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. TAKE THAT, YOU REVIEWER!
3. RESOURCES RELAY
4. WRITER OF THE WEEK INTERVIEW WITH LAURE
5. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW WITH GOLDFLAME
6. LIBRARY LOVES
7. THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP - 3/30
8. SHAMELESS PLUGS
9. SUBSCRIBERS

ADVENTURES IN WRITINGwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Welcome to the second step of the revision process: editing. As I discussed in the first post of my revision series, rewriting is concerned with the story as a whole and thus focuses on massive issues like plot holes and character motivation. Editing, however, works on a more scene-by-scene basis. Here are three things you should try to do in this stage of revision.

Fix inconsistencies in the details. Some of my reviewers for The Book Man are still able to point these out to me, even after I read through the manuscript aloud. For example, in the original draft my main character climbed over the wall the first time he entered Celadon Park. Later I changed it so that he came in through the gate instead, but because I did a lot of copy-pasting from the first draft to the second (and third) there was still a part that referred to “over the wall.” My sister pointed this out by writing on her copy of the manuscript, “What wall? I thought he came in through the gate.”

Oops.

Inconsistencies such as these aren’t make-or-break things that will ruin your story if you don’t fix them. They don’t matter to the plot. But not fixing them shows an inattention to detail that will resonate with agents and editors in a bad way.

Now, why didn’t I catch that detail even when I read aloud? Because it made sense to me. Because, even though my brain knew I’d changed how my MC entered the park for the first time, another part of my brain remembered writing that he came over the wall. It didn’t occur to me that this was an inconsistency, because it made sense with previous drafts.

To avoid this sort of brain phenomenon, it’s a good idea to have a trusted friend read your manuscript closely and look for inconsistencies like this. Since your friend didn’t write the story, she’s more likely to catch details that don’t gel with each other.

Fix small inconsistencies in characterization. Inconsistencies in characterization can affect the outcome of your plot, but that’s not what you should be dealing with in this stage of revision. If you had any large out-of-character actions that drove entire scenes and drastically changed the plot, you should have taken care of them while still in the rewriting stage.

Now, you should focus more on little things your characters say and do that seem wrong. For example, if your character says something that sounds more like a different character would say, either cut the line, change how the line is said, or change who’s saying it.

A good exercise for figuring out if your characters’ dialogue is consistent is this: Go through your piece, scene by scene, and copy-paste the dialogue—just the dialogue, no tags or anything else—to a separate document. Leave it alone for a couple of days. Then go back, open the document, and see if you can figure out which of your characters is speaking just from the dialogue. This can be time consuming, but it can be fun as well. It lets you know if there are any lines that sound either like they’re being said by the wrong character or could be said by anyone.

If you’re too familiar with your story to do this yourself—that is, if you can name who says any line of dialogue no matter where or when it appears or how generic it is—the solution is simple: have a friend read the dialogue and label it for you. You can give him a chart with the characters’ names and have him guess who said each line, or he can label the lines with colors, letters, or numbers to indicate which lines are said by the same character. If he gets more wrong than right, you know you might have a problem keeping characterization consistent.

Slow scenes down or speed them up. Does a romantic moment zip by so quickly it almost doesn’t happen? Does an action scene drag until it bores your readers? Now is the time to fix that. Again, changing details of these scenes won’t affect the plot, but it will make your story read better.

How do you slow down a scene? Add in details. In my case, I needed to slow down both the kisses that happen in The Book Man, especially the second. If your kiss looks like mine, it reads this way: “Then s/he leaned down and kissed him/her.” Bam, that’s it. Once sentence.

The sad thing is, I’d really been looking forward to this kiss. I love these two characters, and they’re so in love that I almost can’t stand it. And yet, that line I gave you is just about exactly how their kiss went.

Then I read a blog post on how to write romantic scenes without making them clichéd mush (or, in my case, practically nonexistent). While it was written with a specific kind of scene in mind, the advice it gave can work for slowing down any scene: consider the emotional impact of an event on your characters, consider how their personalities will affect their reaction, consider what their senses feel or their bodies do in a certain situation.

When speeding a scene up, however, you might want to cut some of the sensory details. A certain amount is fine, but an action scene can get dull if you go on and on about your character’s heart pounding, hands shaking, gut tingling, teeth gritting, sweat rolling off his face and so on and so forth. You don’t need to name every move in a duel, either, or to describe exactly what the armies involved in your epic fantasy war are doing in a given battle.

(I’m looking at you, Terry Brooks.)

If a scene drags, look at all the details you included and determine which ones are the most important. Keep those and cut the rest. Read over the scene again and see how it’s improved—and remember that you can always add details back in later if you decide the scene needs them after all.

There you have it: three things to do while editing. Join us next week for the exciting conclusion to the series on revision: step three, proofing.

TAKE THAT, YOU REVIEWER!

written by BloodinkSeesFootage < PM: >

A controversial work, An essay against gay marriage., written by @TakeThatYouFiend; caused a debate about the dos and dont's of reviewing. Which leads to the question... how far can you go before people wish to put a ban on freedom of expression?

