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. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: NEPTUNE
2. THE YWS OLYMPICS: EVENTS UPDATES
3. THE YWS OLYMPICS: BIRD'S EYE VIEW
4. NEW ARRIVALS
5. FROM THE DESK OF THE KNIGHT: RECENT NEWS
6. TWO CENTS: MATURE
7. POP CULTURE CORNER: 10 BOWIE SONGS
8. WORD OF THE WEEK: VISCERAL
9. FROM A DIXIE KITCHEN: THE SAGA OF ICED TEA
10. SHAMELESS PLUGS
11. SUBSCRIBERS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: NEPTUNE

written by LadyLizz< PM: >

None of my guests ever need much of an introduction. This person is somewhat new on the block but you would never guess it. The title has already given away the reason and the being, but if y'all could give a big welcome to @neptune, that would be great.



Neptune: It was surprising! It was nice to see that I was recognized in the community and I was just overall happy.



N: I was going to say reviewing, haha! When it comes to reviewing, I like the actual analyzing itself. It allows me to dig deeper into the author's piece and discover more content (especially in poetry). It helps me understand the writing on a different level. It's also nice to know that a review will help the writer improve.



N: Oh, yikes. >.> There are so many things involved with reviewing, but one tip that I have would probably be to link articles and resources that will help the author with something they are struggling on. As much as I try to do this, sometimes I forget to provide an article in a review, but threads (from the Knowledge Base or even outside of YWS) really help writers out. Resource articles dive into ideas with more depth, and I find the content very helpful.



N: I know @inktopus gives really quality reviews, but I'm not sure if they've been featured member before. belvedere is new, and they've not only written thorough reviews, but they share nice poetry as well. I think anyone who is active and contributes to the site is qualified for FM!



N: I usually write poetry, but I want to get into more short stories. I've never written a novel, and I don't think that'll happen any time soon, haha.



N: Haha, we'll see! You never know.



N: I've recently discovered Media Reviews, which I think is fun! I also enjoy The Lounge and the Poetry Discussion is something I want to get into more.

Those are all great forums to spend time in that don't get nearly as much attention as they deserve.
And that about wraps up our interview. Hopefully we will be seeing Neptune in the studio again soon.

THE YWS OLYMPICS: EVENTS UPDATESwritten by Aley < PM: >

As the Winter Olympics run rampant in South Korea, the YWS Olympics cater to our non-sports needs!

The YWS Olympics are games which happen in time with the real Olympics, and are used to celebrate and discover the best of the best at the given arenas. They are day-long events which center around reviewing, writing, and YWS. Here is the schedule for this year.



So far Events 1 through 3 have completed their reign of terror on the world and has passed the proverbial baton of mayhem off to @Carlito who is hosting the Six Word Short Stories event! If you would like to jump on in and join the event, you can follow the link above next to the name of the event [the first external link sign] or hop into the fun through the Olympic Timer up at the top where it says [Click here for more info] which will lead you right to the Olympic stadium.

Onto some results! Event 1's destruction left many competitors breathless and broken as competitors took their shot at reviewing one of many literary works provided. These works were wicked wonders and proved wonderfully challenging for the participants. We can see in the Discussion Thread that several users were waiting with baited breath for the results.

One @Lake was quite anxious for her team's success.




When the dust settled and the scores were tallied, the platforms resulted as follows.



Congratulations guys! Each of these competitors are bringing home points for themselves individually and their teams.

Haven't jumped on a bobsled yet? Don't worry, it's not too late! Join whatever event is happening at the moment and you might be able to catch up to the winners, or at the very least, have a blast participating!

We will announce the rest of the results next week as the event finishes!

THE YWS OLYMPICS: BIRD'S EYE VIEWwritten by LUMI < PM: >


February 2018, the month we've been waiting for since the summer of 2016. Why did we wait so long for something so anticipated? This reporter says if you're going to go with The YWS Writing Olympics, you go big or go home! Today, we're going to look over some exciting events and features especially conjured and knit together for this year's festivities.

Where better to start, then, than those competing?

