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. HOW TO PREP FOR NANOWRIMO
2. HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY
3. THE SEPTEMBER 2014 REVIEW DAY REVIEW
4. REVIEWING FROM THE REVIEWER'S PERSPECTIVE
5. TWO CENTS: SENSES
6. POETS OF THE PAST (AND OTHER LESS ASSONANT DUDES)
7. ASK GRUNO
8. THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP - 10/12
9. SHAMELESS PLUGS
10. SUBSCRIBERS

HOW TO PREP FOR NANOWRIMOwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Now that I’ve tricked you into convinced you to participate in one insane month of literary abandon, allow me to be your guide. After all, a good teacher wouldn’t put you in a class and give you an exam on the subject matter right off, would she? Of course not! She’d give you lessons and time to prepare first. So this week, in the spirit of good teaching, I’ll give you three ways to prepare for National Novel Writing Month.

Planning, planning, planning. Even if you’re a pantser, you should at least go into November with a good idea of what your story is going to be about. Otherwise, you might well end up staring at a blank page on November 1st, rather than kicking literary butt and cranking out the word count.

Planning can include anything from writing an outline or synopsis to taking detailed character notes to making maps of your world. The important thing to remember is that, while planning is helpful, you aren’t inexorably chained to your plans. Outlines can keep you on track and prevent writer’s block, but if you get a new idea for the plot halfway through, go with it.

Writing exercises. Especially word sprints. Stretch those writing muscles! Word sprints are a good way to get into the habit of writing as many words as possible in a short amount of time, while the use of writing prompts can challenge you to get creative with scenes and combat writer’s block. The official NaNoWriMo Twitter and Facebook page run word sprints and offer creative prompts and other points for inspiration, both before and during November.

Sign up on the NaNo website. The NaNoWriMo website has a forum dedicated to preparation, which includes a thread on how to choose between multiple plot ideas, a thread for finding writing buddies for the month of November, and tips for participation from NaNo veterans. In addition, there’s the Appellation Station—for help with character or place names and novel titles—and my favorite forum, the Adoption Society. People leave extraneous story points—characters, settings, plot twists, scenes, dialogue bits, and virtually anything else you can think of—which you can then adopt. Need a breakup line for your character to use? A band name? A closing line for the end of your novel? This is the place to find it.

The NaNoWriMo website is also where you’ll validate your word count at the end of the month to become an official winner, so it’s a good idea to sign up for a profile. Next week, I’ll walk you through the site so you can use it to your best advantage (or worst procrastination) come November.

Get started at the official NaNoWriMo website.
Find prewriting help on the NaNo prep forum.
Check out the Appellation Station for help with nomenclature.
Head to the Adoption Society if you need something extra for your story.

HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHYwritten by Gravity < PM: >


Hey Guys!
Gravity here! I just wanted to point out that yes, my byline is different. I recently went through a username change. I’m the same person as Defyingravity01 and I still do How Tos. Nothing really has changed.

Anyhow! I was looking through some writers biographies online, trying to learn more about Ray Bradbury to get a better understanding of his amazing novel, Fahrenheit 451. As I was looking online, I learned a lot about one of my favorite authors who once seemed untouchable and unrelatable. I had already fallen in love with a few of his short stories before he passed away in 2012. Then it got me thinking. The best way to understand an author’s work is to understand the author himself. But there are so many dull biographies out there that give you the dry facts, where they grew up, where they went to school, etc. So, in this How To, I’m going to teach you how to write a biography that won’t make your readers want to rip their eyes out! Yeah!

Moving On.

I’m cringing right now as I write this, but the best place to look for a good example of a biography is (swallows) Wikipedia. Sometimes Wikipedia information can be inaccurate because of its nature. Anyone can edit it. But the biographies I see there are all well organized and very interesting. So just as an example, I’m going to use the one on Ray Bradbury

Step 1: What is this blasphemy?

