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. NOVEMBER REVIEW DAY REVIEW
2. THE 4TH YWS LITERARY JOURNAL
3. CHALLENGE COMPLETED
4. QUIBBLES: CAVORTING WITH CONTRONYMS
5. NEW ARRIVALS
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

NOVEMBER REVIEW DAY REVIEWwritten by JustPerks < PM: >

As you probably already know, this past weekend was the November Review Day! All three teams, The Bookends, Turning Tables, and Writerwings did amazing jobs, but Turning Tables ended up on top at the end, finishing with 12805 points, and 138 reviews. Regardless of who won though, everyone had loads of fun writing reviews.

@Meandbooks said that their favorite part of the Review Day was






They also said that their favorite story that they read was Bad Lights, Good Lights by @Lightsong. The first chapter can be read here . The story is marked 18+ for language, violence, and mature content.

@Stegosaurus said that the funnest part of Review Day to her was






She also had some pointers for new users.






So here goes everyone. Have fun next Review Day!

-Perks

THE 4TH YWS LITERARY JOURNALwritten by Pretzelstick < PM: >

Hello Sqiullsamigos! Pretzel here with an update and article about the officially published 4th YWS Literary Journal! @Nate proudly presented all of the information and links about it in this thread topic. . You probably already saw it, but this is just a quick reminder to check it out in case you haven’t purchased the book yet!

Here are the links to go and buy it online now!
Amazon & Kindle
Lulu

If you’re not already familiar, I thought you might want to see the cover.



It kind of reminds me of a word puzzle.

Mini Challenge: What does this cover remind you of, or what does it look to you? If you PM me your reply, you will get featured in my next article and I would love to have your input on it.

This week, I interviewed @Rosendorn, @AstralHunter, and @Rydia about their experience as editors for this year’s Literary Journal. I got some really solid interviews that I would love to share with all of you!



Rosendorn: Huge. We had over 200 pieces submitted, which made editing just a bit of a giant task! As a result, the criteria ended up being extremely harsh. It'll sound monstrous to the average population, some of the things that got pieces kicked out, but when you're dealing with 200+ works you have to cull the pile somehow. If a piece lost my attention— reject. If a piece had typos or grammar errors in it— reject. If a piece didn't follow the submission guidelines— full out removed from the pool of entries.

Now, of course, there were about a dozen of us editing the journal, so we all had different criteria. A piece I loved somebody else could've rejected and vice versa. But all in all, you get pretty picky when faced with that much of a volume of work. And not following the submission guidelines was a hard rejection no matter who read it first.

One thing you have to keep in mind is we weren't reviewing these pieces. We were evaluating them. Normally when you submit a piece to YWS, the goal is for somebody to help you improve. In this case, we were not going to do anything past copy editing and the piece had to be the best it was. Some pieces floated to the top of the pile and those made it in.

Mostly the editing process was "read as much of the piece as you can get through and click accept or reject based on how good you feel it is", with a little bit of debating for the "meh" pieces.

AstralHunter: I was delighted when Nate allowed me to help edit the Young Writers Literary Journal, since It felt like I could finally do something in return for this great website. (Keep in mind, this was before I became mouldy.) There were far more submissions than I had anticipated, however, and I couldn't get to them all. This means there will be works in the YWLJ that I have not yet read, and though it will make the read more enjoyable, I'd prefer to have read all the submissions beforehand. I hope to correct this next year, should there be a fifth Journal and I am allowed to assist once again.

Rydia: There were a lot of best parts for me. One of them was definitely being sucked into all these different worlds and forced to feel emotions which I knew would hit future readers just as hard down the line. The chilling revelations of Snapdragons; the beautiful language of The View From The Backseat which evokes within me such passionate agreement. It was the feeling of yes, print this one now.

The worst part was approaching the end of the editing process and realising that I'd 'accepted' more works than we could possibly print and that other editors had voted yes to even more again. It was that realisation that some of the pieces I loved would not make it in because we already had a similar piece or a lot of amazing writing from that particular demographic or I saw something in it which the other editors didn't. We mostly agreed on our favourites but there's always going to be an outlier which resonates with you personally and with where you've come from but doesn't have the same impact on everyone else.

The best parts outweighed the hard decisions and being able to hold the book in my hand and find the stories I'd read again, calling from the pages like they were old friends. I love that. I love knowing that for some of these authors, it will be the first time they see their works in print (but certainly not the last) and we made that happen and we got to be the first to publish them.



Rosen: First, the pieces are really good. These are the top 20 pieces of, as I said, over 200 entries from around the world, ages going from 13 to 22. It's a fantastic anthology that reflects some really amazing talent.

Second, you're (financially) supporting YWS and (emotionally) supporting all the authors who made it through, not to mention all the authors who got practice submitting to the journal! There's really nothing like getting published, and seeing your story reach far and wide.

I was published in an old journal (the 2010 one), and it was one of the best days of my life. To know people are buying your work, reading your stories, liking your stories— that's one of the reasons why we write, isn't it? Deep down, we want audiences.

Buying the journal helps fulfil the dreams of these authors who were accepted. You would want people to do the same for your own works, so support your fellow writers.

A: Besides supporting YWS and the published authors? Well, I found many of the works to be quite well-written, so like with any anthology, I'd say the point is to enjoy a diverse range of works. And since they were good enough to beat the competition, you might even pick up a tip or two. Oh, but speaking of tips, there are also articles written by some of the editors. Those would definitely be worth reading.

Rydia: These stories and poems make themselves relevant to a wide audience but none so strongly as the young writer. Nate says it perfectly in his preface: "Their words express that lingering desire to define one's self that is felt most strongly in youth, and that grasping for meaning as one attempts to figure out their relation to their ancestors, their peers, and their society."



