Young Writers Society

Welcome to Squills, the official news bulletin of the Young Writers Society!
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1. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW - VIL
2. LOOKING FOR WRITERS
3. DIXIE KITCHEN: ARE POP TARTS ACTUALLY RAVIOLI?
4. SOUND OF AMBIENCE
5. NEW ARRIVALS
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW - VIL
written by Liberty < PM: >

Our latest featured member has been super active in the reviewing and storybooking part of the site! @vil has been super productive this RevMo (he even participated in the Checklist Challenge and did the 50/50 challenge and earned his dark cyan username, indicating that he reviewed every single day for Team Tortoise.


V: Of course! <3


V: To quote myself in a PM, "WHAT??? YES!!! AWESOME!!!"


:V Well, I'm not 100% sure how the FM is chosen, but I'd guess that between publishing a few million works doing 156 and counting reviews, and chasing after HarryHardy during #RevMo might have something to do with it. I've also been told humor could have played a roll, but I'd have no idea if that were true or not.


V: Well, I was pretty nervous at first. Then I started with the tings I knew (ABABCDCD poetry). After I posted a few things, I branched out a litte, partly due to ShadowVyper and Stringbean. I've made it a goal to review everything those two write.


V: Um... I guess I'd tell people to take their time. I've posted one or two comments about reviewing on my wall, in which I mentioned that it's always a good idea to split you reviews up into sections. For example, I tend to split mine between likes, dislikes, the occasional grammar note, and a short summary.


V: Umm... I guess a shout out to @Nate wouldn't be out of order... One to @ShadowQueen for being the first to tell me, and the mods who chose me. All of our mods are great, and we'd be lost without them! <3


V: Thanks! <3

If you haven’t already congratulated Vil, make sure to drop by the thread in the Lounge or his wall!

LOOKING FOR WRITERS
written by EternalRain < PM: >

Visit the Looking For Writers for more information regarding submissions, positions, and benefits!

DIXIE KITCHEN: ARE POP TARTS ACTUALLY RAVIOLI?

Written by CaptainJack < PM: >



So while most people agree that pop tarts are not ravioli but almost a third of participants in this poll thought they should question my actions. I'm not committing any food crimes, y'all. I'm just waiting for y'all to yell at me for talking so much about food crimes.

So here's some of the feedback from this week.

The first reply was from @LZPianogirl who said:





@JabberHut did not explain their stance but add a gif surveying the scene.





@Carlito gave us some pasta based reasoning for their stance.





@alliyah is demanding answers from whoever said yes.





@magebird decided to target my stylistic spelling choice.





@vil has many concerns over this topic.





@lordmomo presents another classification for pop-tarts.





I did find out that @ShadowVyper was on my side about spelling though.





@alliyah also showed up to comment on the spelling of pop tart so perhaps this will be a debate for further down the line.





If you have any further commentary on this debate, be sure to post it in the thread. And keep an eye out next week for another debate topic where this time we address ways to cut sandwiches.

SOUND OF AMBIENCE
written by EternalRain < PM: >


Recently, I’ve been very into “ambience sounds” videos. My entire Youtube recommended page is a conglomeration of different videos: festival chatter, rain on a Victorian pathway, pages fluttering in a library, sweet birdsong in a summer garden.

They’re certainly not a new concept—I remember watching a crackling fire on our TV at home. As a kid, I had a sound machine that simulated different sounds (waves crashing, trains chugging, birds chirping) to help me sleep, because silence was overwhelming.

However, the vastness to ambience videos available on Youtube and the creativity creators have put into their videos has fascinated me!

This year, I’m doing online school. For me, these ambience videos have not only been the perfect background noise for writing that perfect scene to get me “in the zone”, but they’ve also been great for background noise when doing my assignments.

Sometimes I’ll have trouble focusing on an assignment in the silence of my own home. I get distracted by my thoughts or sometimes a prerecorded video lecture I’m watching is really hard to focus on. Ambience videos help me with that! Music with lyrics is a bit too distracting (you know when you start focusing too much on the chorus coming up!!) and ambience videos serve the same way music without lyrics serves for many people.

Personally, I’ve found ambience videos to be a bit different than music with no lyrics, as it creates more of a simulated environment and atmosphere. It’s definitely a different feeling (but don’t get me wrong—I still love listening to no-lyrics music).

I’ve fallen in love with the feeling of rain pattering in the background, with the occasional thunder boom, or a crackling fire in a cozy home (even if it’s sunny and 85 degrees F outside in my own home!). There are ambience videos for practically any environment you can dream of.

I like to have them on in the background when writing or doing assignments or browsing the Internet, but there are many that are nice to fall asleep to, as well! Ambience videos can bring a different purpose to everyone—one of the reasons I love them so much.

Right now, my personal favorite is this video by the channel Ambience of Yesteryear.


Another one I love, particularly when writing my fantasy adventure novel, is this village sounds video from the channel Autumn Cozy.


If ambience videos are you thing, feel free to reach out to me with any atmospheric videos you find. And if they’re not your thing—that’s okay, too!—to each their own.

NEW ARRIVALS
written by EternalRain < PM: >

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


Along with reviewing, @queenofportalverse has also gotten started publishing their fantasyy novel! If you want to check it out, you read the first chapter, Prince of Silk: Chapter 1 - Memories of Smoke .

@Wallflower23 has made their way through reviewing both poems and short stories! Welcome them to YWS on their wall! .

Are those some shiny review stars I spot? @Soccer23, @piyaliarchives, @Ave38, and @cirdrianwritersguild are all rocking their first review star!

@Euphoria8 is a few weeks old, but already has a whopping 40 reviews. They’ve also published some poems that have ended up in the literary spotlight. I personally love Stormmates .

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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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SUBSCRIBERS

written by SquillsBot < PM: >

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