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!

See an empty position you'd like to fill? Find position descriptions and instructions to apply here .

1. FM INTERVIEW PART 1
2. FM INTERVIEW PART 2
3. GENERES GALORE
4. WORD OF THE WEEK

FM INTERVIEW: PART ONEwritten by Lumi < PM: >

What does it feel like to be a Featured Member these days? What do they order when they call in Chinese food on a lazy Sunday? If these are the sorts of questions burning in your bones, then you'll be at least 50% satisfied by the end of today's interview! Due to May havoc, our sit-down with Hall-of-Famer @MJTucker at the carnival had to be postponed until now, but let's waste no more time and dive directly into the heart of this crawfish because I smell hushpuppies and they're making me hungry for journalism!




MJTucker: It was amazing, I was so grateful to everyone who voted(?) for that and it was incredible to see that people were appreciating the work I put into my reviews and they wanted to recognize it in such a public and honoring way.


MJT: I feel like I have to keep reviewing, which means of course I get reviewer's block. But I'll be back with a vengeance as soon as it is gone and that green room is gonna get destroyed!


MJT: I think it was because I write longer reviews and I knocked out a bunch on review day, and also because I have a large presence online and dabble in forums, storybooks, writing, reviewing, you name it. I also subscribe to and participate in a bunch of clubs, so you've definitely seen my name around.


MJT: Reviewing is definitely important, but also make sure you're involved in forums and other storybooks. The more people know your name, the more likely it is that you will be chosen. If you review twenty people and write lengthy reviews, maybe only 40 people will see your name. But if you're involved in other clubs, then that opens it up to possibly 100, if not more, people. And be dedicated and work hard at it, and someone will eventually recognize it.


MJT: No problem, and thanks again for picking me as the Featured Member! I'm thrilled to have the reign and reins, but I have no complaints to honorably resigning and passing the baton off to someone else after my time in office is complete.

I personally thought MJT's time in office was an era of peace and prosperity! Lots of folks got new stars, and many Squires became Knights of the Green Room! And now that MJTucker's reign is over, we hand over the reins to @PrincessInk for her interview with our newest member of the Hall of Fame!

FM INTERVIEW: PART 2

written by Princess Ink < PM: >

Now here is the second part of the FM interviews (the reason there are two interviews is explained above). The newest—and current—member of the Hall of Fame is…@SarukaTheHuman! She’s been a busy bee in YWS: zipping around RPing in the RP Geeks, the club famous for its immense amount of activity, and, like all Knights of the Green Room, reviewing with valiant pride and enthusiasm. I had a little chat with Saruka and asked her a couple of questions:



SarukaTheHuman: I didn't get on the home page first when I found out, I went to my notifications. I realized three people had posted comments on my wall, and I was kind of confused. I hadn't gotten a recent review star, and my birthday was last week. I checked it out, still confused when I saw everyone telling me I was featured member. I checked the forum everyone had been liking, and it was a really nice surprise!



STH: It's so diverse. You can create a character with any power, any mindset, and they can be capable of doing anything, and you just get to step into their shoes for a while. I also love roleplaying characters that already exist, like Frisk, Yuri, Hermione, Dipper, etc. Your favorite character comes to life and you become them for the time being.



STH: Find out how to be motivated to review, welcome new YWSers to the site, and just have fun!



STH: With no doubt in my mind, @ With3r3dros3. She has only been on the site about a month shorter than I have, and she's already doing great. She welcomes every (yes, EVERY SINGLE ONE) new user to the site, something instituted by @ Mage (and there's no doubt that she, sometime, was FM) and something that is really fun and a nice thing to do. She's really dedicated and a really nice person. Also, it's nice to have someone to phangirl with



We have heard a lot from both Featured Members. I had an enjoyable time interviewing Saruka, and I hope you will also have fun reading this article. Good-bye for now and see you next time!

GENRES GALORE: PITFALLS OF FANTASYwritten by Princess Ink < PM: >

Last time, I introduced fantasy and interviewed two fantasy writers and we learned a lot from them. This time, I'll be diving more into the nitty-gritty of it--or more precisely, some of the pitfalls of fantasy.

