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Squills 9/1/19 - 9/8/19



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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:51 am
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SquillsBot says...



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!

CREATIVE STAFF

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Editor-in-Chief
fraey

General Editors
EternalRain
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Friendly Neighborhood Robot
SquillsBot

Literary Reporter
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Community Reporter
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Creativity Reporter
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alliyah

Resources Reporter
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fraey

Writer's World Columnist
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Social Correspondent
EternalRain

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General Reporters
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Ghost Reporters
amelie
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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.

You can apply to become a Squillian Journalist by submitting a sample article to SquillsBot today!

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





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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:51 am
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SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW - ROSETTE
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written by fraey < PM: >

We are back with another issue of Squills, and another Spotlight Interview! This week, I’ve been able to talk with @rosette about her interesting poem caramel apple season that got plenty of users talking about cities and the countryside. Want to learn more? Then please read ahead.

Squills: What inspired this poem? Are there any influences you can point to that you could have gotten this idea from?

rosette: Honestly... autumn inspired this poem. xD I wrote it during the transition between summer and fall of last year because it's one of my favorite seasons. Aaaand My little town is especially known for our apples. We get hit by hundreds of tourists during this time of year and I love it!

S: How did you create this poem? Did the idea come first, a certain line, an image?

r: I created the poem because I was feeling dreamy in a certain one of my college classes. I just wanted to be out of that cold room and bask in the sunshine outside and I could not get the phrase "buttery days" out of my head. I ended up writing the first stanza of the poem on my notebook paper instead of paying attention during class whoops.

S: Did you receive any good advice on this poem?

r: Yes! I loved the reviews I received because they especially highlighted aspects of the poem I thought I could work on.

S: Are there any figurative language strategies you typically use in your poems? Do you have any that you avoid?

r: I'm really not much of a poet but when I do poet I almost always have personification somewhere in there. Also, similes. Probably too many. I can't say there's any that I avoid; if anything, I try too hard to implement figurative language into my works. xD

S: Do you have any plans for a future poem, or is there an idea you’d definitely like to write about?

r: I have so many ideas when it comes to poetry it's actually ridiculous, so yes! I have many plans and many ideas that relate to everything in life. From cystic acne to cold church buildings. A bunch of crazy stuff, haha.

S: Are there any works currently you would like to see make the Spotlight or get more attention?

r: For my own works, yes. Every single one. :P I'm kidding, I'm fine. As far as others are concerned... I've hardly been on YWS this summer so I truly cannot say. D:

To sum this interview up, I’d firstly like to thank rosette again for providing us with some great answers. Past that, I think it’s fun to be able to pick out certain lines that appear in your head and try to sculpt a poem around that little snippet. If you haven’t already read this poem and are now interested, click the link above in this article. Until next time!





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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:52 am
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NEW ROUND OF LAST MAN STANDING
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written by alliyah < PM: >

There's been some ominous drumming around the site this past week, and based on different clues I think it might be related to the start of a new competition! Well a new old competition that is! It's been a few months since Round IV of LMS ended , but it looks like the next round is right around the corner and LMS is officially back again! For those who missed the last round or are new to the site, LMS stands for "Last Man Standing" and is currently ran by @Tenyo. During Last Man Standing users sign up to write a certain number of words every week on their projects, if you don't write a week you're out of the competition, and the competition continues until there is just one person left "standing" or rather... writing. The last round (which was won by @LordWolf) lasted 43 weeks to give you an idea of how much people get into this deal. Although I've never personally participated I hear it's a great way to stay motivated to continue with a project and practice being productive every week.

While the classic contest is to begin a new project for LMS, there are also options for writing on old projects too, there's even a poetry version of LMS where instead of a warrior, you're a Bard and write 14 lines every week. Pretty cool right? To read about the different ways one can participate you can check out this link to the LMS Club which also has the official rules and a list of Frequently Asked Questions. If you're interested in signing up to participate in Last Man Standing for Round V this is your official invitation. Sign up closes September 23rd which is less than a month away, so be sure to check out the information before then to decide whether or not you'd like to participate!





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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:53 am
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#REVMO IS HERE!
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written by EternalRain < PM: >

It’s September, and you know what that means…

With September comes the annual RevMo event! If you’re new to the site and have no idea what’s going on, RevMo is an event like NaNoWriMo! But, instead of writing 50,000 words for a project, the goal is to write 50 reviews!

This year, the site goal is 1,000 reviews for the month. So even if you can’t commit to writing 50 reviews (which is a lot!) each review you write contributes to the goal.