For our Writer Olympics, we found four teams ready at the hilt to fight for the coveted gold medal. The teams this year are an incredible mix of veterans and fresh blood, all viable contenders for the win! Starting us off is Team Alter Egos, led by @Izanami. With a dangerous playfulness and a newcomer's passion, TAE will certainly prove to be a delight to watch in the contests!

Next up is The Jamaican Bobsled Team, veterans from Summer 2016's Writer Olympics. Led by @Willard, this cast of ones-to-beat have made it their motto that all which matters is having fun...but one can't help but wonder--how much desire to win is really behind the team's cheery beachside exterior?

Moving on, we have Team Awesome, led by @CarolineGlitter. A mix of veterans and new bloods, this team is this reporter's favorite for several event clinches! Definitely don't take your eyes off of this team--they're likely to pull a sneak-attack victory.

And rounding us off, we have the magical Team Disney, a cast of characters that could very well shake up the competition so vigorously that the gold medal would fall lovingly into their palms. Team Disney is led by @Elinor, a dangerous force in the competition, as well as the host of the Olympic Village Tagbook.

The Tagbook takes place in the YWS Olympic Village, as implied by the name, and follows the antics of YWSers as they experience the events of the YWS Writing Olympics firsthand. This Tagbook is open to everyone, and can be found in the Olympics forum, not the Storybook forum.

To keep track of events, be sure to subscribe to each thread that crops up! Don't miss it!

NEW ARRIVALS
written by EternalRain < PM: >

Take a moment to welcome this week’s newest members to the site!

@Queentera40 has been on YWS since January 28 and is almost at her first star! She’s also contributed a bit to the writing tip forum.

@LizEmo has been a pretty active member on the site since she’s joined. Her interests include books, reading, fan fiction, and her dog! She has one work posted, a fan fiction, called Nobody’s hero .

@Cinderquill who has been here for a week now, already has 7 reviews and lots of works posted! They’ve already posted chapter one of their novel, Angel Wings and a Small Flame .

FROM THE DESK OF THE KNIGHT: RECENT NEWS

written by LadyLizz< PM: >

The Knights of the Green Room have had quite a few successful missions lately and they would like to have some sort of special broadcast for this occasion. A shameless plug wouldn't cut it for these honors and the memo told me "no expense spared".

First off, we have the noble return of the COMMANDER, who has been rather lazy in recent months but is ready to return to duty. The official notice that our investigative reporters were given was that he was on a vacation, but we have reason to believe it was more an administrative leave.

But with the Commander returning, many badges, weapons, armor and chests of precious metals were awarded. Here is a list of the recent advancements, just a few of many in a long history.

In the pledges section:
Squire Jster (@jster02)
Squire @rosette
Squire @Lake
Squire @LJF
Squire @Carina
Squire @flumadiddle
Squire @aliceinblue

Advancement to Knight:
Knight @Lake
It took the honorable Lake no time at all to advance in our grand orders.

Knight @rosette
Also made the advancement rather quickly and we continue to thank her for her service and loyalty.

Awarding of Armory:
Knight @inktopus made a great advancement in this category, earning her Helmet, Horse, Armor and Lance in one fell swoop. After long decision, her horse was named Claude, quite a magnificent name.
A note to young knights, you can either do your logs as you go along or spend one night counting them up, and enjoy reaping the rewards in one pass. Both are rewarding ways.

Knight @Querencia earned her Shield.

Knight @Elinor was one to spend her Friday night in the archives with an adding machine and presented a five meter scroll to the council. She was the awarded the honors of:
A Sword, Shield, Helmet, Horse, Full Armor, Jousting Lance and Coat of Arms.
We still have not heard back on the name for her horse or at least i haven't heard back.

Knight @rosette battled her way through the Green Room with a flimsy pair of Training Knives and brute strength, and slayed enough beasts to earn a Sword.

Knight Vyper (@ShadowVyper) returned from a very long quest, complete with distractions of the outer world, to claim a Coat of Arms. May this badge and new honor serve them well in both worlds.

Quests Ending in Precious Metals Collection:
Knight @alliayh marched far and wide across the plains, slaying many BEASTS in her sights. With the record she brought home, she has been awarded a Chest of Silver. Don't blow it all at one popsicle stand.

