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. THE CHECKLIST CHALLENGE
2. INSPO FOR NAPO: THE END AND BEGINNING OF NAPO
3. A KNIGHT UPDATE: MARCH REVIEW DAY SPECIAL
4. SOCIETY PAGES
5. (NOT SO) RANDOM WORD SEARCH
6. ANIME MANIAC HOUR: TRAGIC PAST
7. FEATURED POETRY DISCUSSION THREADS
8. SHAMELESS PLUGS
9. SUBSCRIBERS

THE CHECKLIST CHALLENGE

written by alliyah < PM: >

Each Review Day offers the chance for competitive reviewers to battle it out, seeing which team can write more reviews within 24 hours, while trying to meet the site goal as well. Of course, the real objective is to provide plenty of quality feedback for authors as well, but the competition is always certainly a motivating factor to get out those reviews.

The March Review Day featured a new challenge to go with the overall team competition, The Checklist Challenge. Squills was able to catch Review Team Captain @Kanome and also the creator of the challenge @DarkPandemonium to ask for their experience with this challenge.



Kanome: Sure! I would love to answer the questions you have for me!

DarkPandemonium: I'd be honoured!



D: The Checklist Challenge is a one-day contest that challenges people to review as many things from a list as possible - a critiquing shopping list, if you will! The criteria are all fairly general (e.g. 'review a short story' or 'review something from the mystery genre'), but diverse enough that you have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone to complete it.



D: I really wanted to get people pumped for Review Day. The Green Room was pretty crammed, so I thought that having a new contest to focus on would encourage people to get stuck in and clear it out. I also think that a lot of users (myself included) tend to become creatures of habit when it comes to reviewing, so I hoped the challenge would give people more confidence to critique genres they usually shy away from.



D: If there's a call for it, absolutely! I'd like to run another Checklist Challenge with new criteria; I feel like I could cook up some whackier list items that might make the contest more challenging. I've also got a few other ideas for completely different challenges, but I'll keep shtum on those for now...



K: The experience as captain of Team Tomatoes was new to me. I have never been captain on any review team so it was fun and it was nice to learn leadership skills since I don't really have any. Haha.



K: I wanted to challenge myself than just review works for review day. I actually read some works in genres that I don't usually review. It was fun!



K: Oh boy. The article/essay one was a real struggle. Only because I don't like being involved in debating articles.



K: I think the Checklist Challenge was a good way to get people to review works that they don't normally review. Like, for example, I don't usually review articles or scripts, but I did this review and it was kind of cool to do things you don't normally do.

D: I was so happy that so many people got involved! I like to hope that it pushed people to do a few more reviews than they usually would. From my perspective, it was great to see people critiquing things such as late novel chapters and scripts - the kind of things that usually seem to languish in the Green Room for far too long.



K: Yeah. Everyone did a great job on Review Day! Congrats to both teams and congrats on clearing the Green Room!

D: Only to thank and congratulate everyone who participated in the challenge! You were all awesome!

Well there, you have it! The Checklist Challenge seems to have added a new level of excitement to this Review Day and allowed people to review works outside their usual categories. At the time this article was written it looked like ten users had signed up to tackle this event along with Review Day and along with Kanome the new user @maishaywca had also completed it. A big thank you to both of our interviewees for the role the played in clearing the Green Room and motivating others this Review Day.

To read the final results as they're posted and check out the specifics on the challenge itself follow this link: The Checklist Challenge .

INSPO FOR NAPO: THE END AND BEGINNING OF NAPO
written by Kanome < PM: >

It’s the end of Inspo for NaPo and you know what that means? It means that NaPoWriMo is upon us! Many YWSers are getting geared up for this year’s NaPo. But first, let’s discuss what NaPo is and prepare ourselves for the challenges it comes with. Here we go!


NaPo is that time of the month in April where we challenge ourselves to write 30 poems throughout the month of April. Everyone is preparing themselves for April by setting up their threads and creating goals for themselves for NaPo. During the month of March, Aley created a club called Inspo for NaPo to help us gather inspiration for NaPo. Let’s discuss what Inspo for NaPo is.


Inspo for Napo is a club created by Aley and other poetry mods to help everyone prepare for NaPo. The club’s goal is gather inspiration and set goals for this year’s NaPo. Aley even setted up a challenge for the club to participate in, as a way for everyone to gather as much inspiration as they can before the month ends. The challenge was to create at least 25 pieces of inspiration throughout the month of March to complete the Inspo, which some members did acheive.

For everyone who had participated in Inspo deserve a pat on the back for gathering so much inspiration for NaPo this year:


There are some new members that are participating NaPo for the first time. I was able to interview one of the new members, which is Nobunaga and asked her about what her goals are for NaPo.



Nobunaga: I just want to write a poem a day. I've never done anything like this so my main goal is just to participate.



N: Definitely! I'm not a big poetry writer, but even I was starting to get ideas for poems while I was completing the challenge. It's nice to have a long list of things I can reference for inspiration.



