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. You can also subscribe to the Squills Fan Club , or PM SquillsBot to receive a notification each time a new issue is published!

Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!

1. The Magic of Translature: An Interview
2. FM Interview - Falconer
3. Spotlight Interview - JKHatt
4. Library Loves
5. Quibbles
6. New Arrivals
7. Resources Relay
8. This Week's Roundup
9. Shameless Plugs
10. Subscribers

THE MAGIC OF TRANSLATURE: An Interview
written by Lavvie < PM: >

Welcome. Bienvenue. Wilkommen. Bienvenido. Vanakkam. Welkom. Benvenuto. Namaste. Dobrodošli.

It is amazing how linguistically diverse YWS is. If you ever decide to ask people in chat the languages that they speak, don’t be surprised if many reply with more than two. Instead, be surprised that we don’t have a Foreign Languages section for our written works – there would be enough people to contribute as both writers and reviewers, after all. Fortunately, some of our darling green members recognized this oft forgotten diversity and came up with a translated literary magazine, wittily dubbed Translature. For those who have yet to explore the wonderful crevices of the very first volume of Translature , this new literary magazine aims to provide a space for the multilingual talents of our fellow young writers. The first volume showcases works written in Hindi, Tamil, Afrikaans, and Spanish.

A little questionnaire was sent to those who were involved in Translature’s first volume as the best way to understand the impact of a great idea is through the perspectives of its pioneering individuals. In the end, @Lava, @Kyllorac, @fortis, and @Dreamy were willing to provide some stellar insight about the importance of, process, and future hopes for Translature.




Lava: With a multitude of ways of expressing oneself, language being one of them, a global community like YWS could get a sense of the world beyond their borders and promote a healthy discussion on linguistics, writing etc. For me personally, it's an attempt to better understand the languages I know (in terms of structure, history and culture).

Kyllorac: There's a lot of members on YWS that know more than one language, and a lot of them are not native English-speakers, so it's nice to have a place to showcase works in those languages on YWS. I've encountered a few works in the past that were posted in languages other than English that didn't get many reviews because they weren't in English, and I think that encouraging members to not only write in non-English languages but also to provide English translations for those works will help foster an interest in other languages.

fortis: Even though YWS is an English website, we have users from all over the world on here. It's important to remember that some of them learned English as a second (or third, etc) language. It's also important to remember that art and literature happens in all languages. I know I'm probably missing out on some really amazing books just because they haven't been translated to English.

Dreamy: It’s important for the site because the people— the young people, in there should try to embrace the art of translation. There are lots of literatures in other languages that should be read—that are considered as the gateway to heaven and Translature is paving the pathway to the gateway. And for me, well, I’m finding my path.



L: When I was walking through the Writer's House in my uni for a slam poetry session, I saw another group reading out pieces in different languages and they had a mini lit mag of these pieces and the translations by students. This was the impetus for me to start a discussion with some of the folks here on YWS to brainstorm!

K: I'm a bit of an odd-ball in that I will learn a language just to read a work in its native language.

F: Well, all the advertisements for it kept poking at me, to be honest.

D: I liked the idea of writing in Tamil, as I’ve never written in Tamil. I thought I might grab this opportunity.



L: No. To distill a host of reasons to the top one, when little Lava was little, my parents spoke to me in Tamil and wanted me to learn Hindi and hence, got me English books to read. Thus, I was never really exposed to Tamil literature and the idea of creative writing was something that happened in English, to me.

F: Yeah, I write in English all the time. hehe. Spanish is not even close to my native language, I just took three/four years of it in school and figured I could probably write a poem with what I had learned.

D: No, I don’t. I have never written in Tamil. My mother-tongue is Telugu, we talk Telugu at home, though I don’t know to write or read in that language. If there is any other language in which I’m comfortable in talking other than Telugu, then it is Tamil. And that’s for communicating, when it comes to writing, I think I have found my solace in English more than I care to admit. To write what comes to my mind— English sort of makes it easy.



L: There is so much culture and beauty to every language and if we attribute "more importance" to any one language over the other throughout the world, sadly we would see languages die.

F: It keeps cultures flowing and minds open. It broadens my perspective of the world.

D: Diversity brings people together. It would make you want to understand the other culture better, it would break the stereotypes. And what more would do the job better than reading their literature. I think one should read linguistically diverse literature to understand a community, their way of life, how they talk to elders, for a better understanding and for harmony.



