Young Writers Society

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1. REVMO REVIEW
2. POP CULTURE CORNER: 5 MUPPET SONGS WORTH YOUR TIME
3. THE DREAD OF CREATING
4. SPOOKY WRITING PROMPTS
5. TV SHOW REVIEW: THE MILL
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

REVMO REVIEW
written by alliyah < PM: >

Last week we finished up RevMo and it was quite a finish! 7 members completed Team Tortoise (@Panikos, @JabberHut, @mellifera, @FlamingPhoenix, @Querencia, @Asith & @alliyah) and 5 completed the RevMo challenge of doing 50 or more reviews (@MJTucker, FlamingPhoenix, Querencia, myself, and Asith). Other users who had been able to write 15 or more reviews during the month were able to keep their snazzy colored usernames for an additional week too. And in total 831 reviews were written, by 81 different members. While it didn't meet the site goal of 1,000 reviews, that's certainly still a lot of involvement! So how does this year compare to past Review Months and other months of this year?

Well as far as this year, it wasn't our highest month of the year actually! It might come as some surprise that another month could have beat a month dedicated to reviewing, but December actually had 841 reviews, and both March and January also came close to this month with 821 and 804 respectively. So this month wasn't markedly higher than other months this year.

Compared to last year too, this year also doesn't seem to have as high of a turn-out. According to the RevMo Recap from last year, we had 147 folks participating that time and over 1,000 reviews written.

So while numbers weren't out of this world, they were still fairly high. Another factor for those checking the stats is that although there weren't necessarily more reviews than last year there may have been less works actually available to review. When there's not a lot left in the green room, reviews do seem to go down. So if you'd like to see more reviews on the site, there may be some direct relationship to how many works are being written. I'll leave it to the math geniuses to figure out those numbers though.

And at the end of the day, Review Month is certainly not just about numbers. It's about the reviewers and the people! Hopefully this Review Month was a chance when people were able to receive a little bit more feedback than they usually would, and a time where reviewers felt like taking chances to expand their reviewing abilities too. If you have any thoughts about RevMo, feel free to bring them over to my Squills Author's Corner ! I'd love to hear from you.

POP CULTURE CORNER: 5 MUPPET SONGS WORTH YOUR TIME

Written by CaptainJack < PM: >

1. Moving Right Along - Kermit & Fozzie Bear
In the style of the classic folk music style of traveling on road trips with your friend, trying to make it to California, Fozzie makes a series of wrong turns while Kermit continues on the banjo. While you might not think much of the Muppets, you can't deny how on point this song is about a common theme in music to this day. An important note to make is that no matter how of course they get when seeing "America", is that they're still friends.

2. Flowers on the Wall - The Ratler Brothers
The Ratler Brothers bring you this modern cover version of the Statler Brothers' classic. In this situation, Beaker is the poor folk suffering and in the cover version, his nightly activities have changed from that of the original victim. If you're up for seeing America's favorite test subject and Hollywood's favorite rodent band, check out this song.

3. Kodachrome - Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem
This cover of the famous Paul Simon song is certainly a more excited version and plays more on the imagination of the listener, but shows how the Dr. Teeth band is consistent in its performances. The sound is engaging and the presentation of their music video brings even more to the sound.

4. Sailing For Adventure - Cast of Muppet Treasure Island
This performance is worth your time just to hear Sam the Eagle threatening a group of sailors and being his usual self in the background of a musical. With no solid chorus line and a series of different pros and cons about sailing, the song seems to be going nowhere but into the horizon.

5. Interrogation Song - Sam the Eagle and Jean Pierre Napoleon
Another hit starring Sam the Eagle, this more recent song shows his occupation as a federal agent of the USA. As they go through the process of interrogating different members of the Muppet cast, the style of investigation changes for each cast member. This only adds to the hilarity of their failure.

THE DREAD OF CREATING
written by fraey < PM: >

Hello everyone! I got a really nice response to last week's The Thrill of Creating article, so I thought I would keep up the topic but going to a different sense. This time around, I wanted to go over what I definitely feel often - the dread, or fear, or nervousness that someone can get while trying to write, or draw, or compose, or anything really. It can be really hard to impose upon yourself the encouragement that's so easy to give to others.

I thought I might as well address this feeling and go over what could be done about it.

For starter's, like most things in life, balance is absolutely key. I tried doing NaNoWriMo last year - got to about 15k, I think, which would be about 9 days into the month, which was a start, but I was swamped with homework and studying for my tests. I'm definitely in a similar situation this year, but even doing LMS for two weeks made my confidence rise a tiny increment. Having a sense of how much you can put on your plate helps a lot in organizing what events you can do and what things simply aren't an option currently.

A second piece of advice is to try your best and not compare yourself to others. Comparison can be nearly deadly to a new muse, a novel that's almost finished, or an idea that's barely crafted since it causes people to lose track of what they actually want to do, or think that someone else's creation is a lot better and there's no point in starting. There is always a point, always a reason, always a positive thing to start a novel or finish one or complete a series of short stories regardless if the idea is too unique. Getting out there and taking on your muse without letting anything from the outside interfere is really rewarding but really difficult.