First, you need to tell the reader about who you’re writing about, and why. Why is this person important? What have they contributed to society? In the Wikipedia article mentioned above, they have a great intro






This introduction is lovely. The writer/s who wrote this did a great job with getting me interested. They mentioned the works I would know and would’ve heard of by Bradbury. It sort of gives you that “Oh. I know him!” Feeling. Notice how it doesn’t stop at the titles of his most famous works. It expands beyond that into other forms of writing he worked with including comic books, TV and films.

Step Two: Laying Out the Facts

Biographies need facts. It wouldn’t be a biography without factual information! However, this can sometimes be the most boring part. The best way to go about this is in chronological order. First, have a section based solely on the author’s life. Where did they grow up? Where did they go to school? What ideals were established when they were a child? This is the time to be vague. You will get deeper into the specifics later on in the bio.

Step Three: Going a Bit Deeper…

This is the time when you talk about the author’s inspirations. In the Wikipedia article, it talks about the author’s that influenced Bradbury in this section. It also describes in fuller detail the lifestyle he lived, people he looked up to and hobbies/interests he wanted to pursue throughout his life. For example, Bradbury grew up reading and illustrating comic books as well as writing horror. This makes a ton of sense because one of Bradbury’s main influences was Edgar Allan Poe who was known for his disturbing writing. And, Bradbury’s love of comic books explains how he has adapted his literature into comics.

Step Four: Knowing the Subject as a Person

Holy Crap! I just realized something. Authors, even the famous ones, are people too. They have thoughts and feelings and lives outside of their writing… just like we do. In the Wikipedia article there is a section titled “Personal Life” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. This is all about Bradbury’s love life (awww) his children, his friends, things and causes he supported as well as hardships he had to bear. This is where you get to know the heart and soul of the author. This is honestly one of my favorite sections of biographies because it makes the person you’re reading up on seem so much more relatable. It’s also easy to see the kind of company that influenced Bradbury’s writing. This is also a great time to quote the author outside of their writings and state their opinions on certain things. In this section, the Wikipedia Article conveys the way Bradbury saw technology.

Step Five: Killing the Biography

This is where you kill it. Stab it. Shred it to pieces. You are so sick of this person. You love them, you hate them, you want the biography to be over. And thankfully, just like every book, every life must come to an end. Unless the person you are writing about isn’t dead. In which case, that’s too bad. This part will just have to wait. Anyhow, this next part is about how the subject died. What year, how old were they, was family around? Did they die a natural death?

Step Six: The Conclusion

There are two ways to write this. If your subject has passed away, sum up their life. If you had to write a eulogy for this person, what would you say? What will they be most remembered for? Just a friendly reminder, if your subject is not alive today, this section should be written in the past tense.

The other way to write this is if the subject has not yet passed. This should be written in the present tense. It’s always good to include things like “Currently, Joe Shmoe lives in this random place with these random people who aren’t random to him and continues to…” Seriously, people eat that up.

This concludes another wonderful (hopefully not dull) How To! If you have any forms of writing (or even anything beyond that, I’m open to suggestions) that you would like me to cover, feel free to shoot me a PM! I’d love to hear your ideas! Until next time…

XOXO,
Gravity

THE SEPTEMBER 2014 REVIEW DAYwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

As you may recall, last week I wrote an article so short it barely warranted the title—a simple “here’s who won the September 2014 Review Day.” To make up for it, here, for your reading pleasure, is the extended news on last month’s Review Day.

September’s teams were Team Avada Kedavra and the Review Ninjas. Although both teams reviewed the heck out of the literary works and almost cleared out the Green Room, Team AK was the winner, completing 213 reviews for a total of 25,496 points. Altogether, YWSers (both on teams and individually) wrote 427 reviews.

Since I was unable to participate in the September Review Day myself, I interviewed YWSer @Zhia, a member of Team Avada Kedavra.



Zhia: I would say seeing all of those people super-motivated to review and help people improve their writing. Plus, it is quite fun to see all of those points for each team at the top of the screen. Review day is an incredible thing. So many writers are encouraged, and even though we didn't clear out the green room this wonderful review day, we can do it next time! GO REVIEWERS!