Rosen: - Impassioned
- Creative
- Amazing

A: Honestly, I can't. There are too many adjectives for me to single out three. If I did, they'd probably just be something generic anyway. Or I can be difficult and say "Poetry + Short Stories". (For some people, that might actually be sufficient motivation to buy it. XD )

Rydia: Passionate, professional, piercing.

Thank you so very much to Rosendorn, Rydia, and AstralHunter for agreeing to take part in this solid interview. We appreciate the dedication that you put into answering these questions and editing the journal.

And now also the lovely @StellaThomas has decided to answer some questions as a reader/viewer/fan of the Literary Journal and so I think that it’s fun to get her perspective on it:



StellaThomas: I'm so impressed by the content - the writers all did really amazing jobs and the editors did equally good work picking the pieces!



Stella: I felt really proud to be part of a community that produces such beautiful art, and also something so widespread - the work is literally from every corner of the globe and that makes the journal even more special.



Stella: Exciting, varied and youthful.

Shout out to StellaThomas for telling us about her experience and emotions as a reader. It’s quite cool to get this type of perspective in an interview about this journal.

If you go on Rydia’s wall, you will find that she recently made a status post with a picture of her and a copy of the book in her hands. She comments






To wrap this up I wanted to give a big applause and clap to the team of 11 editors who undertook this job. You all know that this wouldn’t be possible without you, and you know who you are.

That’s it, dear readers. I hope that I can see all of you with your hands on this book very soon! See you next time!

CHALLENGE COMPLETEDwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

After thirty days of writerly abandon, NaNoWriMo participants are finally ready to tell the world of their November accomplishments or woes.

Did you finish NaNoWriMo? @Demeter wants to know. So far, the answers stand thus.

Yes: 13%
No: 22%
I didn’t take part: 65%

@Lylas says,






Luckily, she didn’t let that get her down! She’s already saying she






@dragonlily’s experience is familiar for many writers living busy lives.






And @ChiravianSkies has the ultimate tale of winner’s woe…






Alas, no winner’s goodies for ChiravianSkies. But congratulations for a job well done!

Not every tale was one of sorrow. @jumpingsheep’s first year was much like mine, which is nothing to be unhappy with! They say,






Another unofficial but personal winner was @adelekm, who






That it is! And @RagingLive not only finished the challenge, but






On December 1st, this appeared on the wall of the NaNoWriMo 2015 Club ...






@Snazzypencil, @origamidragons, @AdrianMoon, @Atsmai, @RagingLive, @Deanie, @r4p17, and @Falconer joined Arkhaion in the Castle of Winners in not too long. Others, alas, were not as lucky.






Others had remained in sight of the castle all month but were unable to enter.






@Noelle disappeared, never to be heard from again, but @TheSilverFox showed up to announce his success after two days of well-deserved relaxation. Aanother writer made a last-minute miracle appearance.







Other winners this year include @Dracula, @steampowered, @EternalRain, @PickledChrissy, and @CandyWizard.

Do you, too, want to brag of your achievements or bemoan your troubles? Let all of YWS know how NaNoWriMo went for you by clicking here .

QUIBBLES
Cavorting with Contronyms
written by Lavvie < PM: >

Disclaimer: this article is a paradise for any self-proclaimed sesquipedalian.

Contronyms. Also known as autoantonyms, antagonyms, enantiodromes, self-antonyms, antilogies, addads, or Janus words. But we’re going to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) those weird, long-winded words goodbye and just stick with contronym.

A contronym is a word that has more than one meaning and often those meaning are in opposition to each other. The phenomenon is called an antilogy, enantionymy, or enantiosemy. It is important to recognize that contronyms often transcend other types of English. For example, where the phrase to table a bill might mean to remove a bill from debate in American English, it means to bring a bill to debate in British English. Furthermore, contronyms obviously exist in other languages and sometimes lead a rather humorous existence, like with Latin. The word sacer in this ancient language means both “holy, sacred” and “infamous, accursed”.

But how do contronyms pertain to grammar and the written word? In fact, connotation is a very important part of writing and contronyms can easily dismantle whatever meaning you might have originally intended. Essentially, they’re words that sabotage your stories. It is therefore crucial to be aware of how and when you use such words and to also know what the multiple meanings may be. Because although you might mean one thing, the other definition is always attached, whether or not you want to acknowledge it.

Below are some commonly used contronyms.

Dust – can mean either ‘to remove dust’ or ‘to add dust’.

@Snoink needs to dust her ceramic pig collection.
@StellaThomas dusted the princess cake with pink icing sugar.

2. Fast – can mean either ‘without movement’ or ‘moving quickly’.

”Hold fast, @ScarlettFire! You’re on fire.”
@niteowl flew fast through the night.

3. Literally – can mean either ‘exactly true’ or, when used for emphasis, ‘not exactly true’.

@Hiraeth is literally a Welsh word with no direct translation.
@Lava is literally so hot.

4. Off – can mean either ‘to start/activate’ or ‘to end/deactivate’.

A lightbulb went off in @Lightsong’s creative mind.
”Get off me, @PenguinAttack!”

To further boggle your mind, enjoy the following sentence from Salon:

Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behaviour was sanctioned.

Now I would like you to boggle my mind.

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >



@ellmist and @crobbins are tied at 26 reviews each in their time spent on YWS since last Saturday. Click here and here to cheer them on!

@infinitywriter has earned her first review star! Go to her wall to congratulate her .

@Lieke has posted a poem about social anxiety called “Hiding Within.” Click here to read it .

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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The 4th YWS Literary Journal

The 4th YWS Literary Journal is now available for purchase! Click here to buy it from Amazon or here to buy it from Lulu.

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SUBSCRIBERS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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