L: Well, so my "creative piece" per se, was a short haiku in Hindi in the foreword. I think apart from researching more into the structure of Hindi, it was hard trying to get across the meaning of each 'line' into English while sticking to the syllable counts. There's also translating it so that it reads nicely in each language, using terms more suited to each language to convey the similar meaning.

K: I didn't contribute much to Translature this time around except for some ideas to take the project in, and the title. Lava spearheaded the entire operation, and I'm pretty sure she did most of the actual work. Demeter contributed technical information and wrote a quick Translation 101 guide since her field of study is translation, and Hannah made a whole bunch of suggestions for titles, some of which didn't work out because they were already taken by other literary magazines. One of the suggestions she came up with was Transliterate, which didn't work out because transliteration is transferring between writing systems/transcribing sounds without any actual translation. However, it did start the portmanteau storm, and while Interpreture didn't make the cut, Translature did.

F: I submitted a poem that I wrote in Spanish. It made me a little more confident in my abilities to write in Spanish, even through I did use a lot of help from my Dad, who actually got a degree in Spanish language in college. For me, the translation process started out with me saying, "Now what do I know how to write in Spanish?" I was most familiar with the present tense, and writing about nature seemed like the easiest (and least likely to be misinterpreted) subject. Then I just started writing, line by line, trying to figure out what I wanted to say in my poem, what point I wanted to make. By the end, it actually sounded like a real poem, and didn't read to awkwardly. I was satisfied by it.

D: I submitted a poem—it was about a boy playing on the sea shore. During the translation, I understood a lot about me and my understanding of the language. There are lots of things that I need to learn and to know. I took the help of my dad and my brother. The initial product came very naturally to me. I sat down and wrote the poem in Tamil as if I’ve always done it. But the trouble started when I began to translate. What made sense in Tamil, after translating, wouldn’t make sense in English. And there are no immediate words, in both the language, to replace of, which resulted in changing the end of the poem for better understanding. It was a learning experience.



L: I think ideas are lost and gained. I do think the original has more innate value - but does that mean we should avoid translations?

K: There's a lot of nuance that is lost in translation, even in the most excellent translations, and even with an incomplete understanding of a language, reading the original can reveal a lot about the work that didn't survive the translation process. One case some readers might be aware of is the ambiguity of gender in Japanese media. Japanese has a ton of pronouns, and some of them are used only in specific cases or refer to different things based on the context they are used in, and this nuance and variety of pronouns simply doesn't translate into English. Most of the time, this isn't an issue, but sometimes a character's gender is revealed unambiguously later in a series... and it's different from how it's been translated, so it comes out of left field for the English-speaking audience while being pretty obvious to a Japanese-speaking one. This mess of pronouns can also result in confusion about how many family members a character does or does not have, such as with Ciel in Black Butler, among other things.

I wouldn't say that the original is more valuable though. Sometimes, translations improve upon the original work, like in the case of the English anime adaptation of Baccano! which is set in 1920s New York City. The translation was able to include authentic accents and slang, which were missing from the original Japanese, and it really adds to the setting of the show.

F: I once read a book translated from another language. The translation was pretty good, but I got the sense that some of the expressions were awkward because there wasn't a perfect phrase for what the original had said. I do think that a lot is lost in translation, but a lot more is lost if no one translates at all.

D: Yes, I do think that things get lost in translation. As I said, there are no immediate/same meaning words that convey the emotion. Somewhere something needs to be mended. And what more could be valuable than the original.



L: YES! As YWS grows, with more users learning/knowing other languages, this would be a great way for them to practice their skills. I know YWS tried a World language set of forums, but new posts were really slow. Maybe this lit mag version would work!

K: I certainly hope there are more volumes of Translature. I really wanted to contribute something, but life got in the way. Hopefully I'll be able to submit something next time.

F: I know there are a lot more YWSers who speak other (very interesting!) languages who probably didn't submit to Translature for various reasons. I think now that everyone can see what the end result is, maybe more people would be interested! I know I would attempt to write another poem. I think Translature was and is a really cool idea, and ended up really cool in execution. I'd love to see more volumes.

D: Yes, there should be more volumes because why not.



L: I would love for anyone/everyone to be on board, submit their ideas etc. <3

K: YWS is getting more and more non-native English speakers by the day, and I think that makes a place to showcase works in other languages more relevant than ever.