Z: I sort of cheered people on, since I had a really busy weekend (Really... well, you know how school is. And on top of that, I had regional orchestra auditions.) I talked to people, and I guess I helped out a little.



Z: Yes, I did! One of the awesome stories that I read was... Foxglove, I believe? It was written by @jazzydracula. I don't remember if I read that during review day, but it's a good story, check it out! Another AMAZING story/novel that I read and liked was Affinity by @TimmyJake. I sadly can't list all of them here, but here's one more. This is a poem, The Sterling Knight by @MargoSeuss! These are all amazing pieces of art, I recommend that you check them out if you haven't already!

Join us at the end of this month for the October Review Day!

September 2014 Review Day Results
Foxglove by jazzydracula
Affinity by timmyjake and @Deanie
The Sterling Knight by MargoSeuss

REVIEWING FROM THE REVIEWER’S PERSPECTIVEwritten by Gravity < PM: >

Reviewing is something YWSers are supposed to do on a daily/weekly basis. However, staying motivated to review can sometimes be a challenge, as can writing quality reviews that are useful to the author. Everybody has their own reviewing goals and ways to keep themselves motivated, but for some of us, it’s difficult.
The most difficult part of reviewing is making yourself do it on a regular basis. Let’s see what some of your fellow YWSers said about how often they actually do reviews. When @EscaSkye was asked how often they review, they said...




For some of us, there are definitely things getting in the way (cough cough, school) but for others, like @TriSARAHtops, there’s enough time, just not enough motivation.




So, what is it that motivates you to review? According to Avalon, it has a lot to do with when you actually want to publish on Squills.





Then I thought about what motivates me to review. Sometimes it’s because I’m short on points, other times it’s because I read a really great work that I just can’t resist biting into! Which made me think. Are there certain genres or kinds of works that are reviewed more than others? So I asked the people I interviewed. @Avalon says:




I thought this was a little odd. Whenever I look through the Green Room, most of it is novel chapters. That counts for review days as well, the later novel chapters are always the last to be reviewed! But then there are some that are hesitant about reviewing certain kinds of writing. Sometimes we’re bad at prose or poetry, which naturally makes us hesitant to review works. This is coming from Esca Skye who fears poetry:




Then there’s always that one problem, how to review in a way that’s helpful to the author? Every author has a different opinion on nitpicks as far as spelling and grammar. Some get annoyed when the reviewer points out these errors, and others really appreciate the help. Sometimes it’s hard to find a good balance. This is applies especially to Avalon who said:




Keeping all that in mind, reviewing can be summed up in one paragraph. It’s difficult to keep up with, especially if you have a lot going on. Everyone has their own way to stay motivated, and certain areas they like to focus on in a review. The question is, how does that relate to your reviewing and writing style?
To quote Forrest Gump “That’s all I have to say about that,”

So until next time…
XOXO,
Gravity

TWO CENTS: SENSESwritten by Aley < PM: >

When you close your eyes in a fresh room that's quiet enough to ignore everything else, and decide that touch is overrated, with nothing on your tongue to taste, what are you left with? What senses can we stimulate? Our eyes are shut, but is it really dark, or is there still light seeping through? The room smells fresh, but what does fresh smell like? There's nothing on our tongue, but perhaps what we smell has some taste to it, and what is being tugged by gravity? What touches are we ignoring?

This week's column is about the senses we have, and how to go farther with them in our writing. To start with a challenge, I'd like you to delve into your memory and try to activate your sense of smell. The way we're going to do this is by something simple. Have you ever been outside of your home for a long time, or away from a friend for a while, and when you walk into their room, or your friend's house, it smells like them. I've had this experience a lot since my family doesn't use fragranced cleaners, so when I go to a friend's house, it smells a lot like what they use.

