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. Quibbles
3. Two Cents
4. News Flash
5. New Arrivals
6. New Arrivals
7. Weekly Roundup
8. Shameless Plugs
9. Subscribers

GREEN ROOM GALLERYwritten by BlueAfrica < PM: >

There are currently 102 works with zero reviews and 151 works with one review in the Green Room. With the March Review Day coming up soon, let’s see if we can get the Green Room down low enough to earn a free post day!

Thrallmagic: Chapter 23 by @QueenOfHearts

Dramatic/fantasy. Ria fights with Lindon.

The Progeny: Chapter 29 by @MissGangamash
Rated 16+.

Sci fi/supernatural. Caius must become a Maker once again or Guardian will kill the person he loves.

Society Only B Name- Part Four: Satire Upon Satire by @KingQueenKnave
Rated 16+.

General. The role of satirists in society.

The Adventures of Darren Cassidy - Chapter Seven, Part Nine - Not so Great Expectations by @AstralHunter

Fanfiction/action. Darren accompanies Miss Le Chatelier to the Pinnacle Shrine to make an offering.

A short story inspired by Albert Camus by @issssy

Short story/realistic. Jegou must care for his new nephew after his sister dies in childbirth.

Muster Heroes - QuickSave 14 by @Tortwag

Fantasy/sci fi. The teams are together, but not all of them are faring so well.

A Better Life: Chapter One by @tigeraye
Rated 16+.

Sci fi/realistic. Lorena is a single mother just trying to get by...while heading an innovative tech company.



The next several works have been featured before, but they’ve been in the Green Room since early January. Let’s try to move them on!

The New Generation--Chapter 13: No Pay, No Way by @Artemis28

Fanfiction/action. A Percy Jackson fanfic featuring the daughter of Percy and Annabeth. In this chapter, Leia finds herself in the Underworld without any money.

Aftermath: Chapter 3 - Chaos by @BornLoser

Fanfiction/action. Jay regains consciousness with a broken arm and the realization that Hayley is dead.

Cynder Rosetail and her Journey: Prologue and Chapter 1 by @Cynder

Action/fantasy. When Cynder turns one hundred, she moves to the adolescent dormitories with the other young dragons.

Beyond -- Chapter 2 by @SemperAugustus

Fantasy/mystery. A fisherman remembers an old story of his grandfather’s while caught on the sea during an impending storm.

Five Essential Souls (No. 4) by @DoubleOJell0

Action/humor. Can Ring escape capture? Or is his number up?

QUIBBLES
Glancing at Grammar
written by Lavvie < PM: >

It’s happened more than once to me in my nineteen and a half years where someone has seriously asked me why I bother with grammar. What’s the point? Everyone has a general knowledge of grammar, right? After all, that’s the whole point of high school English class? If you don’t intend of majoring linguistics, what’s the point of actually learning more than where to place your periods and when to use your or you’re? These are not silly questions to be asking, but they are also not as rhetorical as some people might think.

Initially, my passion for grammar and spelling grew with my writing. As a perfectionist, spelling and grammar was a way for me to perfect the technical aspects with my writing when I was not able to perfect the content. (When you’re as young as six or seven, editing short stories can be quite daunting.) As a perfectionist, to admit one’s shortcomings in one’s greatest love is to admit failure so if I could have the best grammar and spelling, at least my writing was halfway to success. Along with this came the desire to master two languages at once as I was also in French Immersion. Lots of French Immersion children have horrific spelling and grammar in English because they’re always learning French. Being as ambitious as I was, this was a place where I could outshine the other children who excelled in athletics or visual art.

At least, that’s how I perceived it for awhile. When I hit the middle grades and later high school, I realized that very few people recognized the importance of spelling and, especially, proper grammar. It was at this point that we started to have more serious writing assignments, in a variety of different subjects. Sure, you can love maths and biology, but at some point you’re going to have write something in that subject, be that in grade nine algebra or a first year university course. I took it upon me to start advocating for good grammar and spelling, and that’s also when I read the wonderful book Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. (I highly recommend the read.) I got caught up in the politics of punctuation and since then I have not been able to escape from them.

