Young Writers Society

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1. FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: MAYBEANDREW
2. REVMO STATS UPDATE: WEEK ONE
3. WORD OF THE WEEK: VAPID
4. THE FIRST THREE: COMPLETING THE CHECKLIST CHALLENGE
5. SHAMELESS PLUGS
6. SUBSCRIBERS

FEATURED MEMBER INTERVIEW: MAYBEANDREWwritten by looseleaf< PM: >

For almost sixteen months, @MaybeAndrew has been a part of the YWS community. On September 5th, he was declared our new featured member for plenty of good reasons. Andrew has written eighty-nine reviews, published thirty-three works (including short stories, poems, and chapters), and has brightened everyone’s day with their wall posts. Not only that, but Andrew is an amazing conversationalist, as he proved in our interview.


MaybeAndrew: I’d love to!


M: I just felt warmed to my core, I’ve been feeling super grateful for this community lately so it was super heart softening for it to be grateful back.


M: Well, I am fabulous, so that's probably part of it (; But besides being very charming, I have been active on the site for a long time, especially on pads, and I have started reviewing more again, so that's probably part of it.


M: That's a great question! It's like choosing between roses and daffodils, so much beauty on all sides! I love pads, they really foster a sense of community and fun, though I have recently tried to avoid them because it's hard to write when you can't stop chatting with your YWS friends. And the reviewing is so great too, it has really helped me think about how I can become a better writer.


M: There was a pad I made called The Cabin, which was really fun, and with RadDogs help we decorated it and made it look cool, and it got really big and full of stuff... and then one day it was destroyed by a little hack you can use to destroy pads, but I still remember my time there very fondly. With @HarryHardy and @Queenshadowgem [and] others, and I also remember a time @LadyMysterio and I held a ball on a pad, and that was fun. So yeah, lots of fun little shenanigans.


M: Yeah! I’m going for team tortoise, and also quietly trying the checklist challenge.


M: I'd say just be active in general! Empty that green room, post works, improve as a writer, hang out on pads, be nice, and just add to this great community!
And hey, if that doesn't make you a featured member, you'll be so loved and have done so much good it won't matter (<:

If you have not already, you can congratulate Andrew on becoming FM in this thread or on his wall !

REVMO STATS UPDATE: WEEK ONE written by IcyFlame< PM: >

The YWS Annual Review Month (or RevMo for short) is well underway and here at Squills we want to make sure you're all kept up to date on the triumphs and challenges that this month brings.

COLOUR CHALLENGE

In the Colour Challenge , for week one, the challenge was to write 10 reviews in order to win the jazzy deep pink username. Plenty of users were able to accomplish this difficult feat - @HarryHardy @RandomTalks @ForeverYoung299 @MailicedeNamedy @FireEyes @Plume @IcyFlame @chikara @whatchamacallit @SpiritedWolfe @Valkyria @Nicole136 @alliyah and @Liminality all ended the first week of the month with shiny new deep pink usernames.

It looks like we'll also have a new round of deep pink recruits joining them next week, by reaching the 10 review mark.

Next week the challenge continues, with users having to meet 20 reviews by the end of the week to get a true orange username. Lets hope our reviewers aren't running out of steam just yet! This is the same jump in reviews as next week, so with any luck we'll see plenty of true orange usernames around the site,

TEAM TORTOISE

Lots of users are in the running for Team Tortoise this month, marching in with a review every single day. Among these users are @HarryHardy, @RandomTalks, @ForeverYoung299, @MailicedeNamedy, @FireEyes, @IcyFlame, @Plume, @SpiritedWolfe and @vampricone6783 .That's nine reviewers competing for that dark cyan username by reviewing at least once per day every day in September, and is pretty darn impressive!

OTHER UPDATES & CHALLENGES

The reviewers are also making wonderful progress towards that site goal - with over 50% of reviews already completed to meet the site goal!

Another challenge on the horizon, is that the Green Room seems to be slowly but steadily clearing out, and with that of course comes the search for the Golden Goose and the potential rise of The Afterwatch for those who are involved in the Knights of the Green Room.

The second annual RevMo banner contest is in full swing and still accepting entries!

Participants are also ploughing through the official Checklist Challenge with some users already completing the 50 challenges!

Head on over to the RevMo Club to get more up to date information as and when it happens, and look out for another update from Squills before the month is up!

WORD OF THE WEEK: VAPIDwritten by EternalRain < PM: >

Pronunciation: vap-id (think: rapid)

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: offering nothing that is stimulating or challenging; lacking flavor, zest, interest, animation, or spirit

Synonyms: dull, flat, uninspired, dead

Origin: mid 17th century (used originally in description of drinks as ‘lacking in flavor’): from Latin vapidus .

Used in a Sentence: The conversation between the space cowboy and Victorian princess was painfully vapid.

