Young Writers Society

I'D LIKE A LARGE COMBO, PLEASEwritten by megsug < PM: >

Okay, that's not quite how orders in The Knights of the Green Room work, but it's close. For those of you who don't know, orders are groups of knights and squires. These groups are united in some fashion, normally a goal of some sort.

For example, Knight @Hannah's brand new order, The After Watch is united in its goal to keep the works in the Green Room under fifteen.

Why should you join orders like Knight Hannah's?

It's always better to review with friends.
Like watching movies or shopping, reviewing is more fun with other people. Whether it creates that competition you need or introduces you to other reviewers, you'll never be reviewing alone in an order.

It gives you a goal to strive for.
Whether it's ten reviews a month or three, orders give you a goal, and goals help people stay on task. These goals can be quantity oriented or quality oriented. Either way, these goals help keep you focused.

It helps you on your journey as a knight!
The more you review, the farther you get in your knighthood. These orders help you with that. Before no time you'll have whatever you've got your sights set on!

What do you have to do to join an order?

Well, it's pretty simple. Sign up to become a squire. If you aren't familiar with how to do that check here . After that, you're set. Just post on the thread to sign up or check the thread to see what the leader of the order wants you to do.

What orders are there to join now?
The After Watch led by Knight Hannah is dedicated to keeping the Green Room clear the days following Review Day.

The Order of Dragons led by Knight Dragon (@dragonfphoenix) is dedicated to a realistic review goal: one review a week and ten reviews a month.

The League of the Tortoise led by Knight Pokey (@megsug) is dedicated to quality over quantity.

Obviously, three isn't that many. If you think you have an idea for an order, post a thread in Knights of the Green Room and call knights to join you in battle.

You should head on over to the Knights of the Green Room and check these orders out or make one yourself right now!

GREEN ROOM GALLERY
by KnightTeen < PM: >

INCOMING!!!!!

REVIEW DAY ALERT!!!!!

And I have to say, the Green Room is as full as it's ever been.
I'm not kidding either, there are over two hundred works currently sitting in the room. Some of them may or may not be mine.
So we should have fun this review day.

Just a little advice for our newbies (and repeated advice for our regulars):
1) Take your time
A good review does not write itself, nor is it written instantly. By taking your time, you increase your understanding of what the author is saying and it will be easier to find things to say. Typically, you should take about ten minutes to write a review (unless the piece is short).
2) READ THE PIECE THOROUGHLY
Whether it's a short story, long chapter, or poem, actually reading the work helps a lot. Sometimes you can even go back and look at certain sections to further your understanding.
3) Don't just give praise
While it's great to tell the author how amazing their work is, we have to remember that no one here is perfect. And just gushing over how great a piece is isn't really a review. Everyone will have something that can use a little tweaking.
So, find something that you think could use some work and mention that to the author. You never know, it might help.

Those are the three things that I always try to remember when I write a review. Now, I will admit that occasionally I write a gusher, and that's fine. Everyone needs to gush every once in a while.

But writing a good review is important, and something that I think everyone should strive for.

Oh well. Enough boring talk.
I think we're done for today, don't you? Since practically everyone site-wide is going to be visiting the GR this weekend, I don't think that I need to do a feature.

Let's try to empty it though, shall we?

NEW ARRIVALSwritten by Hannah < PM: >

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

While @Baesch may have been having some problems with the Publishing Center, one of our newest “internet presence”s from Ireland had no problem sprucing up her profile to include a mesmerizing avatar and other gorgeous pictures (oh, and also a meme...). She writes “mainly poetry and a dystopian kind of fiction”, so if that sounds like the kind of thing you’d like to read, follow her and wait for the issues with the PC to be resolved so she can share her work with us!~

@Garier comes to us from the United States Air Force, and calls himself “adorkable”. See if you can’t pick up any of his charm in his recently published romantic poetry. You might choose between Assassin or Dreams !

@Nikachu has probably the cutest avatar you’ll ever see and what’s more is that this full-time ice cream eater has already made 8 reviews, earning the write to publish two chapters of their work Behind a Painting . It opens with thoughts about ice cream. They were not kidding about the ice cream.

@RoxieRain has three dogs, two cats, and twelve chickens! She also has more than 14 reviews to her name in just two short days – what a trooper! Why not pay back some of that hard work by seeing what you can dig up in her portfolio after you leave a quick welcome on her wall? Be a good citizen~ That’s it~

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 6/29written by Hannah < PM: >

Round and round and round the mouse wheel goes, but when it stops scrolling – nobody knows! Stop yer scrolling here and get the finest links we have to offer~



What a headline! When @lakegirls asked about whether having a character take their first sip of alcohol around the age 11 would realistic, I bet she didn’t expect to get such interesting answers. But it turns out that different countries and different feelings have – who would have guessed – different feelings when it comes to a kid’s first experience with booze. Check out the thread to find out more!



It seems like ages ago that @Cole ventured to ask the question that no one really expected:






The first few replies were hesitant to support the idea, balking at the absurdity of it. I mean, it’s a hard thing to think about: a whale exploding. Even harder to try to consider it in a literary work, but that doesn’t mean Cole was about to give up.

And at long last, @Kyllorac arrived on the scene to share why they thought it might, after all, have some staying power. I’ll admit I didn’t think a big sack of blubber would really be enough to kill somebody, but after hearing Kyll’s musings, I would probably believe it if it were to show up in the next short story I read. See the thread for yourself!



@dhyan, and frankly myself as well, are curious about the process of learning idioms and subsequently putting them to use in our writing. For writers whose first language is not English and who might not get as much easy exposure to the language, how do we know when we’ve learned an idiom or chunk of language correctly?

@niteowl, for example, is still confused by this chunk of English:






I mean, you can grow to understand a piece of language without ever really sitting down and making sure you know the real definition, so do you think this works for people learning a language as their second or third as well? Weigh in on the thread!



Lastly, in honor of @JamesHunt’s new column running this week, we thought we’d give you some tips to go out and tackle more novels in the Green Room by making sure you see @Tenyo’s awesome post in the YWS section of the Knowledge Base .

See her simple three step advice to tagging along for the long haul, which includes the fact that it’s okay to not review every single chapter (even though you know you want to for the points...). Are you ready to be a novel warrior?

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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