1. Don’t go overboard with your worldbuilding: For some writers, it might be fun to create an intricate world chock full of fascinating information. Food, culture, recreation, detailed maps. It’s your world, so you get to do what you like to do in it! But just remember that when writing a fantasy story, the plot and characters are more important than that.

The Lord of the Rings encompasses a large, complex world with many places Tolkien could have dived into. Thank goodness he didn't go too far. Plot (to destroy the One Ring) and characters (Frodo Baggins and his friends) took center stage. I won’t deny the importance of setting. We want to know the land we’re in, the people, the politics, and so forth. That is important. But we don’t need to know every single cultural or geographical detail about it.

2. Magic shouldn’t be an easy way out for the MC: Even if they do have magic, don’t make it easy for them to defeat the antagonist. I believe that magic can’t be omnipotent! For example, in "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" saga, it has a cost—the characters can wield enormous power by channeling magic, but using too much is extremely dangerous for them. Defining a system and boundaries for magic will be helpful to balance out the strengths and weaknesses of it.

3. Use deus ex machinas with care: This is a plot device to work out an unsolvable situation with just a “Oh, there was this kind of spell/creature/intervention”. In a world with magic, it may be especially tempting because magic can explain the impossible. Many cases of deus ex machina end up poorly executed and unless there’s a really good reason to use them, I suggest avoiding them. Those plot devices are not forbidden. Some books use it and are still successful (like in the climax of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J. K. Rowlings).

4. Avoid writing completely clichéd stories: Imagine a shiny, innovative idea in fantasy. Imagine people praising the writer’s ability to come up with that idea, and then other writers thinking, “Good idea!” and using it too—till it’s worn-out. People can get tired of new ideas quickly if they run into them so many times. That doesn't mean you should shun them, though. Yes, they are overused, but some become so common (like the Hero’s Journey) that they become more of a theme rather than a cliché.

Just trying to make your story unique in every possible way is impossible. Clichéd or not, it’s quite probable that other writers have come up with your ideas already! With the gigantic amount of fantasy books out there (and many are released every year), I’m not sure you can get away writing a fantasy novel without using some kind of trope. Besides, the reason they’re even clichés is because we liked them so much that we rehashed it over and over again, isn’t it?

Giving some fantasy tropes your own twist is refreshing and fun to brainstorm! One common cliché is the plucky farm boy who is actually the prince of some kingdom (and the hero of the story). Try twisting them in interesting ways. Perhaps he isn’t a farm boy. A court physician instead. Or perhaps he isn’t so plucky. He could be moody or very shy.

As a final note, remember that originality does not always equal “good” and using clichés isn’t always “bad”. Execution of the idea is always, always more important than how unique it is. Although dropping a load of tired fantasy tropes probably isn’t the best idea and could turn away some readers, the way the story is carried out matters most.

Next time, I’ll be touching on worldbuilding. Good-bye till then! Feel free to send me a PM if you have any comments about my article or any topics you want me to cover.

THE WORD OF THE WEEK: BOONDOGGLEwritten by megsug < PM: >
Pronunciation: boon-daw-guhl

Part of Language: Noun, Verb

Definition: A product made of simple manual skill, usually by a camper or scout
Work of little or no value; busywork
A project of no value funded by the government out of political favoritism

to attempt to deceive
to do busywork

Used in a Sentence: She refused to dig since it was just a boondoggle to distract them.

He lounged by her cubical, waiting for her to look up from her boondoggling. “Ready to do real work now?”

Origin: Boondoggle is a fairly new word, created in American in the 1930s. It is said R.H. Link, a scoutmaster, coined the term for the first definition.

Related words: Boondoggler (n)

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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!

There are no Shameless Plugs this week. Send us yours.

SUBSCRIBERS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

Find enspoiler-ed a list of our subscribers!



Do you, too, want to be enspoiler-ed and receive a personal weekly notification when the Squills newsletter is posted? Shoot a PM over to SquillsBot to let him know, and you'll be pinged along with the next issue!