Young Writers Society

As we know, this June brings us not only holidays, but the fantastic and terrifying site-wide event - the first ever YWS Hunger Games!

For those of you who might still not know, it's a week-long event meant to challenge the participants' writing skills, at the same time encouraging team spirit and bringing lots of fun, and this special edittion, brought to you by members of the Squills team, will bring the news to you every day.

On the Final Challenge, see:
1. The Last Battle
2. Tracking Progress
3. News From the Districts
4. Updates!
5. Updates! 2.0


If you wish to subscribe or see something included, or are volunteering to be interviewed, prod @AriaAdams~

TRACKING PROGRESSwritten by AriaAdams < PM: >

Whoa!

Let's face it, this final challenge is really cool (like it even deserves a whole new thread for itself!), and entries coming in have that something adorable about them, that all the old pieces of writing share. Even though most of the submitted old versions were written when the authors were already teenagers, I keep imagining these itty bitty Tributsies typing on a typewriter on the floor because it's way too heavy for them to carry somewhere else.

Here I am, chilling in my studio, nomming on strange-flavoured chocolate, eagerly expecting the results of the first YWS Hunger Games! It's been a heck of a week - in the best sense possible - and as it gets closer to the end, I can't quite say if I'm sad or more excited. Surely curious to see who the Victor is, although in my book, all of the Tributes have done fantastic job!

@JamesHunt, once again, paid his respect to the last Tribute whose fall was marked by the sound of the cannon, @Storybraniac:







As a quick reminder, the final challenge for the Tributes was to find the oldest piece of writing they had, and then submit both that one and the new, edited version.

After @JamesHunt, who posted his work just a few hours after the official thread was posted, the first to do that was @ShadowVyper, with her old and new story.

She was followed soon by @defyingravity and her entry .

@Blackwood was too tired to battle with the Publishing Centre, and instead posted both his original and revised work in Google Docs! Hopefully the Capitol won't mind

@BiscuitsBatchAvoy posts about an hour later, and @retrodisco666 enters his submissions in the Final Challenge Official Thread !

@Pompadour then submits Clare , the revised version of the work she wrote when she was only 11, and @ongoeslife chooses to revise Lia , a work she wrote when she was 12 or 13, and which was posted from her old account!
Find the old version of Pompadour's and new version of ongoeslife's story in the Official Thread.

It's not hard to notice that @Piper's submission is not in there! Is it the cannons I am hearing in the distance, or did she just choose to send it directly to the Capitol via a PM?

I hope to find out soon, as @SparkToFlame announces the final results!

NEWS FROM THE DISTRICTSwritten by AriaAdams < PM: >

Although the Districts' forums have filled up a bit with six-word stories since my last update (see thread [2]!), the Districts have turned silent. Their eyes, I imagine, rest on the official thread, where the Capitol shall soon announce the Victor of the First YWS Hunger Games!
The Districtians hope to see one of their own. The Tributes hope to see themselves.

In the Districts, there is nothing much that still needs to be said.

@Pompadour uses the opportunity to thank her fellow Districtians in District One:






And to the other Districts, she says:






Nice of her, if you ask me! I too wish to say how glad I was to see all the team spirit the Districts have shown. Regardless if you were a Tribute yourself or not, regardless of which District you're from or how far you got, you did great!
You all did great.

Now we're not left to do much more than await, as the Capitol is reaching their decision on the final scores. Stay tuned, and good luck to the Tributes!

UPDATES!written by AriaAdams < PM: >

With all the stories submitted for the Final Challenge, the Capitol seems to have troubles deciding on the winner!
It is really no surprise, if you take a look at challenges which these Tributes have already completed, and the awesomeness of all of the submitted works for this last battle, but we all nonetheless hope to see the results soon.

In the meantime, I decided to bring you this little sneak-peek behind the scenes, or How It All Begun.

Really, it was quite simple. The billion-times-tagged @SparkToFlame popped in one day saying this:






While "cute little thing" might be an understatement, seeing how much Games-related involvement we're seeing all around and how wonderfully important it seems to be to the participants, this is such a great proof how relatively simple ideas can grow into something spectacular when people get together and go through with it!
And of course, also, how books we read can inspire us. Never underestimate the power of that

Allow me to also illustrate the actual effort put into organisation of the Games, and why Capitol is amazing and you shouldn't take it too hard that it's taking them a while to judge the last entries, by this simple sentence, said somewhere back in the Capitol's HQ:






Yup, that's right! The idea was thought of nearly two months ago, and time flew!
In case you were ever wondering who created the Games banner used in the first announcement thread and other places (including my studio ^^), it's the courtesy of @Aquestioning.

