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. WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR
2. NEW ARRIVALS
3. A KNIGHT UPDATE
4. MY TOP 5 ANTICIPATED MOVIES OF 2019
5. POETRY PERSPECTIVE - MEANINGLESS OR MEANINGFUL
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

WELCOME TO THE NEW YEARwritten by Aley < PM: >

To all our dear readers,

Thank you so much for coming back to Squills week after week, and if you are new, welcome! We hope you subscribe and enjoy the ride. We appreciate the readers who love our work enough to join us each week to catch up, discover, learn, and enjoy some of our favorite things. As the Editor and Chief of Squills, I want to say thank you on behalf of all Squills for another successful year, and to talk about the year to come.

Like all writing, the most vital part of Squills is the readers. Why write if there is no one to read? We value you above the likes, above the chance to explore the depths of our minds, above the interviews, the memes, the songs, the videos, and the little pizzazz our status gives us on Squills, above the badges, and the inside scoop. You are who keep us writing, and loving to do it, so if you have yet to do so, please go over to the Squills Fan Club and share your love with whomever you love to read, even if it is just a quick blurb on their thread saying "I love your writing" because as writers for Squills, we get no reviews, we get no notifications when someone likes our articles, and if you don't tell us what you love, or like, or want to see, we get lost among the myriad of ideas for what to write next.

If you've been a new arrival, and you found us through your tag, or a Featured Member, or a Spotlight Interview, or a winner of a contest, or history point, a personal favorite, a quote, a trender of hashtags, and you want more of that, tell us! Please.

Squills doesn't work without you.

And if you have ever thought about joining, please do. We'd love to have you. This is the best place for Nonfiction Prose on YWS. Send SquillsBot an example of what you want to write for Squills, and you will hear back from us soon.

So, plans for the new year you ask? Let's see what I have on the docket.

We will be updating the indexing system for old Squills Editions, potentially adding a new editor or two, inviting more people into our clan of Squillians as writers and readers, and bringing you all the latest on Review Days, Featured Members, New Arrivals, all your holiday gossip, April Madness, NaPo, Camp NaNo, Christmas in July, Review Month, NaNo, and all your favorite hashtag, storybooks, literature, and anything you ask for.

Stick around, you never know what happened last week until you read Squills.

Have you ever had a question for a mod, a member, or a Squillian? Let us know! We love to do interviews and if you have a topic you'd like us to explore you can shout it out in our Squills Fan Club or send it directly to SquillsBot , or an Editor! We can ask if you're afraid to, and we love to answer questions. If you would rather ask anonymously, you can submit questions here .

Sincerely, Aley

NEW ARRIVALS
written by EternalRain < PM: >

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

@AlexaBWill has written 7 reviews so far, contributing greatly to December’s Review Day! You can also read the first chapter of her story, To Win Your Hand Chapter 1.1 .

@Eyluor has recently joined YWS from being gone for about 4 years! They’ve already done one review.

@CJ6233 seems to be a poetry fan! You can read their first poem, Falling .

A KNIGHT UPDATE

written by alliyah < PM: >

The Knights of the Green Room, or KotGR for short, are a group on YWS dedicated to protecting the Green Room by reviewing. They have had a busy beginning of the year, with many Knights awarded badges and titles in January so far. The Squills reporters made a stop at their Great Hall to find out all the latest from the Knights!

Knight News
Part of the fun of the Knights of the Green room is the opportunity to do a little Knight Role-Playing along with the review challenges. Recently one of the regulars over in the Great Hall, @LadyBird opened up a tagbook welcome to all Knights to participate in. Miracle on a Spaceship takes place on... well... you guessed it, a spaceship, where the knights are working up their new Space Force Initiative. So far there has been quite a lot of mayhem and holiday fun, with Knights @Concord, @manilla, and @alliyah participating. If you're a knight, and interested in joining the fun, you can still jump in.

In other miscelaneous knight news, the Commander's horse was reported missing in their last commander post. So if you see a lost horse wandering the site, please inform the relevant authorities.

Newly Knighted
This round of awards, one Squire has achieved the new rank of Knighthood. Knight EagleFly was honored at the latest Great Hall ceremony with many other Knights in attendance. Great work @EagleFly!

Knight Achievements
A few other Knights left the Great Hall with some bragging rights. Knight Concord and Knight Omnii (@Kirkiln) each earned their Coat of Arms.

Knight Shikora (@Shikora) came away with both a helmet and a new shield.

@Oxara joined the group by officially becoming a Squire

And last, you may have seen @ShadowVyper around the Green Room quite a bit lately going on Review Rampages and bringing in a massive amount of reviews - Knight Vyper's efforts were awarded with a Village and a Silver Chest.