F: Even though I tried my best to make my poem correct, I showed it to a YWSer who actually speaks Spanish after I had submitted it, and she noticed a few mistakes. But she still thought the poem was really good. What I'm trying to say, is that even if you don't fluently speak another language, it's still okay to give it a try! You might end up actually making something really good. c:

D: I’d like to thank Lava for coming up with the idea and giving me this opportunity. And the other amazing people who were all part of it. This magazine should reach everyone in the site and it has to broaden as days come.

Thank you very much to those who were able to take the time to answer some of the questions! I would also like to extend many thanks to the others who contributed to wonderful first volume of Translature, including @Demeter, @Hannah, @TheWanderingWizard, and @niteowl. We look forward to a second instalment!

Falconer is the FM- Interviewwritten by Pretzelsing < PM: >
So, as all of you YWSers know, @Falconer is our current featured member! I PMed her some questions for a special FM interview, and got some unique replies. If you didn’t already say congrats to her, please check out her wall and so I hope that you enjoy getting to read through them:

Squills: What was your initial(first) reaction when you found out that you were a FM?

Falconer: At first, I was shocked. How could I be a featured member? I thought being featured was only for the cool members. I was super excited, though.

S: Did you expect that this would happen at all?

F: I had no idea that this was coming. Quite a pleasant surprise!

S: When did you join YWS?

F: I only joined early in March this year. I suppose I could even be thought of fairly new still.

S: Why did you join YWS and what is your favorite thing about this website?

F: I was talking to @Widdershins and had really wanted many people to critique my writing. She recommended YWS and it looked amazing so I just had to join. I'm very glad I did!

S: What types of advice would you give to other member if they wanted to become a featured member?

F: For others who wanted to be featured, I would just say get involved. Stay active on the site, review, post stories, whatever it is you love to do. Just stick with it and get to know people- have fun!

S: What's the best part of being a featured member, in your opinion?

F: I think the best thing about being a featured member is that people get a little taste of me, they can look and see who I am. It's nice to see that my presence on YWS hasn't gone unnoticed by others.

If you are interested in getting one of Falconer’s review, she has a “Will Review for Food” link right here

Thanks you so much for your time and answers @Falconer. It was a pleasure getting to know you a bit better. If you don’t know her, Falconer is a friendly face on this site, so you will be sure to bump into her. That’s it for this week’s FM Interview. Have an awesome week and enjoy the sunshine!

SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: JKHATTwritten by megsug < PM: >

This week @JKHatt had two short stories in the same week. I Like This House got to the Spotlight first, and 'Til Death Do Its Part followed shortly after. For a while the two works were in the Spotlight at the same time. Squills got to ask JKHatt what he thought of his success.


JKHatt: No, I've had works in at least twice before, I believe.


J: Not exactly... I know they were chapters, though.


J: "I Like This House" and "'Til Death Do Its Part" were the most recent two. They got in surprisingly quick. I think they're my most successful stories yet.


J: Well, "I Like This House" was in three hours after I posted it, and it quickly reached the top of the spotlight. It was there for a couple days before it fell to the bottom. "'Til Death Do Its Part" took a bit longer, not exactly sure how long, but not too much longer.


J: My amazing self-promotion of course! No, kidding... There was something different about these stories. I can't remember what though... >.>


J: Yes, actually. Didn't expect them to get much recognition, but here's "I Like This House" with 20+ likes. It's pretty cool. I'll admit, I was a bit hopeful with "'Til Death Do Its Part". I posted it right after "I Like This House" and couldn't help hoping it would get spotlight too. Glad they both did.


J: I just thought "Hey, that last one was a random idea and got on the spotlight. This is random. Maybe it'll work too!"



J: It's a conspiracy, man! I've got extra tin foil hats in the car if you want one-- No, kidding again. I'm not sure... A lot of people here seem to like poems, but there's also a lot of younger members who find just about any poetry really good, it seems. Just write a random poem with some weird grammatical twist, call it poetic, and wait. They'll gobble it up. (No offense, right guys? Hehe... Please don't hurt me.)


J: I want to say "write what you'd want to see in the spotlight" but I doubt that works (try it if you want). I've really got no idea. Be lucky? That's how I did it.


