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. SOCIETY PAGES
2. ASK GRUNO
3. 3 GUESTS, 3 QUESTIONS
4. OUTLINING YOUR STORY
5. SHAMELESS PLUGS
6. SUBSCRIBERS

SOCIETY PAGESwritten by Mea < PM: >

Welcome back to another week of Society Pages!

This week saw a fresh sprouting of mold as @Mage, @alliyah, and @ElizabethLovelace became our newest Junior Moderators. In celebration, Mage drew an adorable picture of the three of them in their freshly green outfits.

@Lumi is returning to cooking with omelette experiments and is making me hungry just by thinking about it..

@Dracula drove on a freeway all by herself! One more step to freedom.

Poor @Sachiko has totaled 18 rejections of their novel so far. At times like those, it’s nice to remember how many times Harry Potter was rejected by publishers.

After spending last week sick, @Auxiira is enjoying being immune to the virus that everyone else is now catching.

For whatever reason, @Hattable’s economics teacher collects president Pez containers. According to @FairyLight, they can be worth a lot of money if you keep them long enough, so that’s probably the motive.

@Kyllorac found out that the scarf they’ve been looking at for two years is, in fact, green, not yellow. You learn something new every day?

The second half of the week was dominated by another resurgence of #fivereasonstosmile , but @Love counters the trend with their own #fivereasonstosmell . Mainly because scented candles are amazing.

@ChieRynn whistled at a red-tailed hawk, and it answered!

@niteowl has decided to promote YWS’s short stories with the hashtag #readmoreshorts. It’s already started to spread, and I’ve already found a few amazing stories I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Go check it out!

While sick, @Kelpies had to drink medicine so gross she thought she’d throw up. Unfortunately for her, her words were a little more prophetic than she would have liked. Get well soon!

@Castiel has returned to the site! Sadly, I don’t know enough about Supernatural to make an appropriately witty reference.

In other news, @Snoink has found an online store full of the cutest dresses ever, @BlueAfrica found taxes surprisingly easy for once, @Holysocks is convinced that phones were invented specifically to make her look like an idiot, and @Love claims to be able to do cure every disease, as well as a bunch of other stuff, given infinite computing power. I supposed we’d better get on that, then.

And that’s all for this week, folks. If you have a lovely tidbit you’d like to see featured in Society Pages, be sure to shoot me or @EternalRain a PM.

ASK GRUNOwritten by Gruno < PM: >

Welcome to Ask Gruno, the advice column in which stuff happens. Gruno will answer any questions you throw at him, be it advice, personal opinion, solutions or philosophy. My cousin Pruno has been busy at the wonderful school for Pruno people, so I will be taking over the column. Every now and again, Pruno may make an appearance, so never fear! May the question answering commence!

Dear Grape Gruno and Papaya Pruno,
If you were stuck in the middle of a forest, what would you do to survive?

P.S. I hate papaya.
-Mr. Orange

To my sweet, sour, citrusy, sunset-y friend,
The answer to your question is impeccably simple. I would find Katniss Everdeen and blackmail her into killing and cooking meat for me in the forest. What would I blackmail her with, you say? Her affair with Gale, because we all know that even though she chose Peeta, there’s no way she could stay away from her old flame!!!

If Katniss weren’t there with me, I’d eat Pruno. If Pruno weren’t there, I’d eat myself.

Love,
Gruno

Dear Magnificent One,
What does your awe-inspiring five letter name mean, Magnificent One also known as Gruno?

-Anonymous Anon

My lovely Anonymous,
This is another question that is actually very simple.
G- Gubernatorial
R- Remunerative
U- Unascertainable
N- Nasopharyngeal
O- Obstreperous

No I did not just look up the longest adjectives I could find starting with each letter of my name.
I totally did.
Leave me alone.

Dear Blacky,
I miss you bb
-Bagel

Dear Dumb Pastry that Doesn’t Make Any Sense Because it Isn’t Sweet,
BLACKWOOD DIED.
I KILLED HIM.

Love,
Gruno

Sadly, that is all this Runian has for this week! We need your questions to keep this column going so if you're interested in submitting, click here.

