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Young Writers Society


Squills 6/12/2017 - 6/19/2017



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Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:19 pm
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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! :
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megsug

General Editors
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Literary Reporter
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Resources Reporter
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Writer's World Columnist
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General Reporters
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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 .





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Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:23 pm
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WRITING: AN ART
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written by DragonNoir < PM: >

Writing is an art, no matter how you look at it; it doesn’t have to be understood for it to be beautiful. But what about the process in between the birth of an idea and the publication of the finished product? Why do some authors seem to be writing bestsellers with ease and others struggle to write even a page?

I’ll tell you why:

Writing is a fire of pure intelligence, imagination, logic and commitment. It has be fueled by those four things. To keep it burning, the writer has to keep on applying massive amounts of the fuels, otherwise the fire goes out and the writer is left with nothing but ashes.

Writing is a fire of pure intelligence. This component is important in writing. It is the wooden base of the entire fire onto which the fire spreads. The fire of Writing requires vast amounts of intelligence if the writer wishes to be successful, because it gives the writing the words, literary devices and concepts it needs, as well as any logical structure.

Writing is a fire of pure imagination. This is the tinder of the entire process, which helps the fire spread onto the base. Imagination is required of any artist who wishes to flourish. Quite obvious, isn’t it? But is it as easy as it sounds? When you really think about what works and doesn’t work with your target audience, the story itself and your writing style, the answer becomes clear. That answer is usually no. Imagination is something which can make castles fall, worlds collapse and people cry, but it is also something which can create worlds, new perspectives and ideas, as well as smiles and laughs. The more imagination added to the fire, the better, but do try to not over-salt the pudding.

Writing is a fire of pure logic. Though it seems juxtaposed to what I said before, boundaries have to exist, to a certain extent. Logic is the oxygen, which the fire takes in to carry on burning. If the fire lacks oxygen, it will die out. Not that a lack of logic in a novel makes you unable to write a novel, it will, however, render your piece to ashes, no matter how broad your vocabulary is or how imaginative your piece is.

Writing is a fire of pure commitment. This is the source of heat of the entire fire. It is the component which sets everything into motion. It is the most important part of the fire; without it, not a single spark can be made. Commitment is something which can be hard to find in large amounts, but it is required. Without it, either a bad story will be written, or nothing will be written at all.

Meeting the demands of the fire of writing can be very challenging, but very rewarding. How do you meet those demands? How do you find all that intelligence, imagination, logic and commitment? My answer is: you have to look within yourself. If you find you lack any of those, you either have to work on yourself or you’re writing something that isn’t for you.

To conclude, writing can be compared to the art of creating fire; it takes specific ingredients in large amounts from the writer themselves to keep it burning.

With regards,
@DragonNoir.





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Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:23 pm
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THE WORD OF THE WEEK: PALIMPSEST
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written by megsug < PM: >
Pronunciation: pal-imp-sest

Part of Language: Noun

Definition: Writing material where the original text has been erased to make room for new material but traces of the original still remain
An object altered while still bearing traces of its original form

Used in a Sentence: The walls of his cell were a palimpsest where tick marks keeping track of days had been demolished by letters to various acquaintances which were overcome with the mad ravings he spiraled into.

Origin: Palimpsest is a combination of the Greek words ‘palin,’ meaning ‘again’ and ‘psestos,’ meaning ‘rubbed smooth.’

Related words: Palimpsestic (adj)





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Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:24 pm
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Media Talk
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written by Nikayla < PM: >

This is the first installment of what I hope to be an ongoing series. Basically, I'll go over what I've read or watched or listened to from the week. We'll start off by going from what I've read, watched, and then finally I'll go over what I've listened to. With that, let's get started!

Literature


Currently, there's a single book that I've been reading lately, and that's Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I previously attempted to get into his books through The Rithmatists, which I liked but for some reason never ended up finishing (I legitimately can't remember why, I was enjoying that book). This is a bit of a revival for me since I've been in a reading slump, though this is helping me get out of it. At the halfway mark, I'll say what I can about the novel.

The beginning takes no time to get going, which is enjoyable. I have to say that I'm not a fan of the characters feeling a little flat at some points, though I like the chemistry that comes between our group of protagonists. In short, ten years before the novel takes place, an event called Calamity occurred, turning regular people into Epics, who can have a variety of different powers. This is the basis of the world, yet at the same time there's an interesting twist to this idea. Check it out if you're feeling interested by the description! It's a fun middle grade novel so far that I can't wait to continue reading.

Film


What I've seen this week is a little more diverse. Pardon me for being so late to some of these shows--takes me awhile to actually get through them if I'm not immediately immersed. I've caught up on the whole fourth volume of RWBY that's currently out. This season seemed slower in pacing than the others, and I can see why because the third volume, and especially the end of the third volume, is very fast-paced, so it's an odd change for the show.

I'm glad that we're given more character development for most of the cast, and the plot moves forward, there's just not as many action scenes that are as impressive as before. The original members of RWBY change significantly over their own personal arcs, though Ruby does the least changing even though I sort of expected that, it's solid! Check out RWBY if you're into weapons and cool fight scenes, though I admit the show took awhile to grow on me and the animation style isn't for everyone.