In my later of years of high school when I began writing papers in marine science or in statistics or saw friends struggling to write their extended essays in physics, I was even more shocked at how grammatically illiterate people were at the ages of seventeen and eighteen. In university, in graduate school, there is a lot more writing in quantitative subjects. Are you really gung-ho about writing a thesis on crayfish respiration? Great, but you’re going to have to write that thesis. Grammar is not just a thing reserved for English majors and linguists, but it’s something that plays a major role in all parts of life. Grammar is always relevant.

While its general usage is not debatable, grammar can actually be quite controversial. It was this controversial side that drew me in because it meant opinions could differ strongly and that writing was a beautiful, evolutionary thing. Of all people, writers should not shun grammar because it points to the very literacy of the author. If you have ever reviewed something with horrific grammar, you cannot deny that you liked the piece less, that the grammar might have been hard to overlook and thus you were less able to focus on the content of the story. Maybe it was a revolutionary plot line, but the grammar inhibited its potential. Knowing the most basic points of grammar is like a chemist knowing their periodic table.

I do not deny that keeping up grammar is difficult, because it is. Grammar is ever-changing and, in the twenty-first century with the rise of political correctness and the push for a more gender-inclusive society, it is even more important to be in tune with the social aspects of grammar. In light of this, we should also recognize the power of grammar to change social constructs. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword. The written word remains, be it in print or online, and therefore grammar is key to expressing thoughts and opinions. How do you want to be perceived? How do you want information to be absorbed?

As grammar constantly evolves, grammarians should be open and willing to acknowledge the changes taking place. I admit that some Quibbles articles are rather traditionalist, but in order to defy the rules you have to first know them. There are some things that can’t be questioned, like when to use a question mark, but other things are less obvious, like the existence of the Oxford comma. Be open to differing opinions and don’t shy away from questioning the formation of language. Why this and not that? Challenge people, but not before they have a firm grasp on the basic use of grammar. Encourage them to learn and don’t be harsh, because they have likely not been exposed to the all-encompassing relevance of grammar.

As young writers, we are the next people to be authoring bestsellers and advocating literacy. Understand the strength in grammar and the effect it can have on society. It’s not just a few apostrophes thrown between letters, but it can change people and the world they belong to.

TWO CENTS: HAIKUwritten by Aley < PM: >







Oftentimes people believe that haiku are simple, or easy to make, or difficult to make, or confusing, or way too complex, or any number of things. It's sort of like the golden fleece for poetry [The golden fleece is a Greek mythological item that was coveted but impossible to obtain, and could cure wounds by laying it over someone, among other things]. I'm here to help explore the complications, and dismantle some of the problems those complications present. Why? Because I think haiku are both overrated and underrated at the same time, depending on who you talk to, but just about everyone knows about them.

Haiku are not as difficult as some people may think. They have a set list of rules like every other structured poetry type out there. That makes them accessible to you across the world. The reason Haiku's structure is somewhat difficult to grasp is because it had to be translated from a Japanese understanding of poetry, to an English one. This means that there are translation issues.

To put it simply, the reason we have the 5-7-5 rule for a haiku is because our writing is different. In Japan, the symbols they use for writing make up parts or complete syllables, so when translating to English, where writing one symbol doesn't make up a sound cluster, but part of a sound cluster, it had to translate to syllables.

This means we can relax about the syllables. We don't need to freak out on someone if they have 6 syllables instead of 5, or 6 syllables instead of 7. That's just a difference in language. Yes, in English, they want 5-7-5 but the intention there was short, long, short, and to limit the number significantly.

Haiku are more strict about their subject then their style. A haiku is supposed to be a moment of nature, just a moment. This means it's not about our first love, our feet, our children, or anything like that, it's about nature. Most people miss this about haiku and just focus on the syllables. The structure requires you have something about the season, and for it to just be a moment in time.

Because Haiku are just supposed to be a single moment in time, it is best not to have a period at the end of your haiku because that actually limits the flow through the haiku on to the next moment. This is another thing people often get wrong.

Lastly, haiku are supposed to have a turn, or something that drastically changes the way you are thinking from the start to the end. Usually this is done by comparison of a couplet with a line. This could be the first two lines as the couplet which go together, and the last line being the turn, or the reverse. The first line introducing something and the last two being the turn.

