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. Green Room Gallery
2. Mod Moment
3. Two Cents
4. Quibbles
5. Newsflash
6. New Arrivals
7. Resource Relay
8. Weekly Roundup
9. Shameless Plugs
10. Subscribers

GREEN ROOM GALLERYwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

When I initially wrote this, there were 94 works with zero reviews and 169 works with one review. Many were novel chapters leftover from December.

Well, now there are four hours left to the February 2016 Review Day...and I just had to delete about a dozen of the items I had on my list for this week’s Gallery. Guess I should be happy. After all, they’ve been reviewed right out of the Green Room!

Currently, there are just 63 works with zero reviews and 117 works with one review. With about 200 reviews left to go before we meet our Review Day goal, don’t hold it against me if more of my selections for this week have disappeared by the Green Room by the time it’s over!

Bad Lights, Good Lights [Chapter 6.3 - Intermission] by @Lightsong

Fantasy/mystery. Azhar meets three new lights.

Thinking About Love? Reasons Why It’s Time to Stop! by @nykolasandrews
Rated 16+ for language.

Creative nonfiction. Love is so hard. Why do you keep doing it to yourself?

Typo Alley~L Part Two by @r4p17

Fantasy/action. RP deals with the guards, but maybe he took things too far.

The Chronicles of a Public Bus (part 3.03) by @Buggiedude2340

Mystery/fantasy. Every installment takes place on the bus. But this time, someone unlucky has gotten in front of it instead.

Society Only By Name- Part Five: General Thoughts by @KingQueenKnave

General. Continuation of a list of thoughts on society.

A Mod Moment: Birkhoffwritten by Pretzelstick < PM: >

Hello and welcome to another edition of Squills!

For this week's article, I have decided to another wonderful Mod's Moment, this time featuring the one and only @Birkhoff who has graciously answered my questions about molding and such. Without further ado, let's get right into what we all want to hear:

Squills: Tell us the best and worst things about being a mod.

Birkhoff: For me, the best thing about being a Mod is probably the connections I'll make because of it. More people talk to me, and I obviously have something in common with my fellow Mods, which makes it easier to bond and create friendships. As for the worst thing? I don't really know. I don't see a lot of downsides. Being a Mod might make you slightly intimidating to some members? But with my personality, I don't really see that as an issue. If you do, please go shout on my wall!

S: Can you tell us about any funny/embarrassing "moldy" mistakes that you have made?

B: None. I was literally a pro from the get-go. Or...well, there was that time where I moved a topic into another part of the old forums where I had no power...so it was just stuck there, and I had to get Rosey to move it back for me. >.<



B: I don't see such a vast difference between just being a regular member and a Mod. You simply have things that you /need/ to do, or should. Aside from that, you are easier in the loop for most things, and you can participate in deciding stuff. But regular members can keep themselves fairly well in the loop for what happens on the site, you just gotta get active, socialise and talk to others. Just be a good member. Aside from the things mentioned above, I don't really do anything else that I didn't do before being a Mod. What did they say? 'Just continue being awesome' or something to that effect. Just be awesome.



B: I am a part of the 'Resources' team within YWS. We're vastly underappreaciated, despite how we're the best ones. We get down and dirty with the members, helping them out with their writing, whether that is giving advice and tips on their stories, information in general, and critiquing ideas and giving good feedback on their ideas and works.



B: I still have no idea. I suppose they liked the way I reviewed, posted, and generally acted on the site.



B: Sadly, as a Norwegian, I can't. But if I could....I'd vote for Pat Buchanan. Hands down.

And on that note, we end the interview column that's called "Mod Moments." If you want to nominate any particular mod who has stood out to you, please PM it to me and I'll try to make it happen. (This opportunity is open for this week only-so take it while it's there.)

Until Next Time,

~P.S.

TWO CENTS: EMILY DICKENSONwritten by Aley < PM: >

I got a book this Christmas, and perhaps it's not that strange, but it is the subject of our newest Two Cents; Emily Dickenson.