Knight Buggie (@Ventomology) performed similar tasks in the name of the kingdom and was awarded a Chest of Silver

TWO CENTS: MATUREwritten by Aley < PM: >

The word 'mature' has become more popular since about 1900, and many of us on YWS hear it on a daily basis, or a word that is closely related, 'respect'. I want to take a little time to go over what these mean to me because I feel like we have some double standards.

In a denotative sense, mature means that someone or something (as it relates to animals too) is fully developed, or an adult of their species, but that's just one definition. The second definition is the one which is most widely used when we talk about mature people, despite it not actually being directly about people from the surface. That definition of mature is "denoting an economy, industry, or market that has developed to a point where substantial expansion and investment no longer takes place." according to Google.

The reason that we use this definition more is because it informs the first definition about what it means to be "fully developed." As a people, to be fully developed is to be a substantial member of society where other people no longer have to give their time for the mature person to do what it needs to do. But that's the literal definitions, the denotation, so what's the connotation here?

The connotation of mature is where we begin to have some double standards. A teenager can be mature, even though they're not fully developed. A ten year old can be mature too. When we use it to say that you're "acting very mature" we're not saying "you're acting very developed to a point where no one needs to give you anything to do what you need to do" we're actually saying "you're not causing problems for those around you" and "you're doing what we want you to do." Therefor, mature isn't so much about needing a lack of input from others, because it's mature to ask questions when you don't understand something, instead, mature means that an individual is behaving responsibly.

And there's the other can of worms, responsible. To be responsible you have to basically try to be the best person you can be. If someone asks for something to happen and you agree to do it, you have to follow through. If you're going to need something for class, work, or general fun, you bring it and stay on top of it. If something happens that was bad, like something gets broken, you own up to it because you're willing to take the punishment for your actions.

The double standard is that accusing someone of being immature is so easy when we don't have a clear definition lining up with what we mean. Some people are being mature for their situations without acting completely responsible. One of the interesting conundrums we can have is a person who is always goofing off and making jokes, but being a mature individual. It's seen as immature to be funny, make jokes, and goof off, but that has nothing to do with the definition of maturity. If maturity is being responsible and not causing a disruption to those around us, then making jokes and being funny in the right setting has nothing to do with that.

Let's look at a hypothetical situation.

Let's say you're writing a scene where a bunch of 21+ year olds are going out for a night of drinking. One person is assigned Designated Driver, and it happens to be the person who is kind of a clown. Now, let's say to add some tension to the situation the DD decides to take a drink early in the night and starts their usual ruckus making jokes and taking cracks. It's their personality. That's how it goes. They only take the one drink early in the night and it's several hours of water before they go home.

On their way to drop off everyone else back at their homes, they're pulled over by the police. Uh oh! What is the mature thing to do in that situation? How can we determine what would be the proper action would be if the police officer asks if they've been drinking?

Responsibility would claim that the thing to do would be to admit to the drink they had. Instinct would be to ignore the one drink since it was early in the night and there has been enough time for it to pass out of his system.

So what's the deciding factor? Evidence. Working out whether or not the character will get caught in a lie from the character's perspective is what will decide whether or not they will do the responsible thing. If they're unlikely to get caught with a breathalyzer, they're unlikely to admit having a drink. In this case, the mature thing to do as the DD would be to know how long it will take for the alcohol to leave the system, and then not to drive home until it was gone.

Mature isn't admitting to the police that they've had a drink if and only if they know the drink is out of their system. Think about it. If the police officer asks if they've been drinking, and they say they were, the police officer won't necessarily respond maturely. They could jump to the conclusion that this individual is driving drunk even if the alcohol has left their system, or assume they are lying about how many they had [which they would be if they said 'no'], but the responsible thing to do as a police officer is to respond with more caution than necessary in a given situation. So a police officer's job is to respond dramatically to given information and assume the worst to avoid missing those that are acting immaturely.

