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: VENTOMOLOGY
2. GREEN ROOM GALLERY
3. GREEN ROOM GALLARY UPDATE [POST REVIEW DAY]
4. YWS WINTER OLYMPICS RESULTS: FINALS
5. REVIEW DAY: REVIEW SPOTLIGHT
6. REVIEWING FEBRUARY REVIEW DAY
7. SOCIETY PAGES
8. WORD OF THE WEEK: INSIDIOUS
9. SHAMELESS PLUGS
10. SUBSCRIBERS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: VENTOMOLOGY

written by LadyLizz< PM: >

This is a user who needs no introduction but my contract states I must give one before every interview.
Instead just have a look at this. Welcome @Ventomology!





V: I found out because I was tagged in a post by Kays about FM, and my first thoughts were: one, what did I do to deserve this, and two, I should probably work a little harder so that I really do deserve this.



V: Gosh, maybe consistency? I've never been a top reviewer on review days (except maybe once) or done the long-term reviewing contests, but I have managed a consistent level of moderate activity. It's sort of a tortoise and hare situation. Although I did recently get my face back into the Storybook scene, so maybe more people are seeing me around now as well.



V: Pretty well! I have the rest of the novel all planned out, and except for the stress of school, I haven't had many issues keeping up. My prediction is that I will lose though, since I know exactly when I'll be writing the final chapter.

Also, I have the best reviewers (shoutout to @TheSilverFox and @BlueAfrica), so that helps a lot.



V: That's such a hard question. I think the tip I've been giving out the most lately is that it's important to connect actions and emotion to their physical context. But the comment I wish I gave out more is this: be confident in your own potential! I see a lot of self-doubt in regards to people's writing, and I have always felt that it's easier to share and take away constructive criticism when people believe that they can be better.



V: Wow suddenly I wish I spent more time browsing the People tab. I thought the alphabet tag was cute! It was fun to see who else out there is a hufflepuff. *winks*



V: I'll turn tables any day! (though I never flip them) If you think there are too many hufflepuffs, then what house are you?



V: Ravenclaw's pretty cool too.



And with that, time has run out and I should probably shut up while I still have a job. Thank you again to Ventomology for joining us today and we should be back next time, with either a new FM or someone else who is in some spotlight. Can never tell with us.

GREEN ROOM GALLERY
written by Kanome < PM: >

Hello everyone! It’s another to talk about the wonderful room of all rooms. Green Room! There are many works in the Green Room that could use from review magic - 61 works with 0 reviews and 75 works with 1 review. That’s 136 works that needs a little help to get out of that Green Room, don’t you agree? Some of the older works are novels, so to help you out, I will link some of the works that could really use some review magic. You guys can do this! Put that review magic to work!

Chapter 10 of Princess of the Sea by @lelu
A fantasy world that retells a tale of ‘The Little Mermaid’ with a splash of romantic seasoning on top except this is the author’s version of the famous tale.
There are other chapters included with this one that are still in the Green Room. Sprinkle some review magic on this story, it needs it to advance out of the Green Room. To understand the story better, go read:
Chapter 1 of Princess of the Sea by @lelu

Children of the Phoenix 3 by @DauntlessDagger
Welcome to the Harry Potter world where it involves two sisters, both having different point of views. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, this is a story you should read. It looks intriguing and I might consider reading it myself! Windgardium Leviosa! Also, be sure to read the first chapter if you want to know what is going on in this Harry Potter fanfic written by one of the newest members to join YWS!
Children of the Phoenix by DauntlessDagger

Ashura: A World of Swords and Magic Chapter 14 by @kman134
A seinen, harem story set in a fantasy world in its own manga/anime way. This is one of the works that has been in the Green Room for a while now. It could really use that review magic. As a manga/anime fan, it did pique my interest. Go on. Go give it a read! Be sure to read the first chapter!
Ashura: A World of Sword and Magic Chapter 1 by @kman134

Summoning Persephone Part 9 by @Dreamworx95
This story is about a tale of a girl named Persephone whose only goal in life is to kill Zeus, the God of the Sky and King of the Olympians, but in order to do so, she must join the Cult of Athena, the Goddess of War. If you enjoy greek mythology, then this is the right place to go. The novel has other chapters in the Green Room as well. Come on, guys. Let’s sprinkle that review magic! Here is the link for the first chapter so you can be caught up with the story.
Summoning Persephone (750 Words) by Dreamworx95

There are many more works in the Green Room that need your help to get out. Here are a few more that I can list for you and you can check them out for yourself. Give yourself a good read with all the works that need your help in the Green Room.

