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. YWSTIVAL: MYSTERY MONDAY
2. YWSTIVAL: TRAGEDY TUESDAY
3. YWSTIVAL: WEIRD WEDNESDAY
4. YWSTIVAL: THRILLER THURSDAY
5. YWSTIVAL: FANTASY FRIDAY
6. YWSTIVAL: SATIRE SATURDAY AND SONNET SUNDAY
7. STORYBOOKING AWARDS
8. SOCIETY PAGES
9. YWS BIRTHDAY CONTEST: ALIEN DANDY
10. POLLARITY 11/17/13 - YA FICTION
11. YOU WRITE WHAT YOU READ
12. COW SAYS NOVEMBER 17TH, 2013
13. ASKPRUNO
14. GREEN ROOM GALLERY
15. NEW ARRIVALS
16. SHAMELESS PLUGS
17. SUBSCRIBERS

YWSTIVAL: MYSTERY MONDAYwritten by OliveDreams < PM: >


On Monday, to kick start this weeks YWStival, Squills’ very own @SparkToFlame launched a great game of mystery and suspicion with ‘Who Dunnit?’ in the chatroom.

Excitement built as YWS regulars such as, @TheMessenger, @Elinor%20Brynn, @Skorpionne, @yubbies21, @Daisuki, @Auxiira and, even though we were a distraction from her NanoWriMo novel, @Tenyo turned up to play!

As an observer, I remained just out of the murderers reach so I could report on the gruesome game. Immediately, SparktoFlame wasted no time in explaining the rules;






With the murderer selected, Auxiira was the first to fall under the knife.

All now waited with baited breath for the first clue to the murderers identity which never came! Auxiira, stolen away from her parents, really convinced us of her death for a moment or two.

The murderer was instructed to pick a second victim. Who would it be?

Oh no! The organiser and host, SparkToFlame, of the game was wiped out! Lots of shocked emoticons and puzzled questions marks followed. The victim went on to give us the first clue of the game;






This stumped a lot of players yet the first accusation came from TheMessenger when he pinned the blame on poor, innocent yubbies21. As the rules state, a wrong answer from TheMessenger meant he was out of the game!

Elinor’s blood is the next to spill across our screens as she gives all players two very clever clues of the word, ‘gun’ and







What could they mean? Are they linked to someones username maybe?

After a long moment of strong suspicion, yet reluctance to get the answer wrong, detective Tenyo came crashing down on TheMessenger as the murderer and...got the answer right! By throwing us off the scent, when accusing yubbies21, TheMessenger proved to be one slippery character!

After some incredibly tactful clues, the remaining rounds discovered Daisuki, yubbies21, SparkToFlame, TheMessenger and Tenyo, after being found out for her reputable word warring skills, all guilty of murder! We really should be careful who we talk to on here - you never know what they’re capable of!

Congratulations to all winners and a huge thank you to SparkToFlame for organising a great game!

YWSTIVAL: TRAGEDY TUESDAY

written by Iggy < PM: >

How well are you at Dungeons and Dragons? Do you spend many an evening in a dark basement with a group of friends, huddled around a board, or are you like me and have no idea how the game works?

Either way, you should have been there in chat on Tragedy Tuesday! One of the leaders of the Storybook crew, @Rydia, hosted a D&D-themed game. The participants were as follows: @Iggy, @elinor%20brynn, @lateritic, @Skorpionne, @Alpacalypse, @ariaadams, @CelticaNoir, and @Cole.

The game went like this: you woke up in the dungeon of a castle with no recollection of how you got there. You also have nothing on you but the clothes on your back. You and the other players must find a way out of the caste without dying.

Alongside the players, there was also a shifty-looking puppet that could talk and a Minotaur that wanted nothing more than to eat the players, and he would attack every 5 minutes.

Rydia was the gamemaster, wielding her dice and determining the fate of the players! Each player started off with 10 health points. Every time a player requested to make a move, she would roll a dice to determine the outcome. She best explains how she did it all like this:






The players made it out of the castle, all alive except for Elinor Brynn, who sacrificed herself to save the rest (she had to leave). The Minotaur ate her, and attacked many of the players until he was killed. Some players were at a low health, like Iggy with 1 point and Skorpionne with 2. Some players wanted to befriend the puppet, like Aria, and some wanted to abandon it, like Elinor. Opinions varied and some actions brought harm to others, like Celtica attacking Iggy and wasting four of her precious points.