Before interview Squills checked out some of the reviews and comments made on the work, where lies the hearted debate about the subject matter of TTYF's essay.

@mystory94






@Basilisk:






@ThereseCricket:






@WindSailor







After such diverse views... Squills managed to grab TTYF for a few questions about his work and why he thought there was such controversy surrounding his subject matter.



TTYF: People are generally shocked when I tell them I am against gay marriage. They assume I'm wrong, trying to suppress rights and get in the way of true love, which I am not. I will probably re-write it, as this version is heavily based on something from a word war.



TTYF: Very important. I am a strong believer in freedom of speech. Real freedom, not just the politically correct opinion. If it's controversial, so much the better. But don't expect people not to argue against it. Freedom of speech cuts both ways.



TTYF: I am grateful of the reviews I have received; and comments arguing against the points I made. There was an issue with the first review, where the entire works was basically rewritten... then the author removed it. I included a note asking that, should someone just wish to argue against the essay, mark it as a comment. I was fine with reviews done by people who disagreed with me, I just didn't want a load of reviews that weren't reviews at all.



TTYF: Firstly, if you are writing a review, make sure it really is a review. Not just arguing against what they have written. Also remember to be polite. Other than that do whatever you want. If you are really nervous about reviewing a controversial work just stick to the basics, and leave meaning well alone. Look at structure, SPG and clarity. That sort of thing.


So there we have some sensible advice on how to deliver a good review.
Head on over to TTYF's essay and leave your comments and reviews.

Keep writing

~BSF

RESOURCES RELAYwritten by Tenyo < PM: >

This Week in Resources

It seems we’ve dug out all our resources already. The forum is sparse and the Green Room is overflowing! Let’s look this week then not at what we’re writing, but how we’re doing it.


Question!

Reading other peoples work is essential in developing your own style. True or False? Find out the answer in the Fortune Cookie Wisdom at the bottom of this article.


Smash it up!

So, I post a thread earlier asking what you guys think about the wonderful rules of grammar, the awkward rules of grammar, and the really, really annoying rules of grammar. It seemed we sparked off a bit of a debate. Do we want to break the rule on fragments and have a novel full of 5-word-or-less sentences, or do we want to break the rule on run-ons and have a novel full of 5-sentence-or-less chapters?

Some other interesting responses also came up. @WritingWolf made a great point about how when I and E neighbour each other in a word, then you follow the ‘I before E except after C’ rule, but it’s such a weird one. Maybe we imported it along with some of those other fancier foreign words? I’m not sure if it’s entirely efficient enough to reinforce though.

See what I did there?

Read more or jump in to defend the grammar system in Which Rule Would You Burn?


Logic Vs Intuition

Watching Logic and Intuition argue with each other, is like watching a toaster argue with a frying pan. One is round, one is square, one is heated internally and one is heated externally, one has its own strict timer and heat settings and the other just goes with the flame.

The truth is that regardless of whether you prefer eggs or toast, you still need both to make a Full English.

Logic is the mathematician and the mapmaker. He keeps track of what time the buses run and how many people are in the tour group. He counts the footsteps of all your characters one by one, checks their routes before they walk and remembers where the keys were left when they suddenly need a ride. He’s the one who moves the constellations, makes sure the sun gets up at the beginning of each day and lays it to rest at night.

Without him your characters would age at different rates, men would starve without the sense to find food, and you could end up trapped in a world of darkness, never knowing how long it might take for the earth to remember that morning has to come.

On the other hand you have Intuition. She’s the creator and the artist. She guides the characters down the roads they need to follow, turns their fleeting loyalties to unconditional devotions, and exists in them so that they can learn to love- or learn to hate. She’s the one who steps outside the confines of reality and takes you to places that common sense tells you never to tread, and she does so as if such things were a natural part of life.

Without her the world would turn on its cogs, a greyscale pallet would suffice for all things- flowers, sunsets, irises- and the impractical, no matter how beautiful, would be washed away.

Or at least, that’s my take on it. You can read more in @dhyan ’s thread on Logic and Intuition .


Bland, bright or bleak?

We discuss writing methods all the time, but here’s one I haven’t thought of much. There are pretty strict guidelines as to what your manuscript should look like when you send it off to a publisher, but what does it look like while it’s on your computer?

For some people it’s a matter of readability. If you’re going to be spending a hundred or more hours with your nose glued to the screen then it makes sense to adjust your font and style to something easy on the eyes.

For others, it’s a matter of productivity. Larger writing fills the page faster, which is an encouragement to keep going since we feel like we’re being more productive. Invisible writing stops us from seeing what we really aught to be editing, so we get things done faster.

And then there’s just plain fun. I mean, who hasn’t at some point tried to write a novel in Comic Sans? Changing fonts, backgrounds and sizes, helps to freshen things up and even provide an alternative perspective on our work when it comes to the editing and proofreading phase.

So let’s hear it! Head over to @AriaAdams thread on Favourite Fonts, Spacing, Styles and Stuff .

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

Reading other peoples work is essential in developing your own style. True/False?

