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. CELEBRATE STUPIDITY
3. INTRODUCING SIMS: YWS EDITION
4. ’TIS THE SEASON TO BE ARTY
5. HOBBIES ON YWS: A PROFESSIONAL DANCER IN TRAINING
6. NEW ARRIVALS
7. THIS WEEK’S ROUNDUP – 12/21
8. SHAMELESS PLUGS
9. SUBSCRIBERS

ADVENTURES IN WRITINGwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

Hello, and welcome to the last issue of Squills before we break for the holidays. You may recall that I began a short series on writing description last week, starting with a few basic tips. This week, I’m giving you some add-ons and alternatives to the typically boring list-style description.

Play with metaphor. Part of the reason list descriptions don’t leave an impression is that they’re dull and generic. To understand what I mean,



Which is more memorable?
1. He had grey eyes.
2. His eyes were the color of the ocean after a storm.

You probably said number two. Number one is to the point, but it’s the kind of generic description that could appear in anyone’s writing. Now, if you think readers might not get “grey” from the second example, you could switch out “color” for “grey” while still garnering more interest than stating “he had grey eyes.” Bonus points if the viewpoint character—the person through whose eyes we’re seeing the grey-eyed character—has a reason for this specific comparison. For example, the viewpoint character might be a sailor, a poet, or someone who has always lived by and loved the sea.

That’s one consideration to make when deciding where and how to use figurative language: the personality and interests of the viewpoint character or the described character (or both). The other thing to remember is that a little metaphor goes a long way. You don’t need to describe every character using figurative language, nor every trait of a single character. Too many long, in-depth metaphors can be grating, which is no better than unmemorable lists of description. Remember, figurative language should clarify an image, not confuse it.

Consider all aspects of the physical. We usually default to hair color, eye color, and height when writing descriptions. But there are so many other options! Take posture, for example. Does your character stand erect, slouch, swing her arms when walking, look at the ground, or meet people’s gazes? These kinds of descriptors let us know something about the character’s physical appearance and her personality. Characterization made easy!

Consider the effects of the physical. What do I mean by this? Let’s start by breaking it down into two categories: direct and indirect effects.

1. Direct.

Direct effects are the advantages and disadvantages your character faces in everyday life as a direct result of his physical traits. For example, a character with glasses will clean them, get fogged up lenses upon coming inside on a cold day, and see in blurs if his glasses are lost or broken. A tall character will bump his head on low-hanging objects (unless he remembers to duck) and have to push his seat all the way back to drive a small car. Consider the problems and advantages of different physical traits and show your character dealing with them. His appearance will be more memorable and his experience more believable.

2. Indirect.

Indirect effects are the advantages and disadvantages your character faces due to the way other characters respond to her physical traits. A character might face racism or sexism because of the prejudgments others make about her gender or skin color. However, indirect effects of your character’s appearance can be less extreme than that. It might include simple details like a tall character getting things off high shelves for shorter characters or constantly being asked, “How’s the weather up there?”

(Ha, ha, thinks the tall character. Like I haven’t heard that one a thousand times.)

While every character with a certain physical trait will experience the direct effects of that trait, not every character will experience the indirect effects. This is because indirect effects depend on the other characters—the cultural setting and its attitudes toward certain physical characteristics, the smaller group setting and those characters’ attitudes, and the attitudes of each individual character. In the case of racism or sexism, these will run rampant if your story is set in 1950s America but may not be present at all if your story takes place in a futuristic or fantastical matriarchal society. Alternatively, a black female character may experience no racism or sexism within her group of friends but have to deal with casually racist or sexist remarks from background characters who form part of the larger society.

Unless your setting includes a society where there is a stigma attached to being six feet tall, the indirect effects of traits like height will depend more on individual characters than societal attitudes. On the one hand, shorter characters might constantly ask your tall character to get things off the top shelf for them. On the other hand, a shorter character who dislikes your tall character or is too self-sufficient to ask for help might ignore the tall character and find a stepladder instead.

Obviously, the effects of your characters’ physical traits will appear throughout the story, not get crammed into the initial description. However, considering these effects, as well as potential metaphors and physical features beyond the eyes and hair, will help deepen your description and better define your characters. Give it a try!

Happy holidays! Squills will resume in January 2015. Come back then for our next issue!

CELEBRATE STUPIDITIY written by ShadowVyper < PM: >

I’ve crawled out of the abyss. Scrambled to the top of my stack of Lewis Structures and Chaucer essays (the Knight is an appropriate narrator for his tale, fyi). Vanquished the foes called “Final exams” and managed to make it out alive. I don’t think my advisor is even going to slaughter me once he sees my grades. Victories all around. So I decided to celebrate by writing an article for Squills’ final edition before we go on Christmas break.

What better place to start writing an article than on a literary work that caught my eye? The Featured Works on the home page are very well written in general and most deserve the spotlight that they recieve (I say most because of a few things that both I and @VeerenVKS have posted that somehow made it to the front page ).