All in all, the result of the situation is up to the writer, but being able to write a mature character doesn't take a mature writer. You can write a mature character by following the same process of working through the situation thinking 'what would cause the least problem' and 'what is my character supposed to be doing' and 'what is the responsible thing to do' versus 'were they mature about their choice beforehand' to decide how to write a character who goes through life from a matured standpoint.

This is important as a writer because we need to be able to write from multiple points of view. That means we don't have to write from our own perspective, and one of the things we can do to write from different perspectives is to practice looking at key terms people use to describe each other like 'mature' and 'responsible' and learn how to write all sides of the spectrum.

I'd love to hear from you if you have some good examples of maturity or responsibility, send me a PM!

POP CULTURE CORNER: 10 BOWIE SONGS

written by LadyLizz< PM: >

The last list I made went over pretty well, examining some people involved in the prime era of the American folk musical revival. I decided to make this new one, which rather than trying to sum up a certain genre or era into 10 songs, takes a specific artist.
As always, I have to list my disclaimer, saying that these are just my opinions and send me as much hate mail as you care to about my top ten lists.

Once again, I'm going to try and make these all live versions and it should be a bit easier this time.

Overall, just enjoy.

David Bowie had a long career and over 25 albums for me to choose these songs from, but here are 10 that I'm a fan of. There is one quote I saw about him somewhere that I'd like to point out, because it's a pretty good summary of everything.




1. Lady Stardust
If you're on the UYWS Discord server, you might be able to piece together why this is my favorite Bowie song. (It's my username btw, for everyone else.)
The song "Ziggy Stardust", is probably his most famous, because that's his persona and everything, but this song just seems more personal to me. And I purposely chose songs for this list that aren't like super, super overused, but you have to realize that it's David Bowie, so it's still going to be recognizable.
The last list was composed of musicians from the 30s and that's going to be a smaller crowd than all the fans of Bowie.

2. Fashion
Before I went on my trip, I downloaded two albums onto my phone, to just have something as a backup to listen to whenever I started having anxiety. I ended up listening to them a lot and the reason this story matters, is because one was Best of Bowie. On it were a few songs of his I'm not particular favorites of, mostly Space Oddity (which I know is like the one everyone loves), but then also this one and a few others on the list.
I honestly had not heard them enough to remember them, but just from listening to them for a short period of time, knew that I liked them over the others. This happens with a lot of musicians, one song starts to define them, and you just sort of know the others, but it's not the song you constantly hear on the radio.
Queen of course has Bohemian Rhapsody and evidently nothing else according to my local radio station.

3. Life on Mars
4. Ashes to Ashes
Originally I had these two in a different order but this performance is from the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, so they obviously go together really well here. Life on Mars is a pretty well known one but Ashes to Ashes, as the almost sequel to Space Oddity, is one that you don't hear all that often. It's from the 80s, where I don't listen to much music except from existing artists and even then with the levels of experimentation, it's definitely questionable.
*glances at the fox album*
But this sounds like classic Bowie and you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference. I wasn't a fan of Blackstar because it just didn't sound like him and i guess we realized why, but that still didn't make me like the album.

5. Moonage Daydream
I'm not exactly sure how to describe any of these songs, as I try to do them some justice in my justifications of why I chose them for this. It seems that a lot of my picks came from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, which is probably my favorite Bowie album next to Hunky Dory. Both of those statements are kinda cliche to say I guess, but so is it to say that Yellow Brick Road is one of my favorite albums.
It's a song where you go "so what if it's popular, I still love it". In this modern music opinion cloud, I think people are often faced with not expressing their opinions over music, because it's too popular or not popular in the right friend group.

Like the common example is a jock not being able to admit they're a fan of some pop star or something, but that's the most cliche that you can get. For the rest of us, there's situations where you try to decide if your friends will judge you for admitting you like this song outside of your genre or not.

This song, like the rest of Bowie's work, is an in between and it allows you to look outside your genre and appreciate something, without fully leaving your preferred spot. Not the best description I could have chosen for this but hopefully my point gets across.

6. Queen B***h
Before I get started with my semi serious discussion, here's another great version with Lou Reed sometime in the 90s.

