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Young Writers Society


Squills 7/3/2016 - 7/9/2016



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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:08 pm
SquillsBot says...



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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!

CREATIVE STAFF


Spoiler! :
Editor-in-Chief
megsug

General Editors
Gravity
Lavvie

Friendly Neighborhood Robot
SquillsBot

Literary Reporter
Available - PM SquillsBot if interested

Community Reporter
AliceAfternoon

Poetry Enchantress
Aley

Resources Reporter
PretzelStick

Storybook Reporter
Available - PM SquillsBot if interested

Quibbles Columnist
Lavvie

Writer's World Columnist
Lightsong

Link Cowgirl
megsug

Social Correspondent
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Associates of Pruno and Gruno
Pruno - Available - PM SquillsBot if interested
Gravity

Code Master
Available - PM SquillsBot if interested

General Reporters
Morrigan



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!





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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:09 pm
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REVIEW DAY REVIEW
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written by megsug < PM: >
June’s review day was one to go down in the history books. After several months with fairly low turnout, June was a month to remind us all of what YWSers are really made of.

The goal for the day was 300 reviews. After 16 hours of reviewing, that goal was surpassed and then almost doubled by the end with 530 reviews in all! The green room, which had works published in March now only has 52 works all of which have been published in June and July.

Not only that, but all of the reviews of June 2016 surpass the reviews done in June 2015.

There were three teams, and each ran fairly close together, but the Monarchs finally took the lead with 177 reviews.

@ellstar, @Meandbooks, and @Yams were the top three winners and received YWS swag, from the YWS store!

Reviewing is indeed still alive and well at YWS.





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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:11 pm
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Three Guests, Three Questions
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written by AliceAfternoon < PM: >

Summer is a wonderful time where people can either enjoy the relaxing warmth or take some time to get things done, they couldn't do in the school year. For this Three Guests, Three Questions I interview people about the topic of summer. A special thanks to @Zolen, @RippleGylf and @bluewaterlily for letting me interview them.

My first interview was with @Zolen,


Squills: Hey can I interview you for Three Guests, Three Questions? The topic is summer~


Zolen: sure

S: Okay awesome. The first question is, Do you have any summer plans?


Z: get another job, finish assets for pixelated game I am trying
and finish first book of a story I am doing


S: What do you love about summer?


Z: Not a fan of it at the moment given its 90 degrees Fahrenheit min.
The entire forest is so bight that most of the colors have been dulled, and anyone who stays out longer then a few minutes starts to sweat.


S: would you say summer is your favorite season or do you tend to wish it away hoping for another season to come soon?


Z: yep, I think my last comment actually was the answer, Spring.
Summer is too hot for me, where I live the summers are too hot and the winters too cold.


My next interview was with @RippleGylf


Squills: Do you have any summer plans or goals?


RippleGylf: Yes, I'm wanting to complete making a simplistic RPG over the summer

S: What do you love about summer?


R: Getting to relax away from the stress of school, and lazy days spent reading books?

S: would you say summer is your favorite season or do you tend to wish it away hoping for another season to come soon?


R: I don't wish it away, but I honestly prefer spring.

My last interview was with @bluewaterlily


Squills: Do you have any summer plans or goals?


bluewaterlily: I am planning on taking up the challenge of Camp Nano in July with a goal of achieving 30,000 words.

S: what do you love about summer?


b: I love being able to sleep in, not stress about school, and write my heart out, which can be hard to do because of school.

S: would you say summer is your favorite season or do you tend to wish it away hoping for another season to come soon?


b: Although I do enjoy the summer, I think my favorite season is winter. I love the feeling of breathing in cold air but also being able to curl up by the fire with a blanket and a book, and I love seeing everything outside covered in ice. I am still waiting to experience a white Christmas though and actually see more than just a few snow flurries. It's on my bucket list.

Thank you again to @Zolen, @RippleGylf and @bluewaterlily for letting me interview them.





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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:14 pm
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TWO CENTS: TELEVISION SHOWS
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written by Aley < PM: >

As a procrastinator it is my great pleasure to spend my time doing other things than what I am supposed to, and, somehow, gaining from those other things a sense of accomplishment. Because of this, I must admit that I am a binge watcher of some television shows. Currently I'm binging on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as I have already finished the movies and the original Star Trek, so, as we are all influenced by what we consume, and we pretty much all consume television, or at least our audiences do, I believe this topic is something to be considered as a watcher of television in the modern era.

The first thing to consider is the changes as they have developed between a very old show like the original Star Trek and a very new show like Sherlock on the BBC. This matters because as our viewing capabilities have changed, so have the shows. In a very old show like Star Trek, the ability of the viewers to remember exactly what happened was highly limited. They could not replay old shows. This meant that in order to give everyone a consistent viewing experience, the content of the shows would change, but not the characters, as everyone needed to be able to speak about the characters the same. Also, they couldn't continue a plot without announcing that this was a plot continued, for instance shows that had Part One, and Part Two, because Part One might be missed by the viewer, and likewise, so could Part Two. They couldn't replay these shows as readily either, because the availability of time on a station was limited, and so were the stations available. It was expensive to produce, expensive to play, and replays weren't that common, that meant if you missed Episode 24, you missed it. End of game.

Today, we can go back and watch what we miss, and even twenty years ago, replays were becoming more common. This changed the way that shows were developed because they could now ignore the fact that someone might not have seen a show, they could find it to watch it again. This meant that foreshadowing could happen in shows. Now, instead of just having one show encompassed within one episode, a show could have a running theme, or an arc, and the viewers were likely to follow that arc. The viewer memory was better, so the writers took more liberties with it.