How Was You Day - Chapter 23.2 by @Querencia
General Behind Me #3 Her sister by @wendylau98
Echo and Phoenix (Part 3) by @AliceinBluue
Chapter 15.1: Gael by @Lightsong

Let’s go, guys! We can do this! Let’s do our best and review to clear out the Green Room!

GREEN ROOM GALLARY UPDATE [POST REVIEW DAY]written by Aley < PM: >

Thank you @Kanome for the update on the Green Room conditions just before Review Day began, now let's see how our Review Day did whittling away at the Green Room itself!

When this article was written there were 25 works with 0 reviews still in the Green Room! Those are points left lost to both Team Red and Team Blue this review day. That is 300 points per work leftover as one team could have reviewed each of those twice to get 150 points each! That's 7,500 points left up for grabs. Next, at a weight of just 150 points each there are 51 works left with just a single review. That is 7,650 points lost to both Red and Blue teams during Review Day this month bringing our total lost points from Green Room Leftovers to 15,150!

Review Day competitors, finish your plate!

But enough with the statistics, let's look at what points are left for grabs for all of us looking to stash points before Christmas in July [an annual gift giving event on YWS]! Let's go over the non-novel options you have if you would like to review now.

First, in the Articles and Others corner we have two essays An Essay on the Spanish-American War and Mental Illness in the Impluse Society . These essays are lightweights at just over 1,000 words each, it is a surprise to see them in the Green Room still.

Next we have six poems with the most lines being 36 in the heaviest poem written by @alliyah called The First to Rise , and the most interesting set up being by @Mentaku who has begun to write a series in poetic verse! His second poem in this series has a weight of 33 lines called And When You Opened Your Eyes Part.2 and to catch up with the first edition, there are only 30 lines in And When You Opened Your Eyes Part.1 .

If you would like something shorter than you can check out Puzzle pieces that do not fit by @Amira, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn, appeared by @RoyalHighness, or arrow by @soundofmind, the last of which is actually lyrics rather than a poem, but there is a recording of it produced by soundofmind!

In short stories our longest weighs in at an impressive 5,697 words and is a story about family written like journal entries by @Mbro444 entitled Nuclear Bonds and I'll leave you guessing whether that's nuclear like nuclear power or nuclear family, those who are your immediate family.

The middle weight short story is just a lightweight at 1260 words called Echo and Phoenix (Part 3) by @AliceinBluue who competed in the YWS Olympics and won a bronze. Adding in parts 1 , 2 , and 4 with part 3 gets you a massive 8,571 words to enjoy this short story to the fullest. The jury is out on whether part 4 is the end of Echo and Phoenix. It is worth noting that parts 2 and 4 are also in the Green Room still so you can read the short story straight through and only lose 50 Green Room points if you review parts 1-4. Also if parts 5 and 6 are posted, and you review 2-6, you are eligible for The Village Badge as a Knight of the Green Room.

Our shortest short story is Roanoke by @GodfreysBouillon at 1140 words and is an easy read with short small paragraphs all about the U.S. colonizers. If you're a history buff, this is right up your alley.

Next, the recent Script phanomina on YWS has yielded three of them for our enjoyment! They include Greek myth skit by @preston7, Sister Brookes (TV Horror Series) Episode 1 "Angels" by @scardeycat93, and one script hiding as a short story, Middle School Debate by @mackmack101.

Now, if you're like me and you know nothing about writing scripts you can check out some resources about how to write them in Resources. @smorgishborg gives us a thourough example of how a script should look in Basic Playwriting , or learn good vs bad stage directing and dialogue in @Flemzo's Getting Over Your Fear of Scripts , and if you're still stuck, you can go for some real classics about reviewing with @Tenyo's tried and true Battle Tactics: Reviewing the Unreviewable which goes over everything in bright, bold, engaging colors.

Lastly, of course, there are still a bunch of chapters up for grabs not to be forgotten. Children of Phoenix Part 2 , Summoning Persephone Parts 9-13 , How Was You Day - Chapter 23.2 , and General Behind Me #3 Her sister are all still available for review along with new works which are coming in all the time.

So, if you're looking to shake the reviewing blues, there are a lot of options left over, and a lot of points up for grabs. Hopefully these Green Room Galleries give you some direction for where to look for the best thing to review.

Until next time.

YWS WINTER OLYMPICS RESULTS: FINALS
written by Kanome < PM: >

This year’s Olympics have come to end with these results of Event 2, Event 10, and the overall results of the Olympics:

EVENT 2

BRONZE

SILVER

GOLD

Congratulations on writing the best 500-word space story!

EVENT 10

BRONZE

SILVER

GOLD

Congratulations on writing the best villanelle you had to offer!

Now, for the overall results of the 2018 YWS Winter Olympics. Congratulations to everyone who participated, but unfortunately, there can only be one winner. Congratulations to the winning team, Team Disney! They took the lead by 15 points, each player having 2.142 points!