In hindsight, I probably should have bleeped a bit more of the title out but that's decision for a later point in time.

I just really like this song and there's lines that stick out as "something only this artist could manage". People say things like that a lot and I think for most artists, at least in more current times, that's probably not that true. But for a lot of these guys, you can say that only they could manage this thing.

Take this section:




What would you think the interpretation of this is?

I mean it's Bowie and 70s rock, so it's probably about sex but apart from the next section, it seems like a lot more than that. And I like how with these songs, you can split them up them so much and make them seem like much more than the face value might show.

7. Let's Dance
Quite a different version. Tina Turner and David Bowie - Let's Dance

Who doesn't want to dance?

This is one of those songs I really used to hate because the version i heard on the radio all of the time was the 7 minute, way prolonged instrumental version. It wasn't very fun and focused a lot on that beat of people dancing. Between this song and Space Oddity, I think I realize why I wasn't that much of a fan of Bowie for the longest time.
Like it's kinda weird to realize there was a point in time when I didn't care for him, and a lot of others that I really love now.

I mean obviously my opinion has changed now as I'm putting this in my top 10 list, but it used to be something I would avoid at all costs. The retrospect is just a bit weird.

8. The Jean Genie
For each of Bowie's songs like this, people theorized over who it might have been written about. I think the most popular answer for this one was Iggy Pop or someone like him, which is definitely something that you could see.
A lot of what I like from this song is that you can just describe it as odd and not have to go any further with the description. No one will question "why is it odd?" because just from listening, odd becomes that really good one word summary. I almost forgot to include it on this list, Soul Love originally had this position, but then I remembered it and realized it deserved the spot more.

9. Oh, You Pretty Things!
I was reading quite a bit about glam rock recently, probably because I was doing this article and research to related things. And this one thing came from Wikipedia but it was talking about how 50s science fiction really influenced glam rock, and then how it was focused on platform boots. Just like the real quick jump from B-movies to glitter and platforms as inspiration for an entire genre, was just something that I found myself laughing at for awhile.
But really when you think about Bowie, that's a pretty good description.

10. Rebel Rebel

WORD OF THE WEEK:
VISCERALwritten by marms
< PM: >

Pronunciation: vis·cer·al

Part of Language: adjective

Definition: relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.

Synonyms: instinctive, instinctual, gut, deep-down, deep-seated, deep-rooted, inward

Origin: comes from Medieval Latin (1565-1575) from the word viscerālis.

Used in a Sentence: She had a visceral fear of the ocean and, because of that, hated the beach.

FROM A DIXIE KITCHEN: THE SAGA OF ICED TEA

written by LadyLizz< PM: >

Perhaps there should have been a grander unveiling than this, with ribbons or pie or something, but as I'm not exactly sure how long it will last...
WELCOME TO MY NEW COLUMN!

Now that those particulars have been taken care of, I started a very serious discussion in the Lounge of all places, about iced tea. The feedback is mixed and was guided by three simple questions after I messed up the pole formatting, but more on that in the next news report.

1. Do you like iced tea with sugar or no?
2. Do you like iced tea with the possibility of flavorings?
3. If you don't like iced tea at all, is there something you can claim is better?
(and then support your opinion please)

@alliyah was the first participant in the survey.




From @PrincessInk:




@blueafrica became the second supported in the campaign against iced tea.




In reference to @rosette's comment, my grandmother's recipes is something along the lines of 4 parts sugar to 1 part tea.




@bluewaterlily left a sweet and simple statement, just like the tea we were discussing.




@StellaThomas and @TriSARAHtops banded together with these statements.







@chierynn swooped back in to support the cause.




The final response to the main discussion came from @HumanTrash.




One final round of applause for @alliyah, @blueafrica, @PrincessInk, @rosette, @bluewaterlily, @StellaThomas, @TriSARAHtops, @chierynn, and @HumanTrash for their responses to the main discussion.
If you would like to read about everything that happened in between, you can find it here .

Next week, I'd like to feature something about pie, it's been on my mind lately. So be on the look out for that poll in the Lounge and prepare yourself for another very serious discussion.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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