This is the complex part of a haiku.

What most people end up doing is writing senryu, which is a sibling to the haiku, but it's about people instead of nature. It's sort of like the difference between a landscape and a portrait. A senryu is basically the same as a haiku, but the subject is different. They often forget the turn as well, especially since a turn is not a typical poetic term.

The best way I can think of to describe a turn is that it is a plot twist in the poem. These can be extremely hard to do when you're writing a bland subject like nature, and you have limitations. Basically a haiku is about writing a comparison and what you compare is where the new line of thought comes in.

To start, try to come up with something you want to say about nature. For this I'll use an example. I want to talk about the snow in winter. That's a season, and I can create a moment from that. Two requirements fulfilled. Now I have to pick something to compare to winter that will be a new or unexpected way to think about it. I'm going to compare winter to a wet dog, just because I think I can make it work.

Now that I've picked my comparison, my subject, and my time, I'll come up with a three lines. The first two or one about winter, the next about the dog.



Next I have to refine syllables, and change the words and ideas around until I like the direction the poem is suggesting. This usually takes longer as you have to give yourself time to think. Don't rush it. A well thought out haiku should provide something original to say about whatever season you're talking about. Don't, don't, don't, explore something you've already heard.



And there you have it! I really liked the idea of crusted snow, so I made that a focal point for the second haiku. Just like all poetry, you should try to invoke the reaction of all senses. Toast is a very distinctive smell, so, I related snow to toast to get a sense of warmth which I contrasted with "snow" to create a different way to describe an experience I've had with snow, where the top is hard, but underneath is soft. I then continued with the analogy of toast and snow as I added in the dog I wanted to use. For the first one, I used the smell of a wet dog to immediately assault the memory of those who have smelled it, and the sounds of trickling water.

If you are having issues counting syllables, first consider that every group of sounds you say is a syllable. So "syllable" has three syllables, and s doesn't usually count as it's own syllable when tagged onto the end of words. This means "words" is one syllable. You can check this out by looking at the phonetic pronunciations of words through google. That is usually accurate to syllables.

Now that you have a syllable run down, put your hand on the number pad on your keyboard, read the line, and each time you read a syllable, touch the key up one, don't press it. This way you can read instead of count. When you get to nine go to 0, and then back through again. Use your free hand to keep track of each set of ten you get by putting up a finger each time you hit 0, or use a second number key pad, such as at the top of your keyboard, to do the same process for the tens.

By doing this method, I counted 109 syllables in the paragraph describing the process. You can also use a syllable counter online, but they can be wrong, easily. It speeds up the process enough that you can count syllables multiple times to ensure your accuracy.

In summary, don't be afraid of haiku they're not easy, but they aren't difficult either. Just know what you're talking about. Haiku are about seasons, have a 5-7-5 syllable pattern of three lines, and include just a single moment in time, without any periods, and with an enlightening twist somewhere among the lines. There should be a season indicating word in the first line of your haiku somewhere to ensure that it's in the poem. To write one, pick nature you want to compare with something and then just have at, but be sure to include a season.

Meanwhile the senryu is sort of a free for all style of poetry, like the difference between a square and a rectangle if the rectangle is the senryu and square is the haiku. Don't be afraid to teach people what a senryu is because it's really easy to describe, it's a haiku about anything but nature. If you want an example, I put a senryu at the top of this article.

Now go and submit haiku, for real, like a real haiku!

NEWSFLASH
written by Lavvie < PM: >



It’s been a long time coming for the most wanted man in Europe. Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect of the terror attacks that took place November 13th in Paris has finally been arrested, in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels, Belgium. Abdeslam had been on the run for four months and the police only recently caught up to him when his fingerprints were found in another Brussels flat on Tuesday. The violent raid that resulted in the terrorist’s arrest occurred in a very average-looking, terraced townhouse. Masked officers from Belgium’s special intervention squad were present as were highly-trained sniffer dogs. The surrounding area was evacuated and the three people accused of helping Abdeslam hide have been detained. Despite having arrested a major player in the Paris attacks, the French President was quick to note that the arrest was an “important moment” but not the “final conclusion”. “We must catch all those who allowed, organized, or facilitated these attacks and we realize they they are a lot more numerous than we thought earlier and had identified,” Mr. Hollande said.