And if you maybe wondered what some of the Capitol members would've picked in the Blood Bath, here's what a few of them said.
@Birkhoff applauded the five choice ideas, and added:






Spark kept it simple, saying:






..while @OliveDreams was a bit more specific about her choice:






Definitely interesting thing to think of, even though that challenge is already long gone, isn't it?

Now, everyone, remember when I said this:





?

Well, I kind of decided to actually do it, except I counted the overall number of tags for each person, and came up with three winners! I will let you know that my list is really long, even though I didn't count the names of Tributes which appeared only in the announcements from the Capitol (their quotes and interviews, as well as District activity, was counted, though!)

So, except for Spark, who got tagged a total number of 16 times(I'msosorry), on first place is @Blackwood, with 8 mentions of his name in this Squills Special.
Following closely, on the second place is @JamesHunt, with 7 tags, while the third place is shared by @Strange, @retrodisco666 and @ongoeslife, each with 6 tags!

I can only be as generous as my pointcount allows me, yet I've decided to award 100 points to each person on 3rd place, 150 points to James and 200 to Black.
Have fun using those while I go off reviewing like crazy~!

And of course, stay tuned for the final results!

UPDATES! 2.0written by AriaAdams < PM: >

As the winner still hasn't been announced, and the Capitol fell silent, the Tributes are getting more and more impatient!

@retrodisco666 dared to speak of what everyone feared:






A scary thought, but don't worry, everyone! I can assure you, the Capitol is still standing and still judging - in fact, there are some discussions lead behind the scenes, and the final winner run will indeed be a very close one!

At some point yesterday, about 22 hours before now, I found out another thin which I shared with the Tributes .
In short, there's Resistance trying to sabotage the Capitol, not liking all the attention the Games are getting. So what to do to help it, you ask?

It's quite simple, actually - divert their attention by reviewing!
There's even a challenge for you:

Complete 40 reviews by the time the Capitol announces their decision (it's still vague when that will be, so it's a game of luck and you might be wise to hurry up!), and if you succeed, one of the members of the Capitol will come review one of your works!
You're collecting the reviews together, and each person participating gets the prize. Sounds good, no? =D

So far, @BiscuitsBatchAvoy, @retrodisco666, @defyingravity01, @JamesHunt and @ShadowVyper have already headed towards the Literary tab or the Green Room.

Getting busy with reviewing, James even added:






Meanwhile, @Blackwood questioned my possible evil plan:






In the latest news, I was told that @Pompadour went even further, and I have proof:






I can see right through those strikethrough letters, miss!

Are they right? Will the Tributes succeed? Will the Capitol rise and finish the judging soon?
I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't wait to hear the answers!

VICTORS and WRAP UPwritten by AriaAdams < PM: >

Yes, it's true!
Finally, after long time of discussing and consulting, the Capitol has reached their decision. It's been a long and exhausting battle. All of the Tributes did spectacularly, and I am so very proud! You guys were ~*fabulous*~. Really.

However, only two could be crowned Victors of the very First YWS Hunger Games. The lucky duo comes from District Four and their names are @ShadowVyper and @Blackwood!
Excellent job, both of you, and wear your titles with pride!

Go ahead, congratulate them on their walls or in the official announcement thread ! They deserve it.

All in all, to wrap this up. These very first YWS Hunger Games, hopefully not the last, were thought of for you by @SparkToFlame, which she deserves some cheering for. It's been a long run, exciting to observe and, I can only imagine, even more exciting to participate in! As someone who followed every moment of it, I can tell it was an amazing event which kept a lot of people interested, awakened team spirit and helped building friendships. Well done to all of you - Districtians, the Capitol, supporters, reviewers, cheerers, friends and, of course, Tributes!

With mixed feelings, I am now locking my studio until it's put into use with the next event of the sort. What will it be? Will you be a part of it?

Time will tell