One of the best things about Emily Dickenson is that her work is concise. This means it has three qualities that make it perfect for carrying around a large heavy hard-cover full of the complete collection: they're short, they're intense, and they're deep. I thought I'd cover these aspects of her poetry for those of you unfamiliar, or those wishing to compare notes.

Emily Dickenson is someone whose work you can read for hours and get several hundred done. It doesn't take a minute to read most of her poems once. Several can fit on a standard page at a time. This is an advantage because usually you can get through one before someone interrupts you, and even re-read it before you actually have to interact with someone who did interrupt you. But there are some drawbacks. Only the same handful of poems of hers are usually taught, so if you do have a complete works, you probably won't find very many people who have read most of them. They'll usually only be familiar with the ones taught in school.

Worse yet, they aren't named. Most texts have two names for them because of re-printing and renumbering. For instance the poem with the first line "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –" has 465 at the top, and [223] at the bottom. So, if someone says Emily Dickenson poem 223, you could end up with that one, or a poem with the first line of "I Came to buy a smile – today –" so you have to be careful when talking about them with anyone and usually just go by first line.

This makes the titles long as you can see. Try to write a comparative essay title between two Dickenson's poems and you end up with things like "Comparing Mood; [When Katie Walks, this simple pair accompany her side] to [God permits industrious Angels –]" which is already long, lords forbid you have to add anything else to that title to make it clear. To get around this, scholars often use abbreviated first lines, like "I heard a Fly…" instead of the whole thing.

Of course, if you're a fan who's just reading to enjoy, none of that really matters. You can just use sticky notes or bookmarks to save the poems you want to revisit and the problem is solved. If you ever want to talk to someone else about it, you just quote what you can remember to Google, and it usually can find the poem for you. Plus, Dickenson's poems can be read alone with no need to ever share them with anyone.

This is because her poems are intense. This is different from deep because what I mean by intense is that they twist and turn a lot. She doesn't hold her punches. With her poems, and I won't give examples, you'll have to read some yourself, she is either intensely jolly, or intensely sad. Occasionally there's muted levels in the middle where you can tell there's thinking and there's neutrality, but those poems are usually so deep, their intensely deep. To me, the intensity of a poem is how far it goes with what it is doing with mood. Whether it's somber, or morose, or jolly, or angry, or sad, it has an intensity there like a saturation of color, and Dickenson always seems to turn up the dial to full. If you read one of her poems, it stays with you after you're done reading it. It'll crop back up into your life at unexpected times, and it'll make you want to go find it again, and give you the ability to do so.

That, is actually because her poems tend to be very deep. They're not all that way, but most of them are. If you take one of her poems, you can read it once, and get a meaning, something you glean, some little nugget of information, or a quirk, or just something funny. You can hold onto that and enjoy it, and then never touch the poem again or you can analyze what it's really trying to say. Read into the mood by exploring what makes it that mood, or how that mood fits with the subject, or doesn't, and why it doesn't or does. You can dive into the meaning of the large vocabulary and surface in the simple twists and double-meanings of her words.

In short, you as a reader have a choice to make about how much time you spend with her poems. You can spend a long time enjoying the depths they can take you to, like thoughts about how time can die, or you can spend your time just enjoying the way the poems flow together.

Probably one of the best things about Dickenson's poems, however, is that they ignore most traditional rules of punctuation and are the beginning of an age where your punctuation matches how you want the poem to be read. She capitalizes words off and on in lines, she rarely uses periods, and uses a lot of dashes, and she really explores slant rhyme and pushes of the way we say words.

These things make them fun to read out loud, and clear, but also they make the poems have yet another layer that we as writers can explore.

In short, her poems are easy to read in one sitting, so my suggestion to you is to go look some of her poems up and spend maybe 5 minutes on a poem you liked the first time through.

Happy Hunting!

QUIBBLES
Vivacious Very and Sassy So
written by Lavvie < PM: >

It is so very easy to to overuse and misuse words that are intensifiers. Intensifiers are words that are employed in writing or in speech to express that you are more than something. For example, @Skins will be very happy if Leonardo DiCaprio wins every Oscar ever on Sunday night. Usually, these words are better off in the spoken word as opposed to the written word because writing that someone or something is so pleased with something or someone is a little lazy. Ultimately, it is better to describe with more creativity the feeling of the individual as opposed to falling back on intensifiers. Nevertheless, the first step is to be able to recognize when these intensifiers are being overused.