J: Yeah, feel free to scour my portfolio. Just rip it to shreds! (But remember to click the like button, please. Thanks. )

S: There's that self promotion, I see. Thanks for the interview~

LIBRARY LOVESwritten by OliveDreams < PM: >

This week I have asked a very special YWSer to me, @Pretzelsing to invite us into her book world. Always a friendly face to everyone here - I think it’s time we learnt a little more about you.

Here goes!

Something New:

Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani

Pretzelsing: A book that I recently read and I really loved is called Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani. This book was read in one sitting, when I was at my parent's friends house, bored out of my mind. The reason why I thoroughly enjoyed it was that this book was so emotional and it made me cry. I could feel and relate with every single main character (there are 3 sisters) and I really liked all the romantic subplots that were going on. I just want to mention that this book is 18+ (even though I'm below that and I still read it.) The ending and last page though, didn't feel like it was all complete and I felt like I wanted to read more and more to find out what happened next.

Something Familiar:

Chronicles of the Kings by Lynn Austin

P: I have a series of 5 books that I really enjoyed. How I actually found these books was through a reading assignment that my teacher gave for just the 1st book, but then I really got on board and read all five in the series. The genre is historical fiction, which I think is getting pretty popular. It's called Chronicles of the Kings by Lynn Austin (one of my favorite authors) and it's based on the Biblical accounts of King Hezekiah and his sons. Character's POV's switched around in the story with every chapter,but I really liked to look at each and every character's backstory and emotions and feelings. This really almost gave me an inside look to King's and King's palaces and problems with royalty and such forth. This is a great read!

Something Loved:

Candle in the Darkness by Lynn Austin

P: This is an easy one for me, believe it or not. One year ago, I picked up a book Candle in the Darkness by Lynn Austin. I was again,with my family on a pretty boring farm which didn't interest. I read this whole entire book,cover to cover and I really loved it. I literally just couldn't put it down. This is a historical fiction novel, set during the Civil War when all that injustice was trying to be solved. The main character is very well-developed and fleshed out, and she was probably why I enjoyed the book. She experienced this inner conflict, but she went with her gut and did the right thing. There are many very interesting plot twist, and I feel like this really is a must read for anyone out there.

Thanks so much, Pretzelsing! I feel like we know a lot more about your taste of literature. And this is exactly why I love doing this article. Again, I have never heard of any of these books!

The last one sounds SUPER good.

See you next week book lovers! xD

QUIBBLES
Perambulating with Punctuation
written by Lavvie < PM: >

I have been asked many times about the difference between a period (also known as a full-stop) and a semi-colon. I have also been asked about the correct usage of plain old colons. For some, colons are an organ in a human’s digestive tract. A semi-colon is half of that. For writers of all kinds, colons and semi-colons are just as crucial as periods when it comes to correct punctuation. But when to use them and how to use them properly? This week’s Quibbles will leave you with a healthy understanding of punctuation, preparing you for a better life free of judgment from strict grammarians (like myself).



Periods are one of the most commonly used and known parts of punctuation, aside from commas and apostrophes. Periods are usually used to mark the end of a statement.

@Lumi is actually a candelabra.

It is important to note that a period is not required after an abbreviation that already ends in a period. For example:

@StellaThomas will soon be StellaThomas, M.D.

If I had placed a period after the abbreviation M.D., things would look funky (and not in a good way). This also applies to abbreviations like etc. and e.g.

Periods are also not required at the end of a sentence that finishes with an exclamation mark or interrogation mark. That would also look funky (and not in a good way).

Fun fact: A space must always follow a period.

1. Otherwise, you will annoy Lavvie to no end.



People get very confused and intimidated when facing semi-colons. However, their fear is misplaced because, when it all comes down to it, a semi-colon is literally a period atop a comma, simply belying how it should be used: in circumstances where a pause is required, though a pause longer than a comma’s and shorter than a period’s. There are many times where a semi-colon can be used and there is one situation where a semi-colon may never be used and that is to replace a colon.

@BlueAfrica had one goal; to sabotage Squills.

This is incorrect. The semi-colon has been used instead of a colon.

A semi-colon can be used to shorten the gap between two sentences that are closely linked in subject matter.

@Blues is eighteen; he can now legally rent a port-a-potty.

A semi-colon can also be used before such words as however, namely, therefore, i.e., for example, e.g., that is, and so on. It is also normal for commas to be used in these instances as well.

@Iggy dislikes rap music; namely, Iggy Azalea’s.

