon!
Seeing as it's NaPo, I've decided to highlight some lovely poems that you can review.

purity (defilement) by @spunkyspacekitty
This poem features powerful word choice, purposeful use of punctuation and italics, and lovely creativity. This is definitely a poem I could read over and over, finding deeper layers of meaning each time. Here's a sample line: "unveiled by a cataclysmic intimacy". Isn't reading it out loud almost like singing?

The Artist by @herbalhour
First, this poem invites the reader to consider whether the artist truly made their masterpiece. Did the artist make "all their brushes and paints", or was it "just fate that they were there", or was it that they "borrowed from nature"? Of course, all isn't as it seems! The artist and the masterpiece are metaphors, and there's an interesting twist at the end.

Ano Ang Guro? (What is A Teacher?) by @AkuRashomon
I'm a huge fan of foreign language poems. The topics and styles that poems can have is so diverse, so isn't it fitting that the languages they're written in can be similarly diverse? Don't worry if you can't read Filipino, though; the author has included an English translation of this fabulous poem!

Keep On keeping On Song. by @PEL
This is a lovely song that uses repetition to emphasize the message of keeping on keeping on. Although tragedies may happen, there will still be beauty, and we can still keep on keeping on. For a bonus challenge, why not try singing it?

The Comedi-hen Strikes Again by @KateHardy
Who doesn't love some good chicken poetry? Check out this poem for a story about a comedi-hen who comes up with some egg-cellent puns. Ex-peck lots of fun and laugher, and even a poultry-gheist!

War and Geese by @Horisun
Ahh, the epic battle of Gary and Shredder, the fearsome geese of the lake! First comes the setting, then introductions of the warring sides, then the dramatic battle and its conclusion. Who shall be the victor?

There are plenty of other stories and works to review in the Green Room , so why not venture out there sometime? And don't forget to join the Knights of the Green Room and log the green beasts you slay. ;D Happy reviewing!!

ICY'S READING LOG: APRIL written by IcyFlame< PM: >

As you're probably all aware by now (because I talk about it every issue) I set myself the challenge of reading 52 books over 2023. This year, I'm back with an even more challenging task: I'm going to read 60 books in 2024 (that's more than one a week!). I'm using our monthly Squills issue as a bit of accountability, but also to keep you all updated on the best (and worst) of the books I'm reading so far.

(As always, if you're looking to read these books, please make sure to check the ratings and trigger warnings if you need to).

In April, I've been very preoccupied by undertaking both NaPo and Camp NaNo (to varying degrees of success) and this combined with the sheer amount of consumer research I've been attending means I've not had much time for reading. I'm just about on track for 60, but I need to pick up the pace again next month!

Books read this month: 3
Total book count: 20/60


1. The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith:
We're leaving all commentary about the author at the door because that's not what this article is and frankly I don't have the space to even try to decipher it all here. This series of books was leant to me by a family member and I've read every single one of them throughout the course of the last twelve months. This one though, was my absolute favourite. It's definitely dark, and easily twice the length it needs to be but the psychology of it was fascinating and it left me in something of a book coma for days after reading it. 5 stars.

2. Heir of Uncertain Magic by Charlie N. Holmberg:
The second in a cosy fantasy series that gives @BluesClues vibes in the best way. Merritt Fernsby is on a journey to understand his magical lineage whilst navigating his new courtship with former housekeep Hulda from the Biker Institute. But all is not right with their world. This one wasn't quite as good as the first in the series, but the characters are what make the story, and the writing is as beautiful as ever. I'm clearly feeling generous this month because this was another 5 star read.

3. Funny Story by Emily Henry:
I've had mixed experiences with Emily Henry books in the past, and was a little cynical because the last one I read just wasn't for me but I devoured this one in under a day (sorry for the constant updates to those who follow me on GoodReads!). Daphne's fiance leaves her for his best friend, and she ends up moving in with the best friend's ex. Naturally, all kinds of things ensue. I loved this book for the beautiful setting and the strong friendships more so than the romance, though I loved that too. Waning Bay has my heart. 4 stars.


So there you have it, YWS, a round up of my reads for April. Let me know if you check any of them out, and if there are any I should add to my list for next month. I look forward to updating you in May!

CAMP NANO APRIL 2024written by Spearmint < PM: >



What is Camp NaNo?
If you've heard of NaNo, or National Novel Writing Month, well, Camp NaNo is like that— but more relaxed! If you haven't heard of NaNo, to sum it up: it takes place in November and the standard challenge is to write 50,000 words (or about the length of a novel) in a month. While the goal of Camp NaNo is also to write, participants are encouraged to set their own goals! Those goals might include writing 20,000 words, planning for a novel, revising a novel, or doing anything prose-related that you'd like.
Here on YWS, Camp NaNoers typically create their own threads in the Camp NaNo forum where they can keep track of their progress. People can also write encouraging comments on other Camp NaNoers' threads! The community is one of the best parts about doing Camp NaNo on YWS.