That's a lot of achievements. If you see any of these Knights around with their new armor, be sure to wish them well as they go on defending the Green Room!

A Word From the Commander

Delivered via messenger pigeon, a note was received from the Squills News Room, with "COMMANDER" written in large green letters across the header. The message read:



And those are your Knight Updates for this Squills Issue!

For your latest knightly news and achievements you can stop over at the Great Hall . And if you are interested in joining the Knights of the Green Room yourself, why not check out the Information Forum .

MY TOP 5 ANTICIPATED MOVIES OF 2019written by neptune< PM: >

2019 is the year for movies! I’m pumped to start this year with a compiled list of 5 movies I’m most looking forward to! Hopefully this will get you just as excited as me for the films being released this year!

1. Spiderman: Far From Home
Frankly, I don’t know much about this one buuutt I love me some Spiderman! I hope MJ makes an appearance as well. This one comes out in July!

2. Star Wars: Episode IX
Okay. Who isn’t excited for this? Although these new Star Wars films aren’t the same as the old ones, I’m still hyped for this installment! I’m excited for more development in characters! This movie will be in theaters in December.

3. Avengers: Endgame
This movie follows Infinity War! After an amazing end to Infinity War, I’m excited to see what Avengers: Endgame has in store. Mark your calendars — this one comes out in April.

4. Frozen 2
This one is partly on my list because it’s been 6 years since the first one, and the hype has slowly been building up for a while. Even though I probably would have been fine without a second one, I’m thrilled to finally see it. I’m interested to see how their songs will compare to the first, too. We’ll be able to see this one in November!

5. How to Train Your Dragon 3
I’ve never been the biggest fan of this series but I checked out the trailer for this one and I’m pleasantly surprised. I’m excited for more night/“light” fury information and the animations as well! This one will be in theaters in late February.

These are, of course, not all the movies coming out this year, but just some of them that I am highly anticipating! Remember, if you see a movie that’s highly worth discussing, check out the Media Reviews forum and create your own discussion!

POETRY PERSPECTIVE - MEANINGLESS OR MEANINGFUL
written by alliyah < PM: >

If you didn't catch last week's Poetry Perspective you might want to check that out before diving into this week's discussion. Last week I discussed this phenomenon in reading poetry "The Emperor's New Clothes Effect" where people sometimes think that vagueness and convolutedness in poetry must be an indication of deep hidden meaning that the reader themselves can not grasp. I encouraged poetry readers to reject this, and to instead trust their own poetic senses! I'll clarify the implications and disclaimers of that in today's article.

So while having meaning in poems is definitely important, and should be evident to the reader in some degree. Having "meaning" in a poem won't always produce a easy to follow story arc, and that is also okay! Here are some different ways poems can produce meaning, and these are things you can look for in reviewing, if you're having trouble discerning whether a poem communicates meaning or is just gobbly gook.

* Narrative
I tend to think the easiest way to convey meaning in poetry is through explaining some sort of narrative plot. This might have conflict, resolution, characters - and should relate an arc of an event or story. Example: "The Illiad" by Homer

* Character Development
Sometimes a poem looks almost like a narrative poem, except there's no plot, events, or conflict - but relies more on the speaker (or subject's) internal dialogue or descriptions of them. A poem acting as a character sketch or showing character development is another way a poem may convey meaning. The character portrayal might be positive or negative and might be from a first-person or second-person account. Example: "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" by William Shakespeare

* Emotion
There are some poems, that might ditch the narrative aspect, and there purpose is to covey emotion. Maybe it's through dark spooky words, or light happy imagery - either way it creates a sort of ambiance through the descriptions and relates a direct perceivable emotion to the reader. Example: "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost)

* Moral
Have you heard of Aesop's fables? Sometimes the point of the poem, is less about the story, and more about the moral. I've especially seen some short satirical and political poems that take this goal. Example: "The Tortoise and the Hare" by Aesop

* Critique of Reality or Poetic Conventions
A more complicated way of conveying meaning might be through critiquing the literary form and conventions of poetry through poetry itself, or providing some other critique of reality through poetry. This I would say is one of the more complicated ways of conveying meaning because sometimes it comes across as nonsense. The poem "Haikus are easy / But sometimes they don't make sense / refrigerator" (unattributed) is an example of this type of poem - it doesn't convey a story or moral, but does make a statement or critique about poetry using poetic form.

There may be some ways of making meaning that I missed, but all of these have in common that they convey something discernible to a careful reader. Often poems will have several of these methods of making meaning, and those meanings might interact with each other. My next Poetic Perspective article will talk about just that concept. If you have comments or suggestions on this topic, stop on over to my Squills Author Page or leave a comment on my wall and we can discuss what gives a poem meaning. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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SUBSCRIBERS

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