Along with the satisfaction of helping writers with your reviews, there are some super prizes: colored usernames! The RevMo topic has all the juicy details and colors you can possibly win.

@alliyah is also hosting a RevMo themed Checklist Challenge . It’s pushes you to find new things to review and, of course, comes with some snazzy prizes as well.

And finally, is the RevMo Banner Thread , a place where you can share banners you create to add some spice to the end of your reviews!

What’s your #ReviewGoal for #RevMo? Feel free to share on your wall, and don’t forget to encourage others in this crazy review season time. Take on the challenge!





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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:54 am
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THE NEXT WEEKLY QUESTION
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written by fraey < PM: >

Howdy everyone and welcome to the next week’s question to the Squills Fan Club! I’ve got quite a special article for you all today because of so many people sent in answers, so thank you to who participated. The second question is linked here on the Squills Fan Club page so please go check it out if you’re interested in answering the next question that will be posted on Monday.

The question this week was the following: Inspiration can come from a lot of places. Did one of your past teachers/professors spark an interest in a class or a subject? Or, the opposite. Did you have a bad enough teacher to dissuade you forever from a certain topic?

First up is @EternalRain who had this to say:



I don't think I've really had a teacher that's like the "wow I LOVE THIS CLASS" spark. But I'm also not super attached to any of the classes I'm taking/have taken. I've definitely had some bad teachers (maybe more like bad classes). My English class last year made my love for English class dwindle. I used to love English, which was why I chose to take the Honors English class; however, I wasn't a fan of the teacher and the stressful environment just wasn't for me.

My English class this year, though, seems like it's going to be less stressful, so I've very excited about that. :-)




I’m really happy to hear that this year’s English class should be a little easier on you as I have definitely had my share of difficult teachers that were hard to learn anything from. I do hope you can still enjoy English now that you’re at least away from that kind of stressful situation.

I could have just put all of the next person's answer, but a part I really liked by @Riellehn is:



The second teacher of my junior year was my AP Language and Composition teacher; she had us write a lot of essays, and while there was one I wasn't so proud of, the others all got pretty good grades. There was one in particular, the "This I Believe" essay, where you had to write an essay about something you believe about life, deities, whatever. I forget what my original idea was, but three days before it was due (which translated to very few hours of work, considering it was musical season) I had an epiphany for something I could do. I planned to turn in my original work along with this new epiphany idea, but in a stroke of blind confidence or stupidity, I turned in the work that I had hardly gotten the time to work on at all. Surprisingly, she loved it. Again, huge confidence boost that was.

Finally, the last teacher; she taught Creative Writing, and the entire course was essentially just writing whatever we wanted with minimal guidelines. The main part here is that the teacher was extremely vocal about things she enjoyed about pieces, and I finished the class with a 100%.




I really enjoyed reading the entirety of your response - it was so personal but I really liked that a lot of things seemed to work out at the end of this schooling. I would have really liked to be able to take a Creative Writing class in high school, but it simply was not offered though. Your “believe” essay sounds really cool and I’m sure your teacher fully supports innovative thinking on knowing what kind of work was actually a whole lot better than the other.

This next person lost a little love for a certain subject, per testimony by @Magestorrow, but there's hope:





I usually love whatever classes I sign up for, but there was one teacher who made me really love the subject he was teaching. We called the class American Protest - it was actually a college class taught by a high school teacher. It was an English/history class that covered the beat movement and the civil rights movement. I can't really describe how he taught it, but the casualness of the classroom made for an incredibly fun learning experience - I'll probably look more into that time period in the future!

Alternatively, my chemistry teacher really discouraged me from pursuing a major in chemistry. I love the idea of chemistry - I have since I was little. But she really wasn't a good teacher. She rushed the units, made labs about error percentages instead of a learning experience, and rarely took time to understand what was going on in the lives of her students. I still think chemistry is an interesting subject, and I'm sure I'll take it as part of my degree in college. But I definitely lost some of the love for it thanks to her.



That class sounds amazing! English with history would have been a dream subject to be able to take in high school, but my old was not that cool. Some teachers have like this magnetic side to them that makes every single topic super interesting.