Overall, it was a fun and enjoyable experience, which everyone should try to attend next year, when we hit the big 10. See you there!

YWSTIVAL: WEIRD WEDNESDAY

written by Iggy < PM: >

If you go into chat every so often, you're more than likely bound to come across a person who enters chat and demands a word war. And if you stick around long enough to witness it, you'll see just how crazy quiet chat gets. And if you stick around long enough to participate, you know exactly how much fun it is.

What is a word war, you ask? According to the Word War Hall of Fame , written by the master of Word Wars @Tenyo, it goes a little something like this..






This Wednesday, the general literary crew hosted a Word War extravaganza in the chat room, originally hosted by @sparktoflame, who could not attend. Instead, @Blues took over.

There's no official word on the amount of rounds, due to the fact that all the participants were too busy writing to pay attention! But from what I gather, it was between 3-5. Each war was 10 minutes long.

@Deanie said that she was able to attend three of the wars, but had to multitask due to the enemy we all hate - homework:






If you're starting to freak out and wish you had attended, don't fret! All you have to do is walk into chat and declare a word war. Those who are already in chat will decide whether they want to join in or not, and off you go! Just remember to keep an eye on the time. I've heard this makes good practice for NaNoWriMo!

YWS'TIVAL: THRILLER THURSDAYwritten by ArcticMonkey < PM: >

So as many of you know, this week was the second annual YWStival! This is to celebrate YWS' ninth birthday, and this week has been jam-packed with exciting events. I hope you all managed to get involved in something, if you want a run down of all that happened this week then go to this official thread:
The Second YWStival


However for now, I'm going to talk about what happened on Thursday at 10pm GMT. If you are a frequent user of chat, you may have noticed that only fifty people can be on there at a time. Considering the average amount of users on chat at a time is about ten, thinking about reaching fifty is unimaginable, right? Well it would just be untrue to say YWS doesn't like a challenge, so here is a brief picture story of how things went on:


As we can see here there were thirty-eight people on chat, all awaiting more members to try and break this record.


Wow, how dangerously close! So... did we do it?


Well firstly, here's just an idea of how many people were on chat! So thanks to all the people here for coming onto chat.


FIFTY USERS IN THE CHATROOM! BRILLIANT! (Screenshot credits to @Blues)

@wonderland says,







If you participated in this you'll know how hectic it was in that chatroom, I've never seen it move so fast. Every time I sent a message it'd get drowned in other messages in about two seconds flat, but it was still great to be there! I hope you've all had a fun YWStival, and even if you didn't get to participate in anything why not
Wish YWS a very happy birthday! Or perhaps go to @AriaAdams' thread where you can say your favourite 9 things of YWS . If you have anything YWStival- related to share, feel free to post in the Squills Fan Club .

YWSTIVAL: FANTASY FRIDAY

written by Iggy < PM: >

Are you any good at answering questions under pressure? Can you type fast? How well do you think you know YWS? Or general knowledge? Or @Rydia herself?

If you answered yes to all those questions, then you should have been there Friday for the YWStival event of Dragons vs. Monkeys! Hosted by Rydia, this is a game of speed, typing skills, and intelligence to determine who the official mascot of YWS is!

There were two rounds, the first of which I could not attend. That round left the Monkeys with 11.5 points and the Dragons in the lead with 14.5!

There were four rounds with four questions each. The first was Literacy and included questions like "Who are the four kings and queens of Narnia?" The second was about YWS is general and had some speed questions, like "Name four past or present admins of the site." The third was general knowledge and varied from chemistry to people to anything and everything! The forth and final round was entitled "Heather's round" in which Heather asked random questions and gave out bonus points for whatever reason she deemed worthy (even for flattery!)

This was the final post she put in the announcement thread :






Overall, it was quite the fun experience! So take my advice and don't be like me; make sure you are on a computer or laptop next time! The keyboard helps with typing and answering faster than the others!

And so the Dragons won this year as YWS' favored mascot, but who will win next year? Or, more importantly, what side will you be on next year?