This challenge is to recall a time when you've left the house and come back to a smell that you didn't realize was there before you left. It could be for any reason, either you were just gone that long, or something changed by the time you got back. Free write either half to a full page about that smell. When you're done, scratch out all of the things that are either, not words that describe scents, things that are explaining the situation, or things which get off-track.

Our sense of smell is probably the least utilized in today's entertainment business. Television stimulates our sight playing on our sense of color, perception, and loads of facial and positional details. It also stimulates our audible senses as well, as we listen to the intonations of the actor's voices, and the background noises of the tracks. It even plays music which stimulates our emotional response to audible art to combine with the visual art of moving pictures.

All that leaves out is smell, taste, and touch, but touch can be a very visual thing since textures can be used to convey if something is smooth, rough, hot, cold, and so on. We can even live vicariously through the actors as they experience touching something. While this may be true for taste and smell as well, it is much harder to determine what something tastes like by how it looks, and since smell is not related to our visual or audible senses, it is even harder to determine that. The most we have is the reactions to smells on set.

As writers we do not nearly have the same range of senses to stimulate. We have black and white on a page. This can be its own benefit because in contrast to movies, we only have words, and words can describe anything. In essence, if you can tell someone about something, then you can write it, and I bet you that in your free write you did manage to get down some sort of smell that you tried to convey. While we might have to use references, like "it smelled like pancakes" or "it smelled like a gym locker room" we all know these smells. There's nothing more or less challenging about saying "the stack of pancakes" and it "smelled like pancakes" so utilizing this feature of the written word is the difference between being a movie director and a director through the life of another, through all of the senses.

Try the challenge again, and this time, you know that noise you've been hearing the whole time you've been reading? Or the mouse you've had your hand on as you scroll? Describe that. Close your eyes and study it, then write!

POETS OF THE PAST (AND OTHER LESS ASSONANT DUDES)written by Judas < PM: >

Welcome back to yet another issue of Poets of the Past, the column in which I remove the dust of time from the tomes of ancient literature with the brush of humor and modernity. Today's dude is incredibly assonant, having been everything from teacher to poet to librarian: I'm talking about Callimachus of Cyrene, one of the first exponents of the hellenistic period of ancient greek literature.




Who was he?

Callimachus was born approximately around 305 a.C in Cyrene (currently Lybia), from a rich family -- indeed, he claimed he was a descendant of Battus I, founder of the city. They went broke due to mysterious circumstances ("sorry, Callimachus, having royal blood does not mean I can put you 'on the city's tab'"), and thus Callimachus was forced to move to Alexandria, Egypt, where he worked as a teacher of grammar, and subsequently as a librarian of the city's most prestigious Library. He got into the ruling family's good books when a friend of his, Berenice, married the city's regent, Ptolemy III 'Euergetes' , the Benefactor.

What's he famous for?

All the things. Callimachus was a man of great ability in many different fields of literature. When he worked at the Library of Alexandria, he came up with a series of books (120 of them!), called the Pinakés. They were basically catalogues by author of every work in the library. I expect that must have made for a sick ice-breaker: 'Hi, I'm Callimachus. I write books about other peoples' books.' In all seriousness, you might recognize a similar catalogue in the catalogues libraries currently use. He invented those. Despite his great efforts for the Library, he was never appointed Director -- his student Apollonius was. This sparked 30 years of bitter letters, barbed insults and vicious ad-hominems. I feel bad for their mailmen.

His issues with Apollonius weren't just about work, however. Apollonius wrote long, impressively stacked elegies about history and myth, while Callimachus was a pioneer of two radical styles of poetry: oligostiché, short writing, and polyéideia, the variety of styles and topics. In a culture where you would only be taken seriously if you wrote a cohesive work of thousands of verses, so strongly influenced by titans like the Odyssey and Iliad, his style definitely was something new.