N: Yeah, just do it! Even if you don't complete the challenge, you'll get to meet lots of new people. Plus, it's always great to challenge yourself. You might learn something new :3



N: Yeah, sure. Thank you all for welcoming me! I'm so beyond happy that I found this place. Honestly, it's so different from any other forum or site I've joined in the past. I'm just really glad to be here.



N: No problem! Thank you!

If you haven’t yet, go ahead and set up your thread for NaPo. Simply go to this link NaPoWriMo ! I hope everyone is ready for this year’s NaPo because this is going to be most exciting one yet!

A KNIGHT UPDATE: MARCH REVIEW DAY SPECIAL

written by alliyah < PM: >

The Knights of the Green Room have been quite engaged in battle lately as you might have noticed from all the hollering coming from the Green Room. The March Review Day was no different. Between the Tomatoes and the Blueberries being flung from all directions as well as a Green Room full to the brink they had their work cut out for them.

By the end of the Review Day though, the Green Room had been cleared and some crazy knight was even seen running around with a large Golden Goose that had been found after Knight Lareine submitted the final Green Room review for the day. Amidst all the reviewing, the Knights called for new recruits, and the call was answered by several new Squires coming from near and far.

New Squires:
Four brave new squires entered the ranks of the Knights of the Green Room, pledging their loyalty to the noble efforts to protect the Green Room. Each Squire was entrusted with a set of Training Knives to assist in their training.
Squire Nobunga (@Nobunaga)
Squire Killeham (@killeham)
Squire emolemon (@emolemon)
Squire Hattable (@Hattable)

Newly Knighted:
Three Squires also achieved their ranks of Knighthood through the day's battle.
Dame Reine (@Lareine) made a splash declaring her intention to join the knights and then achieving Knighthood all in the same day. She battled bravely though, and with a new Sword crafted by our finest blacksmiths she was able to vanquish the last foe in the Green Room.

Lady LJF (@LJF) began her journey to knighthood back in January and has been battling bravely in the ranks ever since. She will be a fine addition to the order and was welcomed warmly by her fellow Knights.

Last, but certainly not least, Knight Alice (@AliceinBluue) presented her log for advancement to the rank of Knighthood and was accepted with quite a bit of fanfare and thanked for her diligence and bravery during Review Day.

The Afterwatch:
These new recruits come just in time, as the battle of the Knights of the Green Room does not end after Review Day. A noble order that calls themselves the After Watch vows to keep the Green Room under 15 works after it's been cleared from the Review Day. At the time of this article, the After Watch was still standing at the ready, defeating foes as they came. A few veteran knights (Knight @Aley and Knight @BlueAfrica and @LadyLizz) had been seen on the Battle Front slaying reviews as they came in. Alongside Knight @Kanome and even Squire @Hattable who was keeping spirits light by making jokes between reviews.

A Word from the Commander:
A message was sent in to the Squills Office Room via a large horse, enclosed was a letter sent from someone titled "COMMANDER" which read simply,



And with those parting words, I will close my update on the Knights for this week. If you want to follow the Knights of the Green Room, or get more information on joining follow the link below.
Knights of the Green Room

SOCIETY PAGESwritten by EternalRain < PM: >

Welcome to another society pages! It’s been a while, but so much has been happening. Everyone is pumped for NaPoWriMo, Camp NaNo, or other fun things going on in their lives!

@Sacredlege says there aren’t enough posts on the #ANovelIdea hashtag to satisfy them. So what are you waiting for? If you’ve read (or are reading) and great novel on YWS, share it!

Otherwise, hashtags have been a bit dry this week.

Everyone’s been pumped for the annual poetry event NaPoWriMo! In case you’re unaware, the month of April is dedicated towards those who are up to the challenge of writing 30 poems in the entirety of the month. The people tab has been spammed with people liking each other’s topics in the NaPo forum in support of their fellow NaPoers! @BlueAfrica has subscribed to a ton of NaPo threads, and @Arcticus admires the creativity of thinking of thread titles!

Another April event is Camp NaNoWriMo, where you get to pick your word count goal for the month and try to achieve it.

There was a bit of bookish news this week... @Nobunaga is binging “Worst Books of 2017” videos on Youtube (solid use of time, in my opinion), @ChieRynn wants to read The Three Musketeers, and @marms has started Les Miserables.

And, in other news:

@Lael did really well on their SAT with a score they’re very proud of (and their best one yet!).

@TheBlueCat made some pretty neat pie charts that are extremely relatable. This is one she made about her YWS life:



and: @Saruka got confirmed to their Catholic church!

And to leave off this sociey pages, we have a very thoughtful idea I full-heartedly support, from @TheSilverFox:

(NOT SO) RANDOM WORD SEARCH written by killeham< PM: >

Hello! So, like last time, instead of a crossword puzzle, I am providing you all another (hopefully) fun word search!



If you want, you can send in your finished product, as you may receive a prize, but we’ll have to see. Definite bonus points if you can determine the theme!

I figured this could be a little reprieve from all of the wonderful articles on here.

Since this is the second puzzle, I want to announce the two finishers of last week's word search! Congratulations to @Aley and @alliyah for being up to the challenge! Thank you both very much.

These two users may have received a prize for their participation. Who knows who may be next? Join us next week to find out!