THE FIRST THREE: COMPLETING THE CHECKLIST CHALLENGEwritten by looseleaf< PM: >

When I went to join the Checklist Challenge last week, I noticed something that I consider incredible. Three YWSers, @HarryHardy, @ForeverYoung299, and @RandomTalks, had already completed the challenge and were still reviewing. As of now (the morning of September 12th), Harry has done an astonishing 160 reviews, RandomTalks has done 99, and ForeverYoung has done 85. I asked if I could interview them last week and, to my delight, they agreed!


HarryHardy: Ohh, well I finished it pretty fast last year, and I kinda wanted to do it faster this time.
RandomTalks: I love the idea of any challenge to be honest, and I had initially set a goal of two reviews every day. But then once I started looking for the stories with the mentioned requirements, I got so much into it and I was having so much fun hunting down all the stories and reading all these works, that before I knew it, I had already done more than 10 reviews in the first day!
ForeverYoung299: My exams actually. Doing the checklist challenge helped me to divert my mind from the fear of examinations.


HH: Umm, not really. Its just reviews. If I had to pick a hardest part though, it would probably be finding the works under the "elements of a work" section. That took quite a bit of searching and wayy more time than I anticipated.
RT: I think the hardest part for me was finding works with the mentioned elements in them. The search bar here can only take you so far, and I had real trouble reviewing poetry because I have never done that before.
FY: It wasn't very hard to be honest but yes, the "Review Technique" part was a bit hard for I was not very familiar with those.


HH: Well, this one's a tough question. On one hand, if you have the ability to keep at it and do that many reviews without burning out, I'd say go for it, doing reviews fast can be quite fun. However, it's always good to keep in mind that you still have to give a good amount of attention to each thing you review, if your reviews start becoming shorter and more generic as a result of going fast, I wouldn't recommend it. Its much more valuable to give out a couple of really good reviews rather than 100 half effort ones.
RT: It matters on the person I think. If you like reading other works and you feel like you have something to contribute that can help someone out or even encourage them, you should absolutely go for it. Reviews can be really helpful, but only if it has some content.
FY: The only thing I can tell is don't do the reviews ignoring more important tasks (The exact thing which I do and I don't think it's an excellent thing)


HH: Pretty good. I have a pretty big list of goals I want to achieve this RevMo. So getting one of them done early on is pretty satisfying and it will help motivate me to achieve the rest of these goals.
RT: Honestly, being one of the first three to complete the challenge does not really matter that much to me. I did not see this as a competition. I saw it as a challenge and then when I started, it became a source of enjoyment. So I am proud that I completed all 50, but not because I am one of the first three to do it.
FY: It feels great and wow, I wonder how I did all those reviews in 5 days. A miracle has seriously happened to such a lazy person like me.


HH: Umm..I'd say something along the lines of remember that RevMo is a marathon and not a sprint. Its a 30 day event which is a looong time. Don't go chasing after goals too fast and too early, or you'll find yourself barely able to look at a literary work towards the end of the month. Its usually best to take it a bit easy at the start and get a feel for how much free time you have and how many reviews you can realistically write. You can save up the review rampages for the last few days.

Oh and one last thing, Good Luck to everyone participating in the checklist challenge or RevMo in general!!
RT: I think the only thing I would like to say is that these guys deserve to know how much they are helping others. I, being a writer, know how much each review means to me. So I will like to thank them for taking out the time for this and for bringing so many smiles every time they leave a review. You guys are doing an awesome work and the only advice I have to share is, keep it up!
FY: I wish happy #RevMo to all. You are already a large portion towards the goal. If I am not too wrong, we will reach it sooner and maybe we will also do more reviews than last year. Best of luck all!

It may seem like September just started but, in reality, there’s only seventeen days left! If you have not signed up for the Checklist Challenge yet but want to, you may do so here . Happy reviewing, everyone!

SHAMELESS PLUGS

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The Poetry Journal is Open!

Have your read a great poem and want to share? Come fill the pages of YWS's new Community Poetry Journal !

This is a place where anyone can share some favourite poems along with commentary, including thoughts, feelings and associations with the poem. All the info you need is in the club's About Page!

For questions, reach out to Liminality.

CALLING ALL CHICKEN ARTISTS & POETS

Calling All Chickens & Chicken Enthusiasts

If you love chickens please check out the one and only YWS-edition of COOP: chickens of our poetry zine and be sure to share with your friends or chickens or chicken friends. And if you have any chicken art or chicken poetry you'd like to be considered for the next edition, you can learn more here <- our next edition is open for submission to non-YWSers too, so feel free to share the submission info with anyone who likes chickens!

For any questions please send a PM to alliyah or fortis, the COOP co-editing duo ~

Also ... did you know that YWS has a Chicken Fan Club?


That's all folks~ Now send us yours.

SUBSCRIBERS

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