And, oh no, chemistry! I love chemistry XD My last classes have actually really made me want to get a biochemistry degree when I transfer to a university. My worst class was definitely physics which was only partially worsened by the teacher as our personalities didn’t really click. Here’s hoping you still enjoy the subject ( :

Next, there is a really fun story by @Liberty about enjoying English:



I did have this one teacher who made class so fun and delightful that I started falling in love with the class. Literally. Not even kidding. That's how I started liking English. ;)

I was in grade 1 and I had this teacher - lets call her Ms English - she realized I hated English because of how much I suffered when we had spelling tests and grammar tests. Then my parents and Ms English had a little meeting. They decided that whenever I improved, I would get a little chocolate kiss. (Those little Hershey kisses.) Anyways, when my parents told me about it, I remember being excited and doing much better in class.

She's my favorite teacher. And we're still in touch. Now I miss her. <3



I am really happy you had such a neat experience with your first-grade teacher! I remember really liking my early teachers when I was younger as they really did open my eyes to other things in school and in life. That’s also an adorable way to motivate people to do better in class. I hope you can visit her often!

Last but not least, we have this final portion by @niteowl about all kinds of teachers:



Okay, so weirdly enough, I've had a lot of bad teachers over the years, but I don't think any of them were so bad that I got turned off the subject itself. Like I was able to differentiate the subject I loved from the badness of the teacher. I had tons of bad Spanish teachers, but I still minored in Spanish. I had an Earth Science teacher that I hated in ninth grade...then later I majored in geosciences in college.

My ninth grade history teacher was awesome. She clearly loved the subject and teaching us. I'm not sure any teacher inspired me to do anything in particular though because I was already interested in learning anything and everything.

I also feel like there were some teachers I hated at the time, but looking back I got some important lessons out of the whole thing. Not my awful middle school teacher who said we'd thank her later, though. My friend and I still complain about her 18 years later.



Wow, that’s an interesting take on school and whether disliking teachers can really affect someone’s interest. Spanish also was an event, to say the least, through all of my different teachers and despite not getting a great education in the sciences, that’s definitely where I want to get my degree in.

As far as for me, I have a whole lot of teachers that I really enjoyed over the years. History across the board was a really fun subject and having great instructors made the subject, in general, a real blast to learn about, in addition to the various science classes I also got to partake in.

For teachers I really didn’t like, I wasn’t too against any of my teachers through high school, but the college I had issues with learning from my rather eccentric physics teacher. Here’s hoping for good teachers for everyone this next school year!

Thank you so much for participating in this week’s question, and please keep an eye out for next week’s question if you’d like to give feedback and get yourself in a Squills article! Until next time.





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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:55 am
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SHAMELESS PLUGS
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written by SquillsBot < PM: >

We love to run articles and questions, but we also love to advertise for you. Let people know about your new blog, a poem or story you’re looking for reviews on, or a forum thread you’d like more traffic on through Squills’ Shameless Plugs. PM @SquillsBot with the exact formatting of your advertisement, contained in the following code.

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Place advertisement here. Make sure you include a title!

And now for this week's Shameless Plugs!


Submit to Queer as In F*** You!

QAIFY is an alternative compzine that is going to be published physically and digitally every month starting in August, and is currently accepting submissions. August's theme is Exit, Kindly, although submissions can range anywhere in topic from feminism, punk, identity, queerness, womanhood, social justice, or just experimental. QAIFY accepts poetry, short essays, serialized novels and short stories, articles and art such as collages, drawings, paintings, and photography.

Send submissions as a word document, .jpg, or .pdf file to queerasineffyou.zine@gmail.com......... before August 31 to be considered for publication in August's issue. While you're at it, follow the zine on twitter and tumblr and look out for the official website soon!


Review Rampage

Do you like competitions? Do you like easy ways to make extra points? Then read on!

The #ReviewRampage is a competition hosted by @ShadowVyper and @Omnom that is a Go-At-Your-Own-Pace review challenge. You set your own review goals and wagers, then race against time to see if you can get done in time. Or, for the more competitive spirits out there, you can also duel against your fellow Rampagers.

Go check out the Q&A Forum for more information and then head on over to the Entry Forum to claim your place as a Rampager.

Get your Rampage on!


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Want to be a part of Squills, the YWS newsletter? Perfect! We want you. You can find more information here, and you can apply now by sending a sample article to SquillsBot's PM.

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With Review Month here and the Great Hall officially re-opened it is a perfect time to join the Knights of the Green Room. If you enjoy reviewing, this is the group for you!

For more information: KotGR Information
To declare you interest: Declare in the Great Hall .
If you have questions: Send a PM to Captain of the Guard Jack (@LordWolf) or Court Magician Knight Alliyah (@alliyah).


That's all folks~ Now send us yours.





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Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:56 am
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SUBSCRIBERS
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