I'll attempt to throw some movies in next week's edition since those are more complete than ongoing shows, though I'll still talk about the two pilots I ended up seeing. The first is of Breaking Bad, which I happened to be pleasantly surprised by seeing that I went into the series thinking that it wouldn't be as quality as the hype over the show said it to be.

That's only judging off the first two episodes, though, seeing that I haven't gotten any farther than that. The character development of the main character is surprisingly more interesting than I expected. Unsure if I'm going to be continuing the show--we'll see how I feel after the first couple episodes.

The second pilot I watched in this past week is Band of Brothers, a mini-series that highlights the Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army. I admit that I couldn't remember that from the top of my head, though I enjoyed the first episode quite a bit. While there's not directly any form of combat involved and there's more of a set-up for the episodes to come, I enjoyed the cast of characters that it seems we'll be spending the series with. That's a crucial aspect, at least for me, when it comes to watching stories based on war. A cast that's easy to grow into and care about, and that's where I can see this going, despite only being with them for ten episodes.

Music

As for music, the band Arcade Fire came out with a single called Everything Now that I found to be quite pleasant. While it's different from their other albums, that's to be expected by now seeing that each album of theirs has taken on a new style, and I'm hoping this is no exception.

I've also gotten around to Girlfriend's self-titled album that included some interesting guitar work and other instrumentals that make it interesting enough to listen to, even though the vocals are on the weaker side.

The album Home Alone by Totorro is also something that I finally got around to recently. An exceptional math rock album that I've found easy to relisten to even after a couple of times of already hearing it. Not the most innovative, though it does what it's supposed to do well.

Paramore's new album After Laughter is also something that I've binged recently even though this is technically more a couple of weeks ago, though I wanted to mention it. Definitely a different and more poppy style for Paramore that I've taken a liking to quite a bit. No Friends is the only song off the album that I wished to be stronger.

The vocals are mumbled and overall it's the only real mediocre song on the album. Some favorite tracks off After Laughter have to be Idle Worship and Grudges, though I'm not unfond of 26 or Forgiveness either. Note that only on No Friends are the vocals less than amazing, since Hayley Williams has a surprising range that impressed me throughout the album.

And that wraps up the media that I've seen for this week! I hope that you check some of this out if it interests you and maybe you'll even find something you enjoy!





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Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:26 pm
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This Week’s Link Round Up 6/11
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written by megsug < PM: >

What review style is best for you? What even counts as a Western? How many fandoms can you list? All of these questions and more in This Week’s Round Up!


@Tenyo was kind enough to create templates for different reviewing methods from the grammarnazi to the story obsessed. She prefaces each with a description to help you decide if it’s the template for you. My best fit is the Story Review.



The Story template is for those who really like to dig into the heart of a story. It's about picking apart the characters and unweaving the plot and figuring out what really makes the story tick, and is most useful to novelists and short story writers.




Find the template that could guide you to better reviews.


@LadyLizzLovelace wants to have a conversation about Westerns, and she’s got it. Posts have discussed Hank the Cowdog, the Magnificent Seven remake, and favorites. @Sheyren is ready to go to battle:



I don't care what you say, and you can fight me on this. I really enjoyed the Magnificent Seven remake.




Join the herd and add your two cents about the great American genre.


@Lareine wants to inspire people to create writing habits, so she’s holding a contest. All you have to do is right 100 words a day in July and log them in her club 100 Words Daily . The grand prize is:



- 400 points (generously donated by guest judges)

OR

- 2 reviews (by myself and, again, my generous guest judges)

OR

- a book or anthology cover (by myself, only for personal use, not licensed for commercial use)




Did I mention that everyone who completes the challenge gets one of those three prizes? Join this contest, my friends.


@beachgirl2004 wants to know about people’s fandoms. So many people have so many fandoms that most of the posters have had trouble narrowing it down to a manageable list. beachgirl2004 had some problems herself:



Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Moana . . . I could say more but my hand gets tired of typing.




Same girl. Same. How many fandoms can you list until your hands get tired?





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Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:29 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!


The Chosen Grandma: an LMS novel



Edna Fisher is eighty-three, a knitting enthusiast, and the Chosen One. Armed with her knitting needles and accompanied by a faithful orderly, she's on an epic journey to defeat the evil sorcerer Redway. But what she finds when she meets him is something she never expected.

This is The Chosen Grandma.

Knitting needles? Check. Cane? Check? Fate of the world? Bring it on.

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Click the image to join the club! New installments weekly.


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Hello everyone, and happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month! In my new novel, White Raven, Night Crow , one of the three main characters is genderfluid, so I was hoping to hear from some genderfluid individuals about their experiences so I could better portray the character.

So, I ask: is there Anyone Genderfluid Out There? If you are, I implore you to come by and enlighten me.

See you around :wink:


That's all folks~ Now send us yours.





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Mon Jun 12, 2017 7:53 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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We do have funerals for the living. They're called birthday parties.
— Jill Biden (fictitiously), Hope Never Dies