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.

Well, that’s all I have for now. So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy!

1. SQUILLS UPDATE
2. SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
3. WORD OF THE WEEK: CONSTERNATION
4. OVERVIEW OF THE 2018 JANUARY REVIEW DAY
5. POETRY POPPER: LANGSTON HUGHES
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

SQUILLS UPDATEwritten by Aley < PM: >

Hey everyone,

This is your Editor in Chief giving you an update on what's going on with Squills. The majority of January has been all about setting up the Squills Fanclub to make it a more comfortable home for all of you.

In our attempt we've done a few major things, and a few minor ones. The major things are the new threads we have up. We now have a place where you can talk to each author individually about their columns. If you're looking for a specific author's column, I have a list of all of our current ones here:

Aley
EternalRain
Lumi
JustPerks
LadyLizz
Steggy

The next thing we've done is added a few columns just for chatting, basically. These columns are all about you telling us stuff so that we're not missing out on all of your interesting lives.

The most important one [to me] is this thread called "Hey Squills! I Have an Event" Announcements The purpose of the thread is for you to tell us about anything you want us to see. This includes anything. No, seriously, anything you want an interview about, or you want us to notice, please post it! I would really love for this thread to be on the top of the club every week so we are constantly in the deep end of what we're covering. It would fill up The Calendar so nicely.

If you can think of a better name for it, let me know!

The next thread we rolled out to play with is Have a Column Idea? Talk it out! This is for anyone who ever has a burst of inspiration for a great column in Squills whether they want to join and write it themselves, or ask us to pick it up. Anyone who wants to write a column and send it in to Squills to be published as a one-shot author, can do that in this thread.

That's right, if you want to write just one article for Squills once in a while, you can post it in that thread and we'll publish it*.

*We reserve the right to make it fancy Squills formatting, and edit it as necessary for grammar, spelling, and so forth pending approval of the author. If you do not want something touched [such as grammar or spelling] let us know and we'll leave it alone.

Next, the official application rules have reached the Squills Fanclub threads with How to Apply to be a Squills Writer . No more hunting for the rules of application!

And as your notifications have probably told you, we're trying to be more active in the club with threads asking for opinions. Some of those threads have moved out to the Lounge for more foot traffic, such as @LadyLizz's questions about culinary tastes A Food Survey: What is your opinion of iced tea? and @JustPerks asking about What Inspires You to Write? . Once the opinions are done streaming in, they will write up the results in articles, so please contribute!

Lastly, we've begun creating Squills Exclusive badges, so if you're wandering around YWS and you notice someone has an SQ tagged on their image, they're a Squillian!

Upcoming updates will mostly be back stage, but we are still looking to hear from you in any way you want to reach out. A typical newspaper would get "leads" or "pitches" to catch their attention and write about what their community wants to read about. For us, that's any time you get in touch, so the more in touch you are with us, the more we'll be able to write what you're interested in.

That being said, please Like any articles you enjoy or read. That's one of those little things you can do to let us know we're not shouting into a void. With no further ado, enjoy this week's Squills.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATIONwritten by JustPerks < PM: >


I wanted to show a glimpse into how users approach writing, so following are three people with their creative process.

To start off this discussion, I have to admit that I lose track of organization really quickly after getting a random story idea on my head. If I start with the characters, I usually end up never writing anything, and same goes for simply writing a few words. I lose track of how my characters should be and I have yet to find a way to weave an actual conflict and point in my stories.

First up is @SpaceSnickerdoodle who says that




I relate to this a lot. I sometimes find myself writing on what had been my homework assignment, since I did not want to the lose idea I just thought of.

This is what @Justlittleoleme2 has to say:




A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a poem listening to Mr. Blue Sky by ELO, on repeat. Not exactly sure how that worked out, but I absolutely love that song!

Finally, @Koitsubaki says that




I hope to one day be a good enough writer to leave a lasting impression! That’s an interesting idea you’ve got there.

Thank you three for your responses! I hope this helps you guys with less structured ways of writing. Maybe this can give you an idea of what to shoot for the next time you sit down to write! Good luck!

WORD OF THE WEEK:
CONSTERNATION

written by marms < PM: >

Pronunciation: con·ster·na·tion

Part of Language: noun

Definition: feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected.