A third idea might seem a little counter-intuitive, but taking breaks can really help in letting the imaginative mind take a breather and be able to really get good ideas flowing instead of grasping at every little thing that pops into your mind. Quality over quantity can apply to many things, and writing or creating in general definitely counts as a situation to be observed in. The thinking behind this is that you can write as much as you can for one idea, perhaps a novel for NaNoWriMo, and then take a month, two, six, however many is needed to step away and focus on something else in life or a different hobby or even a different novel if there's another idea tucked away somewhere. Sometimes the best ideas or new plot lines can come out of the blue when you're not actively thinking about it.

Maybe this isn't really the dread of creating, but more like the possibilities of creating and using different strategies to get the most out of your time and your writing. Good luck either way in your creating endeavors, and I hoped something of this article sparked your interest! ^^

SPOOKY WRITING PROMPTS
written by EternalRain < PM: >

There’s so much going on at YWS with October here and Halloween right around the corner, like the Spooktober Roleplays and the Spooky Profile Contest , that I thought it could be fun to inspire some super-spooky poems and short stories with some writing prompts!

If you end up using any of these prompts in your creation of a poem or flash fiction piece, you can PM me your work and be featured in Squills! Or, feel free to post it through the publishing center for some feedback.



Use this sentence as the first sentence of your story. Or, you can break it up and use it as the first line(s) of your poem!





Use this picture to inspire a poem or short story.





A “three words” prompt is a writing prompt where you write a poem or short story based off the given three words. The three words must be present inside your work. You can get creative!

TV SHOW REVIEW: THE MILL
written by alliyah < PM: >

So, for whatever reason as I'm surfing Amazon Prime for some new TV show or movie to watch, "The Mill" comes up in my suggested viewings. While the cover looks a bit like it might be a horror show, I browse over the summary and thought, it might be interesting so gave it a try. Somehow within just a few days I've already watched an entire season of the two that are available- so let me tell you a little bit about it, in case it's a show you might also find intersting!

"The Mill," first released back in 2013, is set in the 1830's in Britain. The series follows a group of children who are working under horrifically tough conditions in a cotton mill. Interestingly the series also gets into the political dynamics of the time-period too, and follows the pros and cons of different child-labor-laws that were being pushed at this time. What really made me interested in watching the show, is not only that it's a period-drama but that it was based on an actual mill that children had really worked at - the Quarry Bank Mill - and some of the stories are actually from this mill itself.

Now, I'll be honest within the first few minutes of the first episode I wasn't sure I could stomache the series - to but it bluntly (and this would be a spoiler warning & mature material warning) there is an implied assault of one of the children and there's a mill accident in one of the opening scenes. That being said, I'm glad that I got past that first episode and gave it a chance, because the characters really draw you in - they are extremely compelling. The acting and the scenes are also really great. Also I've been inspired to look a little deeper into early U.S. and U.K. child-labor-laws because of the political dyanmics that the show presents too, so there's another bonus is that you can become more informed of what these children were going through.

If you're a fan of other period-drama shows, like "Downton Abbey" or "Call the Midwife" you may also like "The Mill" - though I would say that this show's focus is definitely more on displaying the raw conditions and the political dynamics of child labor than on character-character drama. You may even be able to trace some political threads to modern political opinions and in different labor movements. One element of this show that I really can't get away from is it's utter-grittiness. You might find this sort of raw portrayal of human suffering in a war film perhaps, but it really comes through strong in this show, leaving me almost wondering, "why in the world would someone want to watch a show about children suffering?". Most of the time that's exactly the type of show/movie/literature that I can't stand, so what makes this show different?

In some ways, maybe it's like a devastating car-crash scene that you just can't look away from. In other ways, I think it feels like it's a small amount of service or compassion I can show to for these kid's memory to see what conditions they faced and to pray that I don't contribute to similar suffering. I think it's important for people to be informed about even the dark parts of history so that history doesn't repeat itself. Unfortunately in this case, child labor is still very much a part of the world economony. Doing a little bit of internet research shows me that 152 million children are still victims of child labor around the world. To be perfectly honest, that's not something that I think about all that often, but after watching this show it is something I know I need to be more aware and concientious of. I'd encourage others who are interested to check out a few lists on the internet of what companies to avoid because they use child labor (unfortunately that knocks out a lot of popular chocolate companies, so I'm going to need to be more intentional this year for my halloween candy plans!) Another element that I think makes this show compelling despite how deep it goes into the depths of human suffering, is the little shimmers of hope, courage, and bravery from the characters throughout their stories. Though I know it's fictionalized account, knowing the type of bravery that these kids went through is inspiring.

I recommend the show especially to those who are fans of other period-dramas. Though I think the show doesn't have an actual rating, I would caution that it is probably not something you should watch if you're sensitive to depictions of violence at all - this might be one to save for mature audiences and those comfortable with mature elements.

SHAMELESS PLUGS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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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!











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1st Place Prize: 1500 points, 2nd Place Prize: 750 points

Directions:YWS Poster Contest [icon][external-link-sign][/icon].
Deadline: October 15






Don't miss any of the Spooktacular Activities this October! From Roleplays and Writing Activities to Contests and Poetry Jams, we've got it all. Subscribe to the Spooktober Event Thread to get all the latest information.



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SUBSCRIBERS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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