What was it like this year?
This year, in late March, @Rose and @Spearmint ran #NaNoTags, which encouraged Camp NaNoers (or ywsers in general) to participate in fun activities to help them brainstorm! The four tags were: #FavCharacter , #OneSentence, #SpoilerAlert, and #ShareAQuote . There was also #CatchUpDays , which encouraged ywsers to catch up on any hashtags they might have missed.
With #FavCharacter , ywsers could share their favorite characters from their projects and describe some of those characters' roles in their stories. #OneSentence invited ywsers to summarize their novels in one sentence, and #SpoilerAlert encouraged ywsers to reveal a plot twist that they'd read or one from their upcoming novels (in a spoiler, of course). The last hashtag, #ShareAQuote , involved sharing a quote that inspired ywsers as they started or worked on their projects.
Thanks a ton to Rose, who was the creative genius behind these #NaNoTags! They truly made preparing for Camp NaNo easier and more fun. I hope to see a return of #NaNoTags for future Camp NaNos and NaNos.
This year, there were twenty Camp NaNo threads created. Goals ranged from drafting new novels to working on drafts of existing novels to revising drafts. Congrats to all the Camp NaNoers who reached their goals! And regardless of how much progress you made on your goals, hopefully Camp NaNo was helpful in motivating you to start working on them!

When's the next Camp NaNo?
There'll be another Camp NaNo in July. NaNo is also coming up in November. We hope to see you all then!!

IN ONE SENTENCE, SHARE WHY YOU LOVE YWSwritten by EllieMae< PM: >

As I write this, YWS has a total of 53823 members, 99482 topics, and 1538132 posts! Since the site was formed in 2004, it has served as a community for writers all around the world. Do you want to hear more about YWS and the impact that it has had on its members? Recently, I asked a variety of site members to share one sentence that describes why they love YWS. Here are their responses.

I love YWS for the community, the support, and the amazing people here.

I love YWS because it’s a great place for friends, writing, and chaos ^^

I like YWS because of the encouraging and improving, changing community

I love YWS because it's a warm & welcoming community i'm proud to be part of!

Because YWS has You, Writing, and Soup!

I love YWS because of the community. With users from all around the world, I’ve built some awesome friendships on here. <3

I love YWS because I have been able to develop my writing skills.

The writing and reviewing aspect of YWS is amazing!

What incredible answers! Along with all of my friends words above, I agree that YWS is a welcoming and encouraging community for writing, making friends, and developing skills.

A NAPO QUICK REVIEW

written by alliyah < PM: >

As I'm writing this article, we are in literally the final ice cream scoop, whoops! I mean DAY of National Poetry Writing Month for 2024. I'll anticipate doing a fuller review in the month of May, but here's some of the immediate highlights of our 2024 National Poetry Writing Month Event.

New Faces

Every year, new poets rise to the challenge of trying to write poetry throughout the month of April! We had over 50 poetry threads in total with many new-to-YWS poets too! @envy was a stand-out writer, who managed to win April Madness this year, with the also talented @avianwings47 winning second place! New users bring new life into a yearly event with new ideas, new prompts, and new poetry!

Old Classics

Some Old Classics that we've come to love as part of NaPo were here again too! Like the April Madness Challenge hosted by @Quillfeather this year! We also saw the return of The Orchard organized by @LadySpark with @alliyah and @EllieMae as regular column writers - which was a great way to get a week-by-week update on NaPo and Poetry News on the site!

In addition to some of our favorite classic challenges, we also had the return of many of our favorite classic poets who make a special appearance during NaPo each year! It was fun reading poetry like from the threads of @Que, @Apricity, and @Hannah as well as many of our other YWS Classics!

Sweet, Sweet Poetry

While the last several years have had a "Jam" or "Orchard / Garden" theme, this year took on the theme of Ice Cream! With sweet poetry prompts, banners, and generally ice-cream themed hype throughout the month. One way the Poetry Crew engaged with this fun theme was through a new series of "Mini Challenges" called the Neapolitan Games where each week during April users were challenged to complete a Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry Challenge. @WeepingWisteria was particularly skilled at finding the mystery lines each week - being the first to find them twice in a row!

A Community of Poetry!

This year it was particularly fun to see how many poets were out in other threads encouraging each other! I've done many years of NaPo and I'd say this year I saw some of the most comments between poets ever - it was really encouraging and made the event feel more like a collaborative community party! There's actually still time to leave comments (even after April is over) so I would encourage everyone to check out the NaPo Forums in the days ahead and leave a word of encouragement or congratulations to those who have participated! I think you'll enjoy reading the sweet poetry you'll find there - I know I did! And also if you participated, don't forget to claim your badges here.

Finally a special thanks to the members of Poetry Crew who are responsible each year for organizing such a fun event for the site... @Meshugenah, @Plume, @Quillfeather, @EllieMae, @creaturefeature, @LadySpark - it's been a wonderful month hasn't it?

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