Here are the medalists:

BRONZE

SILVER

GOLD

Congrats to all who participated this year! Here’s a list of the participants and points:


Thank you for all who participated in the 2018 YWS Winter Olympics and for everyone who supported! Hope you can join us next year!

REVIEW DAY: REVIEW SPOTLIGHTwritten by neptune < PM: >

With February’s Review Day just ending, I decided to showcase some quality reviews I spotted this weekend during the event.

@Mea competed this Review Day solo-style, while still giving really good, quality feedback. Her review covers her thoughts on the characters, giving insightful points for the author to think about. She also asks questions about the chapter to allow interaction with the author. Good review!

Next up is a review by @inktopus! While addressing an area the author can improve on, Ink goes in depth and specifies why the dialogue can be changed. He also quotes pieces of the work and talks about his opinion on them. Nice thoughts!

@Lareine wrote this review with a reviewing style that was organized and helpful to the writer. It was unique and she gave criticism without being too harsh, which is very important!

Lastly, we have a review written by @ShadowVyper. Shadow made comments on everything that they had comments for, and made sure to give a little bit of complimenting at the end of the piece. This way the author knows what readers like in the novel, and can continue doing it. Great job!

Remember, a “good” review is not measured by length; a review is considered a quality review when it gives helpful criticism that will help the author. There were lots of great reviews this Review Day -- these were just a few. I hope you enjoyed this article, and happy reviewing!

If you see any good reviews floating around, feel free to shoot Squills a PM and it may be featured in a future article!

REVIEWING FEBRUARY REVIEW DAYwritten by killeham< PM: >

Hello everyone! Congratulations to everyone who participated in this month’s Review Day! I promise that one of these days I will actually contribute to this site, but that may be a long time in coming.

So start off, let’s give a round of applause to both review teams: Red and Blue!

Blue Team won with a total of 54 reviews, and contributed over 6,000 points. Coming in second place is the Red Team, who wrote a healthy 46 reviews, which granted them over 4,000 points.

All in all, there were 126 reviews written, with the number of words written coming in at over 45,000.

The top reviewer was @Kanome with 23 reviews, while the top typer was @DarkPandemonium !

Random trivia fact: neither fahrvergnügen or schadenfreude were used in a review.

If you want to see any more interesting facts or number crunching, please follow the link below!

February Review Day Results

That is sure to hold something to pique your interest!

Finally, I would like to say good job to all reviewers, regardless if they were on a team or not. Let's carry this reviewing energy into next month and next Review Day!

I bid you adieu for now!

SOCIETY PAGESwritten by EternalRain < PM: >

Well, it’s been a while since our last society pages! Society pages is a place to see what’s going on in the lives of YWSers, popular hashtags, and more!

An interesting new hashtag has been created called #NameMeaning . It’s fairly straightforward - you share the meaning of your name. Remember to be careful, though, when sharing personal information like your real name online!

@TheBlueCat has started up a #wordsluroftheday (a “portmanteau”). Their first portmanteau was “rememberable” (a mix of remember and memorable).

If you’ve got a #lifehack to share, you can use this hashtag! @pizzaroll suggests shaving your legs with leftover conditioner - a sure way to have silky smooth legs (and without using shaving cream)!

If you’re looking forward to having kids in the future, you could start something @Rosella is thinking of doing: writing letters to her future kids about her life right now, so her kids won’t feel alone during their high school life.

@DarkPandemonium says,





And I mean… what’s the problem? Clothes are the best.

In other news, @Hattable watched Kiki’s Delivery Service for the first time, @snowmonkey9’s brother wondered how to spell “illiterate”, and @occymay got a new laptop!

Achievements this past week? You bet. @thethirdmostmeme got first chair trumpet and @Casanova got the job they were interviewed for, and @pizzaroll and their director sold over 400 tickets, raising around $3200 for their band! Congratulations to all!

That’s about it for this week! If you want to create a new #hashtag , be sure to! It might be featured in the next society pages, and they certainly are super fun.

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

Pronunciation: in·sid·i·ous

Part of Language: adjective

Definition: proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects

Synonyms: stealthy, subtle, surreptitious, cunning, crafty, artful, sly, wily

Origin: mid 16th century Latin from the words insidiae, meaning ‘cunning,’ and insidere, meaning ‘an ambush or trick.’

Used in a Passage: “The seniors had been trotted off to the improvised obstacle course in the woods, or to have their blood pressure taken again, or to undergo an insidious exercise in The Cage which consisted in stepping up on a box and down again and in a rapid rhythm for five minutes. They were off somewhere, shaping up for the war. All of the fields were ours.” ― Separate Piece by John Knowles

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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SUBSCRIBERS

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