This change allowed more character development to happen on the home viewer, for characters to change slightly over time due to things that have happened to them in previous episodes. A character that is completely law abiding, might be completely criminal by the end of a show. Likewise, a character who is emotionally stable, could become unstable during an arc, and then return later. These changes allowed a more story-like quality to the programs, but I don't feel that many shows take complete advantage of it. If you're binge watching a show, you can track the character growth of a single individual, and chances are, aside from a little bit of change here or there, they won't do much growth. There are exceptions to this, but these shows tend to have been book series before being produced, and that gives the writers guidelines for what they should use in the television show, and as books have character development, so do the shows.

The main thing that old and new shows can provide us with is the ability to analyze what sort of political messages we can put into our stories. If you watch the older shows, and know some history of what was going on at the time the show was aired, you can tell what sort of history the show is trying to allude to, and figure out how the show is metaphorically taking a political stance. Star Trek does this well, because despite not having much character development, the characters are mostly stagnant, but three dimensional, the plot and world develops quite a bit. The type of societies they visit are limited to the ability of the producers to create artificial make up, and physical objects for the characters to interact with, but the overall questions the shows produce, and the commentary they provide on our human life now through analysis of their past, and the types of situations they run into is a clear indication of the writer's political views. It provides us with a good basis for how much we can talk about our current political views in a written piece of literature, and how to go about it.

Another benefit to watching these shows is the types of allusions they use. While allusions today are rare in shows, allusions in some older shows such as Star Trek, are constant. They quote freely, and amply, providing the reader with a teaser of what they should read, and Star Trek definitely favors towards "Hamlet" by Shakespeare. They even go into some analysis of the play throughout the entire show and movies.

Today, many shows lack the overt quoting that Star Trek had, but with how easily texts are found and read by today's audiences, it's not because it's not there. Many times I am watching a show and I recognize a quote from Shakespeare, or a poem from Robert Frost, and the rest of the viewing audience has to be bored with my explanation because I'm excited about it being in there. In some examples, I've even been introduced to new texts because I search things that are quoted, or sound to be quoted, in shows to find out if they're real. This is very audience-demanding though, and the overt quote where they say the quote and say who it's by, basically citing it on the screen, is much easier to pin down and appreciate. It might move beyond the show, it might connect the show to reality, or the book to reality, a little too tightly for an alternate universe, but I'm not sure that matters. The ability to use what you've read in your book to make a point, or to add depth to an idea, allows you to develop a readership that appreciates what you do, and if you are among your readers, then you know what sort of influences and ideals they can accept. It also lets you foreshadow if you have a later situation which mimics that of an allusion you have used.

In summary, binge watching shows is a pastime that you shouldn't use to procrastinate, but if you use that time to analyze shows, and develop an understanding of the differences of fiction then and now, you can create your best assessment of how you want to write, and develop your skills as you listen to dialogue, watch what sort of scenes they produce, and examine the overall repetitions they use throughout the entire series.

I hope those of you with Netflix take the time to read "Hamlet" and then laugh and enjoy all the quotes in Star Trek with Kirk as I did. It's a good time.

Until next time.





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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:20 pm
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THIS WEEK'S ROUND UP 7/3
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written by megsug < PM: >

Links for sale! Geography links! Publishing links! Get your links in This Week’s Roundup.


@Shiverfeather is curious about where YWSers are from since she doesn’t know of any other Aussies. @Storygirl95 added a few tidbits about where she’s from and America’s independence day:



I'm from U.S.A. too and I'm ecstatic for the fireworks!
Colorado has pretty ones, though I'm sure they're always pretty no matter where you live.




So… Where are you from?


@Hiraeth needs more help! This time, instead of pronouncing phrases, volunteers will be defining them. The phrases are:



Meaning of disinterested and uninterested
Meaning of political correctness
When is next Saturday for you? (state the date)
Explain the difference between who and whom.
What does it mean if you say the house was an enormity?
What does verity mean?
Do you say aeroplane or airplane?
What is the meaning of aerodrome?
What’s the difference between ( all together ) and altogether?
What does enervation mean?
Can you explain what sleight of hand and eye of the storm is?




Don’t cheat and look up the definitions! But continue to help out a fellow YWSer!


Don’t start talking about how you found YWS! @Nate means a literal background. It’s like the theme for your profile page, but for all of YWS. You can set it up here . Nate, out of curiosity, wants people to post screenshots of YWs to see what their background is.

@ScarlettFire has a cute background:

Spoiler! :
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What’s yours?


@yizhongt asked a few questions about publishing through Kindle, and people came through big time. @jumpingsheep shared some of their experience with publishing ebooks. While this is just a smidge of their good advice, what they have to say on free promotions seems valuable:



Three-day free promotions are the best way. Usually when I do a free promotion, the highest amount of downloads are on the first day, and usually by the fourth day, the downloads are only at about one or two. So keep promotions at about two to three days at a time. You receive five free promotion days per month.




Read the rest of the thread for more advice and a discussion on how to treat cover artists.





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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:23 pm
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SHAMELESS PLUGS
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written by SquillsBot < PM: >

We love to run articles and questions, but we also love to advertise for you. Let people know about your new blog, a poem or story you’re looking for reviews on, or a forum thread you’d like more traffic on through Squills’ Shameless Plugs. PM @SquillsBot with the exact formatting of your advertisement, contained in the following code.

Code: Select all
Place advertisement here. Make sure you include a title!


And now for this week's Shameless Plugs!


Prepare for War


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Click the image for more information!




That's all folks~ Now send us yours.





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Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:25 pm
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SUBSCRIBERS
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written by SquillsBot < PM: >

Find enspoiler-ed a list of our subscribers!

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I am deeply disturbed by your ability to meow.
— Carina