Synonyms: dismay, perturbation, distress, disquiet, discomposure

Used in a Sentence: There was consternation among the students who had gathered in the football field after the fire alarm sounded.

Origin: The word comes from early 17th century Latin, from the verb consternare ‘lay prostrate, terrify’.

OVERVIEW OF THE 2018 JANUARY REVIEW DAY written by JustPerks < PM: >


Wonderful job on writing those reviews, everyone! I’m sorry I didn’t add anything to my respective team, but it’s apparent that I was not needed.

Team Red Panda dominated the entire 24 hour-long review frenzy, ending up with over 15,000 points, from 150 reviews.

Although Team Read, Write, and Re-blue was in second place, they still gained over 6,000 points, and contributed 59 helpful reviews!

The overall review count, including those unaffiliated with either team, was 223, which is not a bad start to the new year and new wave of Review Days. I hope you raise the bar even higher in February!

@ZeldaIsShiek is clearly the MVP of this Review Day, having written 80 reviews all on their own. Utterly insane. Kudos to you!

In total, there were 42 reviewers, which isn’t too bad, given that some people, including myself, can be busy on the weekend. I hope I can help increase that number next month!

If you want to see anymore interesting statistics, please check out the page:

January Review Day Results

Once again, great job everyone! Can’t wait for the next one!

POETRY POPPER: LANGSTON HUGHESwritten by Aley < PM: >

Langston Hughes is one of the great African American poets that everyone should read not only for his unyielding truth, but his relatability, and his timeless voice. In many ways, Hughs' voice was dictated by what would reach across the divide of race to both sides, but the word choice and descriptions he uses are centered strongly in his experiences as an African American.

Background

Hughes wrote poetry in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, and eventually worked his way into the school system as one of the few African American poets commonly taught. He writes from a place of personal experience, so most of his poems have truth in them, like a confessional poet. That being said, if you are ever reading a Hughes poem, you'll probably know it.

Poems By:

His most famous poems are poems like "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", "Dream Variation", and "Theme for English B" all of which I highly recommend. Some of his poems run longer than a page, but most of them are easily digestible in a few minutes. He rarely hides his meanings behind the veil, but there is enough content in Huges to entice the imagination. Today we will be looking at shorter poem.

Bible Belt
It would be too bad if Jesus
Were to come back black.
There are so many churches
Where he could not pray
In the U.S.A.,
Where entrance to Negroes,
No matter how sanctified,
Is denied,
Where race, not religion,
Is glorified.
But say it—
You may be
Crucified.

Copied from Vintage Hughes

As you can see in this poem he holds no punches but he does stick with the old tradition of capitalizing the first letter of each word, and proper punctuation. I think the most enticing thing about his poetry is just how visceral his language can get without being outright dirty. He's enticing the reader to imagine a holy figure returning as something that would have him seriously condemned and by just simply using the title to create the original image of the local, he's showing you his point immediately. There's no question what he's talking about when he says that you'd be crucified. If you're white, you'd be run out of town to mention the segregation, if you're black, you'd be lynched.

All of his poetry has this deep resonance with the reader, and that's one of the reasons I love to have Hughes as a pocket book. His book of poetry is one of my 'easy reading' books where I don't have to puzzle for very long on each poem, but I can, if I want to.

Until next time!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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A jokingly self-proclaimed "Shell Master" has just started a series of Media Reviews that introduce the world of YWS to the mostly undiscovered wonders that lie beyond it.

With music, images and a - hopefully - entertaining writing style, we at Shell Master Explorers hope that you will enjoy these reviews! See you soon! Maybe!
Check it out! Twaggazine n°1: Red's Tournament





Due to the change in timing, applications are still being accepted for the event. Fill out and post the following question in the main thread.

1. How would you describe your movie watching habits? Are you more of a casual movie watcher, a movie buff, or somewhere in between?

2. How would you feel if it was announced tomorrow that your favorite book was getting a movie adaptation? If this is something that's already happened for you, how did it feel? What about if it was adapted as a radio play or podcast?

3. Have you ever listened to any radio plays or podcasts? If so, which ones?

4. Do you have any experience with reading or writing scripts, whether it be for plays, movies or radio?

The new time is !



That's all folks~ Now send us yours.

SUBSCRIBERS

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