That's all for now, folks! See all of you later!

ANIME MANIAC HOUR: TRAGIC PAST
written by Kanome < PM: >

There are many anime characters who had tragic and traumatizing pasts that make us, as viewers, sad or sometimes, even cry. I have seen many anime shows where characters had sad backstories that makes you connect with that character. I made another poll for you guys to vote for the character that had the saddest backstory. Let’s take a look at the results.



Of course. It’s so obvious based on the choices. The winner of the poll is:



For those of you know, Edward Elric (FullMetal Alchemist) has one of the most tragic backstories you ever come across. His story begins with his mother passing away from an illness. Determined to bring her back, he and his younger brother, Alphonse, study alchemy under a trainer. One night, Ed and Al used a transmutation to bring their mother back to life, but it backfired. For the Law of Equivalent Exchange, Ed lost his left leg and Al lost his body. As for Ed’s right arm, he sacrificed it to save Al’s soul, which is why Al is in a suit of armor. Years later, the Elrics are searching for the philospher’s stone in order to bring Al’s body back and Ed’s arm and leg back.

Now, for the personal opinion part. You ready? I have also chosen Ed, because he had such a tragic past and it makes me want to connect with him. I wish I was there in his world to let him know that everything would be okay, that he doesn’t have to suffer alone. I have cried everytime I watched the anime, even the manga because of how sad his past was.

Let’s look at his amazingness for a minute.



If you have any recommendations on what poll I should do next for Anime Maniac Hour, simply PM me. I am open to ideas! I hope you enjoyed a little blast from the past with Edward Elric, and be able to feel what I feel when thinking about his past because it sure is a sad one. Let’s see where our Anime Maniac Hour takes us next!

FEATURED POETRY DISCUSSION THREADS
written by alliyah < PM: >

NaPo is just around the corner! Pretty soon the poetry community will be hard at work trying to crank out 30 poems in April. Last week I gave a quick run down of the different poetry clubs that are active on YWS - and this week we'll be taking a look at some of the different poetry discussion and information forums that are out there.

*Poem of the Week
It's been said before, by many wise poets before, but in order to write good poetry, one must read good poetry. This club endeavors to share good poetry for all to read, once a week. And this is personally my favorite discussion thread on YWS. "Poem of the Week" was started by @Kamas back in 2011 and is still going strong today. Each week a published poem is shared on the thread. There's even a hashtag to go along with the Poem of the Week if you care to share a snippet of it on your wall or follow what's being posted use #ReadingPoetry . Also anyone and everyone is welcome to post poems that they come across on this thread. Just do a courtesy check to make sure it wasn't already posted the week before and make sure to include the author and the title.

*Prompt Attack version 2.0
Looking for a little bit of friendly poetry competition? This could be the thread for you! The previous poster issues a challenge, then the next poster responds with a poem that meets that challenge, and then gives a challenge of their own for the next poster. So far there've been just a few brave enough to post poems and challenges of their own, but everyone is welcome to give it a try! The current challenge on deck is, "Write a poem about something really ugly to describe something you find beautiful."

*Community Poetry
Here's another place for anyone who likes collaboration or taking their time in writing poetry. @ellasnotebook started this discussion post just back in January, and the idea is each person just writes a single line of poetry until the entire poem is completed - sort of like a game of telephone. Jump into the discussion and let's see how many people we can get to author one poem!

*YWS Poems to Read
This is a thread that also always makes me smile. And with all the new poetry that will be floating around during NaPo, this is a great time to highlight it! The "YWS Poems to Read" is the place to go if you've read a poem on YWS (by another YWSer) that you think really deserves some attention or that other people should read. If you come across a poem that you find inspiring, or insightful, or beautiful, or new what a wonderful way to show your appreciation by highlighting it in this thread! Help spread the joy!

Other Poetry Threads
While these two threads aren't found in the discussion forums, they are important enough threads of their own to mention before our month of poetry!

*The "I wrote a poem but don't need reviews" thread
Inevitably if you're participating in NaPo, you'll write a few poems now and again that you want to share on the site (maybe even get a few likes on) but don't really feel like getting feedback or putting points towards posting formally into your portfolio. This is the thread for you. The title is exactly what this forum is about - if you write a poem you don't need reviews on, post it here and the problem is solved.

*Poetry Tutorial's Article Index
Lastly, an invaluable resource for all things "Poetry" is the Poetry Tutorials Knowledge Base on YWS. This is where you can go to find all the resources that YWS users have compiled over the years over different topics like Poetic Theme, Forms, Rhyming, Capitalization, Punctuation and everything in between. The link above is for the Article Index itself, and if you've never taken a look I would definitely encourage you to, there are tons of resources right at our fingertips for writing and reviewing.



Well that's all the features for now, thanks for reading! If you didn't find anything that interested you or you have something about poetry that you want to see discussed or highlighted, I would absoltuely encourage you to start up your own thread or club! There might be other users who are interested in the very same topic.

Don't be afraid to get involved with these aspects of the poetry community this April, after all there's no better time to get excited about poetry than National Poetry Writing Month.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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SUBSCRIBERS

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