Occaisonally, however, the piece is also very helpful, which was the case of @DrFeelGood’s piece Unblocking The Writer’s Block . I enjoyed his article enough that I contacted him and asked if we could share it here. He most graciously consented, so I give you his wonderful piece.

~ ~ ~

I just realised that I'm writing like a dinosaur these days. I have posted 3 works in an interval of 4 days excluding this one. So I'm here to help my fellow authors unblock the dreadful "writer's block."

1. Images:
Google some images. Imagine a flower. Pretty little thing, no? We have this one flower bed that is always barren because flowers refused to thrive there, as a last resort my mom tossed wild flower seeds into it and suddenly we have five foot stalks of these flowers amongst others.

Did that help? I hope it did, but I fear it did not. I wonder if maybe I should try something more basic. The flashback wasn't enough so it seems.

What color do you suppose the flower is? Pink? Purple? A strange mixture of both? The center is close to fuchsia, but the edges of the petals are too pale though. Not to mention the bright golden yellow center, Looks almost to me like the sun, don't you agree?

2. Kill That Bloody Editor:
The editor is the devil who fuels your block. Install an anti-virus in your mind to block this editor. Otherwise it will corrupt your creative instinct. Hang on. Another creative thought? Think something about a virus. You have got a cool prompt here. A malware program is installed in a man's office by someone. He has to unravel the mystery behind it. Good, ain't it?

3. Celebrate Stupidity:
I have heard people yelling, "I'm a serious writer, don't give me foolish suggestions." I strictly disagree with this. The most popular and loved writers across the globe imagined things which critics termed as "stupid". The most whimsical ideas are the ones which end up receiving all the accolades. However stupid your idea may be, go ahead and pen it down.

4. Write Fan-Fictions:

If literature was a flower, fan-fiction would have been a thorny cactus

- Pseudo-intellectuals

[Not so!] I believe every budding author at some point of time thinks about writing a fan fiction. I wanted to write Holmes. You may want to write Archies. Doesn't matter. Give it a shot. Fan-fictions work largely because you have an established premise. You know the traits of your protagonist. You need to lift a character and place it in a conflict.

5. Bury That Grammar Nazi:
Editing, rewriting, punctuation are important. But don't get so deeply involved into it that you'd end up losing the actual content of your story.

6. Writing Prompts:

And last but not the least, writing prompts. I do have some of mine. (Bear with me if they are cheesy. I love cheese.)
(1) A man piled under debt ends up becoming a thief who robs corrupt businessmen but never gets caught as none of the victims want to lodge a complaint against him. (It was supposed to be my novel, but I shelved it. Maybe that might help you.)

(2) A mosquito's diary which captures the events before its death (fantasy lovers can fan-girl with this one).

(3) Love story of a pencil and eraser. (I know it's creepy, but you never know)

(4) An army officer dies while fighting a war. He is reborn after 50 years.

These were some of my weirdest fantasies. PM me if you need more of those. Well I am going to finish this up, this random thing may indeed be only pointless, but it is something.

~ ~ ~

I really like the advice he gave in this article. Yes, I even agree with his fifth point. As @Holofernes would be quick to confirm, I tend to focus maybe too much quite a bit on the technical side of writing—but you have to be careful that your grammar perfectionism doesn’t choke your writing. His prompts also seem promising.

So promising, in fact, that I want to see them tried out. It’s one thing to read an article about overcoming writer’s block. You can even write an article about overcoming writer’s block. But there’s no point unless you actually follow up and get back into your creative groove. So I propose a contest.

Your mission? Choose one of the prompts above and write a short story (1,500 words or fewer) or poem about it. Then PM a link to your submission to me, your friendly neighborhood Squills dictator, by the time that sparkly ball falls to the ground on New Year’s Eve. All submissions that make it to me on time are promised a review by yours truly, and, if I like any well enough, you’ll get to see your precious little gem featured in an edition of Squills. What are you waiting for? Go write!

INTRODUCING SIMS: THE YWS EDITIONwritten by Aley < PM: >

If you head over to clubs this week or next, you will find something interesting going on. There's a new club in town called Sims: The YWS Edition. This club is just starting out and it will be more active in January, but before you miss out, I thought I'd introduce you to it and what the goals are. I asked these questions and a couple more of the creator of the club, @SparkToFlame who is a mod on YWS.



SparkToFlames: Basically, it's to bring a bunch of YWSers together who would normally not really spend much time around each other, and to encourage warm happy fuzzy things. (And reviewing things you're not used to reviewing)



Spark: You just sign up! It's seriously that simple. When you sign up you'll be put in a 'family' and you get to choose cool things like your family name, theme, etc. It's super simple.



Spark: welllll I have to give you, @Aley, a lot of the credit. We were throwing around secret santa ideas and Aley mentioned making Santa Families. I just ran with it and dragged you (Aley) along for the ride!



Spark: I just really want people to become friends, really. YWS is kind of split into factions right now and I'd really like to change that. I really just want people to build relationships, and maybe expand their horizons in reviewing. There's no right or wrong answer here. Talk to your family, review your family, write little poems for your family... Anything goes!