YWSTIVAL: SATIRE SATURDAY AND SONNET SUNDAY

written by Iggy < PM: >

Oh, workshops! Don't we all love workshops? If you're like me and suck at poetry, you love to attend any poetry workshop you can. Maybe you're having trouble with your characters or plot and need a fiction workshop. Or maybe you're having trouble with storybooking and like to attend storybook workshops to improve. Whichever way, workshops are a useful way to help you with whatever it is you need, not to mention that they're always fun to take part of!

In spirit of the YWStival, two workshops were held this weekend.

Satire Saturday was hosted by @rosey%20unicorn and @ariaadams and was attended by @hightop, @carbonCore, @Audy, @baal, and @fortis.

In the announcement thread , Rosey best described the workshop as:






By the looks of the Pirate Pad , it went successfully!

Sonnet Sunday was hosted by @PenguinAttack. The workshop itself was entitled "Poe Destruction Workshop", and it was best described by Penguin here :






Those who attended were @Audy, @Meshugenah, @Karzkin, @Adnamarine, and @Blackwood.

By the looks of the Pirate Pad , this one went successfully too!

STORYBOOKING AWARDS written by AfterTheStorm < PM: >



Let’s switch it up this week, shall we? Instead of only one Storybook and Storybooker in the spotlight, why not have five?

Welcome to the not-so-annual Storybooking Awards, live (sort of) with your host, AfterTheStorm!
---------------------------------------------------------

Good [/insert time of day], ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Squills’ Storybooking Awards, the highest honor YWS can bestow upon amazing Storybookers . (Basically, the winners just get some recognition for their coolness and a virtual pat on the back. Heh.) Anyways, I have received spams of votes in my inbox as users have nominated their favorites from the SB section, and am pulling the top five from this pile of nominees to present to you Storybooking’s best. Let’s give a computer-generated round of applause for the nominees!

The top ten submissions (in no specific order) were as follows:

@Griffinkeeper
@AriaAdams
@Cailey
@Lumi
@Dragonette
@ReisePiecey
@sylverdawn
@TheClosetKidnapper
@baal
@fictionfanatic

Congratulations, y’all, for being nominated!

Now for the moment you may or may not have been waiting for: *cues dramatic drumroll* Please stand for the winners of the SSA…

Baal, the ever wonderful!

GriffinKeeper, practically the god of Storybooks!

Lumi, whose brilliant and humorous contributions make SBs worth joining!

Cailey, a marvelous Storybooker with abundant dedication and kindness!

and ReisePiecey, a master of SB creations!

(Y’all receive official bragging rights.)

Cailey, after a humble bow, steps up to claim her virtual pat on the back. As she receives her prize, she prepares her acceptance speech for this fabulous occasion.






After Cailey’s touching speech, Baal the Glorious swaggers to the stage. He briefly, yet meaningfully, thanks his supporters:






A big thank you to everyone who voted, and another congrats to the Storybooker nominees! Keep up the good work, y’all. Storybookers sincerely appreciate your contributions to YWS!
-------------------------------------------------------
And that concludes the almost-sort-of-live coverage of the SSA. Stay tuned for more here on Squills! So as always: Write on!

SOCIETY PAGES

written by Iggy < PM: >



Love is in the air! Oh wait no, that's not love - that's celebration! For those of you who don't know: nine years ago, a young man by the name of Nathaniel Caldwell created a site much similar to one he joined as a boy. He created a site where young writers by the age of thirteen and up could share their stories and poems and make friends from all over the world. At this time, the site only had three members: @Nate, -KayJuran-, and @ZZAP. Now the site has grown to over 20k!

This Thursday, members expressed their love by wishing YWS a happy birthday on their walls. Some of those people were as follows: @Dragon99, @Hightop, @Lauren2010, @SecreteJournalist, @Aquestioning, @Demeter, @Dreamy, @killjoy03, @Noelle, @Lava, @dominusatramentum, @Angelreader77, @Firestarter, @Hsarver, @DukeofWonderland, @manisha, and myself! It's so nice to see how much this site has affected the lives of many people all across the globe.

This weekend, @Alpha got to meet her friend @Letiki, much to the displeasure of myself, @Seraph, @Blues, and @ChangeTheWorld. Maybe we should all organize a meet-up?