Obama is jetting off to Cuba, the first american presidential visit in nearly ninety years. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, several American administrations attempted to destroy Cuba’s communist government. It seems that the Obama administration, in their last months, is making a move to change that trend. Most present-day Cubans were born after the revolution and have grown up with communist ideology so Obama’s visit is still something to process for many. Samir, a Cuban “mule” who works abroad to bring back merchandise that cannot be found on his country’s state-run stores, stated a hopeful opinion: “I think many things will change. Maybe we will have the opportunity to go to the United States... more trade, more opportunity to find a job.” During his visit, President Obama will meet the current Cuban President, Raul Castro, speak with anti-government activist and also attend a friendly baseball game between Cuba’s national team and Florida’s Tampa Bay Rays.



On Saturday, approximately 178 countries and territories around the world encouraged their citizens to turn off the lights for Earth Hour. This event aims to highlight the looming global threat of climate change. Major world landmarks also played a role in this year’s Earth Hour as even the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower went dark for one hour. Each year, Earth Hour has a theme and this year it was “Places We Love”, which largely refers to the natural world, from the mountains to national parks to coral reefs – all things to which climate change poses a serious threat. The annual Earth Hour event was first started by the World Wildlife Fun in 2007 in Sydney, Australia. 2008 was the year when the idea caught international attention.



It was only just a few days ago that Loblaws, a major Canadian grocery chain, decided to withdraw French’s ketchup from shelves – a ketchup that uses Canadian-grown tomatoes. Little did the company know, this action would result in Canadians resorting to social media to be extraordinarily vocal about the issue. They protested so loudly and garnered so much media attention that Loblaws decided to reverse its decision, giving a week-long second chance to French’s. A few years ago the famous ketchup brand Heinz shut down tomato production in Canada’s tomato capital of Leamington, Ontario, resulting in the loss of 750 jobs. A while later, a different company by the name of Highbury Canco reopened the factory and the American owned French’s started purchasing tomato paste there in January. A Canadian man took to Facebook in a viral post to highlight the pros of French’s ketchup, saying that it’s much tastier and doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup. The Canadian Press also released some information from a leaked Loblaws document that stated French’s was being discontinued due to competition with the grocery chain’s own PC ketchup brand. PC ketchup is made in Ontario, but used California tomatoes. Either way, Canadians have once again stepped up to the patriotic plate, in favour of homegrown tomatoes.



Anonymous, a loose group of hackers, has called for a dismantling of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to “expose what he doesn’t want the public to know”. The collective announced their aim in one of its traditional propaganda videos, encouraging people to take down one of Trump’s Chicago property websites by April 1. This isn’t the second time that Anonymous has declared ‘total war’ on Donald Trump. In fact, it was only at the end of 2015 that Anonymous took down Trump’s New York Trump Tower website using a distributed denial of service attack that overwhelms the site server with false traffic. That was in response to Donald Trump saying he would ban Muslims from the United States. Only time will tell if Anonymous will succeed in their goals.

NEW ARRIVALS
written by BlueAfrica < PM: >

THIS WEEK'S ROUNDUP – 3/20written by megsug < PM: >

You can ride a horse to the polls while doing a crossword in this week’s Roundup!


@Attolia wants to know what’s better Sudoku, crosswords, or Jumble. She thought Sudoku would be shunned, but so far it’s the most popular of the three choices. @Meandbooks explains why she has abandoned words for numbers in this instance:







Which of the three do you do? Or do you not participate in any?


@ehobby1456 just wanted to remind all Americans of voting age to get to the polls, but she started a discussion about whether voting actually mattered. @Pretzelstick argued that there was no point because an individual’s vote won’t make an impact in a national election. @ehobby1456 made a good point:







It’s a good discussion of interesting points on either side. Maybe throw your two cents in as well.


@AutoPilot has started posting pictures she’s taken. She says she’s not the best, but I think her photos are beautiful. I especially like the one she has of a pool:



Check it out!


ehobby also made a thread to answer questions about horses. As someone who knows nothing about our equine brethren, I expect to be visiting that thread quite a bit. @StellaThomas asked:







Along with a few more questions. If you want the answers, read the thread!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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