It’s true! This may not be the answer some of you were expecting.

For a start, we are all unique- whether that’s because of the way we were born or raised, every one of us is naturally different- however being unique doesn’t necessarily make us naturally equipped. A warrior may admire the gleam of the sword and choose that as his weapon simply because it’s most familiar to him, but he’ll never realise how natural the bow feels in his style and stance unless someone first teaches him how to make one.

@Writersdomain goes into it in more detail in this thread about Developing Style .

WRITER OF THE WEEK INTERVIEW WITH LAUREwritten by Messenger < PM: >


Once again I have had an exciting week (I hope you have as well) and for @Laure it was a particualrly exciting week. Why? Because she is the latest Writer Of The Week! (WOTW) I spoke with her this week and here is the conversation!



Laure: I was most definitely shocked and I will admit, when I got the notification and I think I had this stupid grin on my face for a full ten seconds. Because I really couldn't believe I was WOTW especially in the short story section because I have never considered myself a good short story writer. It is definitely the most special that has happened to me on YWS, the best too actually. *grins*



L: It is very exciting because I think YWSers can have something to look forward and strive towards except the FM. I think it really thrills those writers out there like me, who isn't entirely convinced of their writing and when they are selected as WOTW they feel very special and valued.



L: Hmmm, I think it is as much as chance it is much in writing. My only suggestion would be make sure to write lots and review lots (so you can gain experience and points!) and just write a lot in general!




As I said in the interview, it really excites me and the entire WOTW founders and co-workers that this has become so popular on YWS so quickly. We'll continue to do it faithfully and if you would like to take the time to help just click on the little envelope at the top of the article! Coming up this next week will be the article/essay writer of the week an after that it will be the novelist week once again, so be working hard; you may just be nominated!

~Messenger

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW WITH GOLDFLAMEwritten by Messenger < PM: >

These past two weeks we've had another really cool member as Featured Member, and this week I was able to chat with this really cool member named: @GoldFlame.



GoldFlame: Thanks! It was a huge surprise. I popped on to--well, the usual: check the notifications, browse the forums. I think my heart skipped a beat. Or two or three. Still feels strange, seeing my name on the homepage! An awesome sort of strange.



GF: Oh, sorry. Misread the question.

I didn't even know what FM stood for until recently . Then I always assumed that the YWSers who've been the most active would receive the honor.



GF: Great question! I had to think about it a little.

Don't try too hard. It's a great honor, but FMs aren't defined by their ... activeness. Oh, cool. That's a word. Just relax; enjoy yourself, and by doing that, you might make the homepage. And water tastes the sweetest on dry lips--or is it just me who loves surprises?

I suppose that reviewing does factor into FM, as well. You may've noticed that the previous FMs post high-quality reviews. They don't just skim the piece and tickle a few keys.

Can't think of anything else. So, yeah ... enjoy yourself. That's why YWS is for.



GF: Thanks!


That concludes another one of my interviews with all these neat Featured Members! If you would like too see more be sure to subscribe to Squills! Until next time!

~Messenger

LIBRARY LOVESwritten by OliveDreams < PM: >

I'm delighted to introduce my guest this week, @ZLYF, who's here to tell us all about his top picks for the bookshelf! Take it away, ZLYF.

Something New:

The Jungle is Neutral by F. Spencer Chapman

ZLYF: It's a docudrama that really gives an interesting insight into the Emergency in Malaysia during the 1950-60s.

Something Familiar:

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R Martin

Z: This book has really good story development and I think Martin has actually improved from the first novel, which was not as good in my opinion.

Something Loved:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Z: There is so much one can learn from The Art of War, that I think I would need until the end of time to fully absorb everything!

Thanks so much, ZLYF! I've definitely learnt about some new books with you & I love that you've brought us way off the beaten track.

Next week, it could be anyone of you!

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP - 3/30written by megsug < PM: >

Oh snippity snap, four links coming your way.


@fortis has some pretty fantastic tidbits on the world of handwriting and what it says about you or any characters you may want to expound on. Even the way handwriting slants means something:







There are so many other aspects of handwriting that you can find here, including what a schizophrenic's handwriting would look like! Go check them out.


@Isha gives us a tutorial (whoa, how cool! For more check out Writing Tutorials ) on how to write characters of different race/sexuality/gender/mental stability/anything that might possibly be different. It's a pretty fantastic thread, opening up with a fantastic piece of advice:







Struggling with a character that isn't like you? See if Isha has help for you.



What grammar rule irritates you? Or is there a grammar error that makes you twitch every time you see it? Everyone seems to support burning either the fragment rule or the run-on rule, but @GreenLight24 is tired of something I also think is annoying.







I say we just burn the entire rule book, but what rule is your least favorite?


@ShadowKnight155 brings up a great question. Can anyone learn, or are some more prone to learning than others? Are 'stupid' children destined to be the same forever? @Zolen brings up a great point by bringing up the fact that most school systems don't attempt every learning style and how that affects them:






I'm rather glad to see that people agrees that everyone can learn. Do you agree?

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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