When speaking, people often use the word so to add emphasize to what they are saying. For example:

I am sooooooo excited for Review Day this month!

This does happen in creative writing when writing the dialogue for a character. This is generally frowned upon (like the use of all-caps because of the jarring visual – in that case, an exclamation mark will suffice), and I would encourage you to find an alternate method to expressing the excitement of the person.

However, using so in writing is not always frowned upon. When paired with the word that, it becomes more acceptable. For example:

I am so excited that I am screaming.

This is a more acceptable use of so because the word is not functioning as a weak intensifier, but rather as an adverb expressing the degree of something. It is employed to express how excited you are. You can turn this around into question format to better identify to so as an adverb of degree.

How excited are you?

So excited that I am screaming.

Regarding very as an intensifier, it can be okay to use this sometimes in writing. That being said, you must be able to recognize that there are much better methods to expressing a certain sentiment than using a measly intensifier. Take a look at the example found below:

I am very happy.

This is a little plain and, as creative writers, I’m sure that it is possible to come up with something more interesting.

I am ecstatic.

Using the word ecstatic makes things more interesting and less wordy. When you’re writing, keep this in mind. Look out for points where you might be overusing intensifiers and try to see if you can replace them with more creative adjectives and descriptors.

It is also important to know that there are some words that cannot be intensified or expressed in degrees. For example, someone can definitely be very interesting but they cannot be very dead. Dead is dead is dead, right? The supernatural aside, no one can be more dead or less dead than somebody else.

NEWSFLASH
written by Lavvie < PM: >

Newsy newsy news!



The musician Yoko Ono, probably most famous for her romantic partnership with John Lennon, returned home Saturday night after spending one night in hospital. The day before her doctor advised her to seek hospital care and her son, Sean, and other spokespeople denied the possibilities of a stroke, saying that she was experiencing “flu-like symptoms”. At nine in the evening on Friday, an ambulance was summoned to Ono’s home in New York City. Sean has confirmed in a tweet that his mother is “home and running about as usual. Just the flu in the end.”



Around this time a year ago, in the age of The Dress controversy, two llamas ran away from a retirement community in Sun City, Arizona. The animals roamed free and while for twenty four hours before being recaptured by authorities. They were darting in between traffic, an obvious hazard. Of course, the entire incident brought people on the internet together, after the gold and white/black and blue dress controversy had ripped friendships and romances in half. What’s going to happen next?



This Sunday marks the most anticipated awards ceremony of the season: the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars. However, this year’s nominations are exclusively white, which was given rise to much controversy regarding the lack of diversity. Many protests are planned in large cities, such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago. People are also speculating whether the award show’s host, Chris Rock, a black comedian, will address the issue to the people of white Hollywood lampoon. This alone already has some high-profile celebrities boycotting the event. The co-founder of Miramax and currently one of Hollywood’s top producers, Harvey Weinstein, has already confirmed that Rock will make the controversy the mainstay of his hosting act. “If anybody’s [planning on] boycotting the Oscars, don’t, because Chris Rock is gonna annihilate every one of us in the first 20 minutes of the show and it will be well worth watching,” the producer said.



Just this past week, Italy’s Senate voted to recognize civil unions between same-sex couples in the country. It is the last country in Western Europe to take this progressive step. Nevertheless, many people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community are still outraged because the bill neglects to legalize adoption by same-sex couples. In fact, the articles was initially included but was removed after revisions. “We are outraged, angry, [and] disappointed,” said the President of the Italian Association of Homosexual Parents, Marilena Grassadonia. She further goes on to express that she thinks it is absolutely unspeakable that Italy, belonging to the “Europe of rights”, feels that it is still acceptable to discriminate minors and their parents. Nevertheless, the bill’s legalization is a feat alone, considering that it was spurred on after intense criticism arose last year from the European Court of Human Rights, unpleased with Italy’s discriminatory laws towards the gay community. The bills still falls short of recognizing same-sex marriage.