Semi-colons are also very useful when a monstrously sized list is being written, especially when one or more of the items contain commas.

YWS caters to young writers who hail from many different lands, including The Wonderful World of “Why?”; San Fransokyo; North Korea; the nineteenth century; a cottage far, far away; East of the Sun, West of the Moon; and Middle Earth.




A colon roughly means “that is to say” or “here is what I mean”. As learned above, a colon and a semi-colon are not the same thing and are used in very different ways.

First, a colon can most simply be used mark a series of items.

The following people were found in chat: @Vasticity, Vasticity, and Vasticity.

It’s important to note that a colon should not be used directly after a verb or preposition in a list.

In chat, we found: @ScarlettFire, ScarlettFire, and ScarlettFire. This is incorrect.

A colon may also be used instead of a semi-colon (only this once!) between independent clauses as long as the second clause explains and/or elaborates on the information provided in the first clause.

@Falconer is the featured member: they really deserve the recognition.

Usually, capitalizing the first word following the colon is not something that is done. However, because these are actually two independent clauses, one can technically capitalize they. Take note that the word following the colon is not capitalized in the circumstance where a simple phrase is the only thing that follows the colon:

@fortis recently changed their name: a long-awaited development.

A colon may also be used to mark the start of a very long quotation.

@Kyllorac recently provided some interesting information: I can say again with full honesty that I have read every single post in the Debate forum as of right now. I sometimes curse my thoroughness.

If I catch any of you defying the proper usage of punctuation, I swear I will leave you dangling like a modifier.

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

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

RESOURCES RELAY 6/21written by Pretzelsing < PM: >
It’s Pretzel here again,for another week of Resources Relay. I have been noticing how traffic in the Resources section is a bit slow, and I would really encourage everyone to move the speed up and post and reply to fellow users questions. Because that’s what we’re here for,right? To help other writers grow in their works. Today I am dropping 4 delicious links that you really should click on:

1.Which one to do first?
@PRANC1NGJ35T3R is confused about if they should start developing their character,or worldbuilding first. The summary of the potential novel is also briefly described,and this young writer has given many replies in this thread,seeking help.

@Kyllorac says something that’s the truth,that all writers must face at one time or another:






I agree with Kyllorac, and I encourage you to be a helpful hand with this struggling writer.

2.How to format poetry on YWS?

@Aley published an article in the Knowledge Base >>>YWS section in March that has been really helpful to a lot of new users. It has a lot of codes,so get ready to code insert(or code break?)
Here is an expert from that article:






I really do recommend this if you are puzzled in the publishing center with your poetry(and no,I didn’t mean to alliterate)

3.How to stick with it?

Writers who write long novels, often have a hard time with staying with the novel and sticking on track. @ArtStyx is asking this question to all of the users in YWS, and she needs your advice and helpful tips.

Something that @Rosendorn wrote really caught my eye:






4. Strange’s Review Storm

@Strange just recently opened a new reviewing thread in the “Will Review for Food ” section of the Resources Center. He tries to include the things that will be covered in the review that you receive:






That’s interesting to know and see everyone’s different reviewing style. If you are interested in this,then please check it out and let the requests pour in!

That’s all that I have for this week’s Resources Relay. I hope that you enjoyed searching and liking these topics. See you next Squills Sunday, and I hope that you have a fab week!

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 6/21written by megsug < PM: >

Take a contest, a club, some randomness, and a pinch of happy, and you've got the Round Up!


@CaptainSaltWater is, by his own report, feeling like a chicken. There have been some cracks made at his expense. One of my favorites has been @Falconer's:







It's a hard life as a chicken...


@THP or The Happiness Project has started a thread dedicated to pictures that should brighten people's day. Images are sorted into different themes such as light and water. The last picture was:







The next theme is stars. If you need a boost to your day, check the thread out.


@Rydia has started a contest focused on review quality rather than quantity. With contestant being reviewed and rated by each other, it promises to be an interesting contest. Rydia says that each contestant should get eighteen reviews and will get a participation or winner's badge, but maybe the best part of the winner's spoils is:







Twelve people have signed up so far. The contest starts on the first of July. Sign up before it's too late! Don't miss out.


@captainearth has created a club for all who love Minecraft. It's a quiet club right now, but with a few subscribers it could be a real hit. Captainearth says it like it is on the About page:







Go, join captainearth in the worship of Minecraft.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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SUBSCRIBERS

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