He talks about polyéideia in his 'Hymn to Apollo', where he correlates the many skills of the god to the skill a poet should have in many different fields. He defends his style in a work called the 'Prologue against the Telchynes', which he wrote when he was very old. The Telchynes were inhabitants of Asia Minor, who criticized Callimachus for his style. This tends to happen when you're seen as today's tumblr hipster images (yes, the ones with the emo filters). In it, he embarks on a massive rampage, kicking down the Telchyne's every argument before flipping them the bird and sleeping with their mothers:






I wonder what caused him to defend small size at such great lengths.

As well as elegies, Callimachus also wrote poems in the iambic style, which you might remember from our good friend Archilocus . Unlike the boisterous style of the greek poet, Callimachus' iambs assumed a slightly more pendantic tone, verging even on moralism. Quintillian tells us that this is pretty much what happened to Roman satire down the line, and that without the works of Callimachus, pretty much the entirety of roman satire wouldn't have existed.

He also revisited Hymns (six of them were spared from the wrath of time and monks with better to do than copy the works of mere pagans). Unlike Homer's, his hymns were very lyrical, as opposed to solemn, and lost pretty much all religious function in favor of musicality.

Finally, his Epigrams demonstrate he was truly a writer of great skill and flexibility. Yes, yes I do mean they were homoerotic.

How did the die?

All in all, it is said Callimachus wrote over 800 books, so probably buried after he pulled something out carelessly. Historical documents don't tell us anything of interests, other than the date, 240 a.C, which is the date traditonally associated to the start of latin literature.


In conclusion

...I wonder how many more books he could have written had he had a computer? I dunno. I'm not obliged to send you off with something witty every single time, you know. Now get out of here. Shoo.

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!

Dear Half Blooded YWSian,
Are you dancer?

-Human

Dear Human,
HOW DID YOU KNOW?

-Gruno

To The Eloquent Specters,
I have long since read your responses to these puzzling inquiries and have fumbled upon a conundrum of my own. Perhaps my query will please you and you shall be most happily stumped.

How many synonyms ranging from fabulously fictitious or down-right dictionarian-esque, can you come up with for the word "question?"

-The Magestic

Dear Magestic,
Do I look like Webster to you? Are you incapable of using google?

-Gruno

Dear Pruno/Gruno
How do I get my nose back? I really miss it…

-the Dark Lord

Dear Voldy Voldy Voldemort,
There is perhaps one way to get your nose back. The best way is to sneak up on the person who took it. You must discover who your nose’s captor is. I suspect it’s Albus Dumbledore, his nose always looks so crooked, as if he’s broken it or placed it on his face in lieu of his actual nose. You must undo the invisible stitching he put on the nose, and place it inside your ear! (Eventually, your nose will crawl back to it’s original place, but if you try to put it back yourself, you will never get the angle right)

Love,
Gruno

Sadly, that’s all for this week. We need more questions. You all have been fabulous as far as asking questions, but the more we get, the better. We live to answer your questions and solve your conundrums so if you have a query, click this link

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 10/12written by megsug < PM: >

Need a break from studying? Kick back and enjoy four brand new links!


@Silverlock was curious about people’s favorite fantasy books and authors since it’s easy to miss a fantastic series in such a huge genre. Of course, George R.R. Martin was mentioned, but a lot of names I had never heard of were mentioned as well. @ellact2000 suggested:







Robin Hobb and Jessica Day George were also mentioned. Find a new author to fall in love with or leave your own favorites.


@15253 initially asked a question about whether democracy was still alive in the US or not, but the discussion has branched out into the definition of democracy, the government the US is currently under now, and many other topics that are all fascinating. @Kafkaescence has a good point on the existence of democracy anywhere:







I would suggest that people take a looksee just for the information. Government systems can lead to really interesting points and discussion.


@LeftyWriter loves Autumn and wants to know why others love it too. The leaves and the temperature have been mentioned several time. @CuriousityCat had some great things to say about the season as well:










@Taylorb1997 has created a new writing activity dealing with interpreting ideas. Basically, a user posts a topic for a poem or a few characters and obstacles for a short story and the next poster replies with a creation relating to the prompt. @jazzydracula has given the latest challenge:






Get those creative juice pumping!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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