Last November, the popular dating app, Tinder, with a hot-or-not philosophy, added the option to include your occupation and education to your profile. Because of it the, the mobile application is able to know which professions are more popular. Tinder collects most of its data from swipes – if you swipe right, it means you like the person, and if you swipe left, well...sorry, dude. For women, some of the top careers include physical therapist, pharmacist, model, flight attendant, personal trainer, and dental hygienist. For men, it seems that women are most keen on pilots, doctors, engineers, lawyers, models, personal trainers, and soldiers. So if you’re lost on what career path to take, maybe take this data into account? You won’t be single for much longer.

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >



@jedd has earned their first review star. Head over to their wall to congratulate them .

@Youngsav has posted a personal essay entitled “Five years ago…” Click here to read it and leave a review .

@na3f has posted a thread in the Welcome Mat. Stop by and say hello .

Resources Relay-2/28written by Pretzelstick < PM:
Welcome to the longly awaited and finally retured beloved Resources Relay, brough to you by Pretzel!

And yes, you're reading the title right! Pretzel is back at her normal Squillsans job, permanently weekly reporting for the Resources Relay. If you're wondering, I took an unintented hiatus, to try to experiment with different types and styles of articles, but she hasn't strayed far because she is back to her glorious original job. Expect the unexpected every week, and she would be glad if you would become a loyal reader/subscriber to this very informative column.

Anyways, let's get straight into it for today, shall we?


@Snoink is posting a questioning thread there, all that you want to know about pregnancy and baby talk. There are some interesting questions so far, and equally interesting answers that come from her experience in this field. I wanted to share a highlight quote from one of the replies:






Haha, I'm wondering if any of your get the reference to this. If you do, you should definitively check out the rest of the post with the context in which this is said, just so that you don't get confused.


You're wondering that, I'm wondering that, I think that all newbies on YWS have pondering this one time of another. Well, let no more worry eat you today, as there is an answer coming your way from the lovely @Kyllorac who can assure your fears:






As @TheSilverFox linked, for reference all members should know that the Copyright Policy is found here


This week, there is a new addition thread that was formed in the helpful section of WRFF by @Keepwriting. So far there has only been one request, but hopefully lets get some more pouring in there to improve the buisness standards . I really picked up and appreciated this in her intro post:




Go and fill a slot now with your work that still is looking for some much needed feedback from someone as wonderful as her.


Recently @jumpingsheep has been with a novel project's ending, unsure if the ending ties loose ends enough. Here is a quick summary of what the plan is for it:






@Lightsong displays there valuable opinon on this topic, or his preference as a reader:






That's the end to the grand 4 linked Relay for this week. Stay tuned and keep out on the lookout for anything interesting that will be actiony happening there (becaues beleive me, they're always busy). Hope that this helped inform you and enjoy you week!

Until Next Time,

~P.S.

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 2/27written by megsug < PM: >

The end of the world, whopper pizzas, smilies, and comics. You wouldn’t think they have that much in common… and maybe they don’t, but they’re all in this week’s round up!


@Lozrent doesn’t think humanity has much time left because of our violent tendencies and current treatment of the environment. He wants to see if anyone has hope to give. @Rubric along with a few other users replied with some optimism in response to possible nuclear warfare:







So far, those participating in the discussion seem optimistic and think humanity is safe from most threats of their own creation. Do you agree?



@Zolen has posted a comic and the first part of a second for users to comment on, so he can improve. The first comic is about an orphan exploring a seemingly deserted tower and features a fairly simplistic style, reflecting the legend feel the story has. This set of panels is a good example:



@Tecumseh discussed Zolen’s use of depth. A few users have talked about the story the first comic tells. I’m sure Zolen would welcome more opinions. Check out a cool comic and help out an artist.


@Nate has compiled a list of all 170 smilies available on YWS. They include several Starwars options, standard smilie options, and random ones like a dancing elephant. I think my favorite is probably



But that’s just one of 170! Go check out the entire list and see what smilies tickle your fancy.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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