Three Guests, Three Questions
Romance Storieswritten by Nikayla < PM: >

Since February is here and Valentine's Day is nearing, I took it upon myself to review three people on their opinions of romance--specifically, romance stories! I thank @marmalade, @ScarlettFire, and @Mage for answering these questions!

The interview with marmalade:



Marmalade: like them and I have read a few but not a whole bunch. I usually read books with romance subplots.



M: This is a hard questions, haha. But I'm going to have to go with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, though I absolutely love Tessa and Will from The Infernal Devices (the first series I willinglyr read and the series that made me want to be a writer).



M:I do like writing romance. I'm actually working on one right now. I'm in the outlining phase. I started writing it a bit but then decided to change the entire thing besides the characters, haha. I haven't written many stories that are only romance, like I said before I usually go for romance subplots.

The next interview is from ScarlettFire



ScarlettFire: I like a good romance, as long as it's not too cliché or cheesy or boring. I quite enjoy reading them, though I do have a preference for non-binary romances.



Sc:Oh, I have to think on this one... That would have to be Gomez and Morticia from the Addams Family. They're in love, they're weird and they're perfectly comfortable with it. In fact, they /embrace/ it. (They're also pretty accepting parents, but I suppose that's a bonus?)



Sc: I do enjoy writing romance! Romance can be fun. As long as it's done correctly without too many clichés or cheesy/boring elements. I like it when they have some spark!

The third and final interview was from Mage!



Mage:Though I typically don't have a problem with a romance book once I start reading it, I prefer reading books that have romance woven in and have a focus on something else! A great example is with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. Though it's not specifically a romance series and instead is made up of fantasy/adventure books, I loved reading about how much Percy and Annabeth were in love with each other!



M:This is a tough one. I have a lot of favorite fictional couples, but I think I can narrow it down to one, if the couple has to be confirmed. I love Cecil and Carlos in the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. Their relationship is incredibly cute, and I love hearing Cecil gush about how much he loves Carlos.



M:I love adding it into my writing! In fact, the book I'm currently writing partially focuses on a relationship - both one that ended badly, and one that is just budding. It's a lot of fun, but difficult because I haven't ever had an experience with it myself.

That's all we had from these three guests for this week! The general consensus was that romance wasn't a bad thing and the three of them seemed to quite enjoy incorporating it into their writing, though it's not for everyone.

OUTLINING YOUR STORY
written by marmalade < PM: >

I’m a strong believer in outlining and by this I don’t necessarily mean detailed outlines, I mean I think writing down a plan for your project is super beneficial if done in a way it works for you. There are many ways to outline your stories. I recommend The Snowflake Method if you want to go really in-depth and create a detailed outline. Personally, I created my own version of outlining based on my research over the past year.

When I first get an idea for story, it’s usually a single spark that will soon turn into a burning fire. Whether that’s a single sentence, theme, dialogue scene, etc. it doesn’t matter, I’ll write it down one a fresh new document. This is where my outlining starts. My next step is building on the idea I wrote down. I usually create a synopsis or sentence that describes the plot. I also will write down the themes and setting. Then I create a list of characters which I will build on as I add new characters to the story. The final step is creating bullet points of events that will occur in chronological order. This way I always know what’s going to happen next. I do this for the entire story and as I think of more ideas I fill them in. I got this idea for the bullet points from Jenna Moreci (the author of Eve) . And that’s it!

My version of outlining has very few steps and that’s because I don’t want to spend a lot of time on planning. I’m not someone who enjoys spending weeks to months outlining. It usually takes me a day or two (at most) because if I spend any more time than that my excitement and drive for the story will die. I’m always curious on how other writers outline and that’s why I created my new club Outline Your Story . I’d love to know and receive tips because my version of outlining is far from perfect.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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R.E.D 2.0

Are you looking to improve your reviewing skills or just get into the habit of reviewing regularly, if so, this is the contest for you! RED is an acronym for Review Every Day, which is exactly what the contest is about! Its goal is to get you in the habit of critiquing and reviewing on a regular basis. But wait, there's more! There are point prizes involved in the contest, with the top three reviewers getting a certain percent of the points that are in the Contest account. For more information, visit the link below!

R.E.D. 2.0

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SUBSCRIBERS

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