Spark: Nope! It's really quite straightforward. If anybody has any questions though, we've made a really great FAQ that covers the basics from what's a good gift to give someone in your family to exactly what a family is.



Spark: It's been a lot of fun creating this, and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as we do! It's a really different idea, and we need the support from everyone as much as possible, because we can't do it without you!



Spark: I wish us luck too hahaha! Thanks Aley <3

In summary, the club is about making friends and growing connections. You sing up by filling out a simple sheet in the club forums, and then at the beginning of the month you signed up for, you are put into a group, or a Sims Family. These families have free range to give gifts, talk and such among each other, but at the end of the month, they're gone! You can find out more information in the FAQ but sign up ends when January begins, so sign up now if you have some free time to make some new friends in January.

Hope to see you there!

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE ARTYwritten by BLACKWOOD < PM: >

What's a better way to celebrate the end of year than with art? Creating a drawing, a painting, or taking a beautiful photograph to be proud of can always brighten ones day, and what more when there are prizes involved?

In case you haven't checked up on the art and photography forum, the December Art & Photo Contest , hosted by @Lumi is something to look out for. The end of the year is fast approaching, but there is still time to break out your colours and start mixing up something creative (and a little bit festive).

I shot the host, Lumi, some questions about the event, and he was more than happy to share his thoughts on the Art and Photography contest.






The badges are indeed awesome, including a couple of badges just for participating. A shiny paintbrush and a round thing. Oh wait that's a camera lens. I got it now.


The contest is to be judged on three aspects, which initially sparked a little bit of confusion in the thread, but when Lumi explained it to me, it couldn't be clearer.






(Now as a southern hemisphere person myself that's one way to get into my good books)

There will be four judges for the contest, including Lum, @AriaAdams, @Holofernes, and @Omniclysm.
Letting me in on a little something, Lumi told me that in case of a tie, one judge was pe-selected to carry a weighted vote. But the twist is that judge doesn't even know who they are, and it's not Lumi.

When I asked him where the idea came from, Lumi told me;





Already many people have expressed interest in the contest, including @Alexsushidog, @Craz, @Castiel, @kitty4111 and more, and there have been a couple of photography entries already from @godlpopo, @Zolen and @EscaSkye.

So join in the fun and get your entries in before the 25th of December and help liven and festive up our art and photography forum.

HOBBIES ON YWS: A PROFESSIONAL DANCER IN TRAINING

written by Gravity < PM: >

We have some immense talent on YWS, that was made evident while looking at the artworks of @Aley. However, some hobbies are things we want to make careers. For example, @SparkToFlame and her dance. Spark is training to become a professional dancer, a feat very few in the world attempt, let alone actually succeed in. But from what I heard, she’s doing a pretty good job.



SparkToFlame: Sure!



Spark:I started with creative movement right before I turned three! I danced tap and jazz when I was little, but it quickly became strictly ballet.



Spark: My mom! She's been my cheerleader, my costumer, my everything ever since I can remember. Besides her, I'd say my favorite teacher of all time, Rob.



Spark: I think it was probably being a demi-soloist in Janis and Joe, a contemporary ballet choreographed by Christopher Fleming of Ballet Fleming. It was to Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker music, and it was just a lot of fun to dance. Besides that, probably dancing in the Corps of a ballet to Frank Sinatra music when I was away at a summer intensive.



Spark: Honestly, I am the complete opposite of the ballet body type. I'm not incredibly flexible, I'm not crazy with turns, I've just got that 'it' factor that seems to get me far. I have been really lucky that I can dance as much as I do and I've yet to get injured. I've had shin splints, but those I forced myself to dance through. I've yet to have a huge set back that sent me reeling, I guess.



Spark: Hopefully dancing in a company somewhere! I plan to go to school at OU for pysch/nutrition/ballet and then as soon as I'm done with that, head to Philly and dance with Ballet Fleming.



Spark: No problem!

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

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

@pretzelsnow has been pretty active in the forums since joining! They would like a review on their fantasy short story, My Wonderland-Part 1 .

@TheSparringPanther has two ideas for stories, but he’d like a writing partner. Check out his topic and let him know if you’re interested .

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 12/21 written by megsug < PM: >

Four links! Four links! My kingdom for four links!


@steampowered wants to know whether the writers of YWS usually write on paper or type on a computer. @ThereseCricket may sum it up for a bunch of users:







However, it’s a little surprising to see how many people do write on paper. What do you prefer?


@Flite wants tips on how to make metaphors less obvious. A plethora of users came to her aid. @Prokaryote gives some great advice that almost everyone else who has responded agrees with:







This thread is full of tips for anyone trying to make their writing shine a bit or trying to refine their use of metaphors. I’d check it out if I were you.


A new contest has been created in expectation of the new year. The prizes are ridiculous:







Now that I’ve got your attention, users win the contest by doing the most quality reviews in January 2015. Just subscribe to this club to join. Prepare for the ultimate review race.


@AriaAdams has written an article, so we mortals can also know how to properly create or reply to a resource post. Her best advice is:






But the entire thread is full of great tips for those of you who love Resources. I advise you check it out!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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SUBSCRIBERS

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