Speaking of meet-up! @AfterTheStorm wishes there was a YWS global meet-up where we can all meet the people behind the keyboards. Be sure to invite me when this day happens!

NaNoWriMo is almost over and some people are racing close to the 50k goal! @Sachiko is slaying it with 33k under her belt, whereas @ScarlettFire has made it to 20k. Nice progress, but can they make it to 40k by the middle of next week? We shall see..

Musicals, oh musicals. @sparktoflame proclaims her love of musicals and says she misses them terribly. I wonder what musical she misses the most? Les Misrables? Chicago? Funny Girl? Or maybe the Wizard of Oz, or even it's sequel (or is it prequel?) Wicked? Speaking of Wicked, did you know @Skorpionne saw Wicked for the first time? How lucky, I know I'd kill to see it on Broadway.

Let's hope we don't lose our beloved Squills editor @KnightTeen as she attempts to clean her room! Is it that bad, I wonder?

@Adnamarine broke her no-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving rule for her beloved Alexander Rybax, for whom @Demeter also shares a love for.

Wonderful news is happening all over YWS. @EnigmaticSpirit passed her French exam with a B, @silverlock has earned their first star, and @OliveDreams finally finished the long awaited Allegiant. @Snoink is happily enjoying the married life, while @Blackwood claims that @veerenvks cheated on him and warned me to be wary of him. Then @CowLogic asked @ariaadams to marry him. Is this wedding bells, I hear?

What a busy week. My goodness, I feel faint. Excuse me while I have some tea and then have a cat nap.

Don’t forget to send me all your scoop for next week. You know you want to.

xxx

Lady S

YWS BIRTHDAY CONTEST: ALIEN DANDYwritten by KittyCatMeow < PM: >

If you’ve been updated to the YWS birthday events such as the weekly events , the YWS Birthday Bash , and the YWS Random Circle Story , then you probably have heard of the Alien Dandy contest hosted by @Nate. The top prize was a choice of YWS t-shirt or YWS coffee mug. The second best prize was a YWS coffee mug, no questions asked. From what I can see, the YWS t-shirt would have probably been the prize most members wanted, although the YWS coffee mug quickly gained popularity.

@Adnamarine, who replied first, said:





Of course, our beloved founder admitted that he was drinking from his own right after.

The contest showed that anyone could join, just as long as they weren’t judge. In fact, anyone could have judged, with the requirement of having to be joined to YWS for at least a month of course.

The point of the contest was to write a story, short story or poem, of the image that Nate had shown. In it, an alien was taking a girl in a blue dress, much like the one in Cinderella, with a peculiar hair style, also like the one in Cinderella, on a date of some sort. A man in a suit watches in surprise from above through his balcony, and the alien’s ship is parked next to the home.

The deadline was November 17th in Hawaii. While the clock ticked, a countdown began before the contest ended:



To submit, you had to send an email to webmaster@youngwriterssociety.com titling the subject as “Birthday Contest Entry”. The actual piece had to be included in the body, with your username as no exception.

As the entries were rolling in, more people were given a smaller chance in winning. Although, these wonderful writers knew that from the start, and I’m sure they liked a challenge.

So who’s going to win? No one knows just yet!

POLLARITY 11/17/13: YA FICTION

written by Sapi < pm: >

YA fiction* (a.k.a. Young adult fiction; teen fiction): fiction written, published, or marketed to adolescents and young adults.

Young Adult Fiction encompasses a wide range of literature that many agree cannot be pinned down to an exact category. After all, certainly not just teens really read YA novels, adults do too. As young writers, some of us prefer the popular series found in the Young Adult sections of bookstores, some prefer reading only more adult literature, and some like to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Curious about the choices of YWSers, I looked into the preferences of YA novels and authors in a random group of members, and also their reactions to different literary genres that encompass a lot of popular teen fiction.

Spontaneous Reactions

Okay, so obviously the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural aren't unique to teen fiction, or even to the world of writing, but they certainly account for a good portion of YA. Here are some of the immediate reactions people had when seeing these words:

Sci-fi:

Lasers, UFO, Awesome read, Space, Adventures, Robots, misunderstood, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Aliens, Dr. Who, Ender's Game

Most popular response: Star Wars

Fantasy:

Dreamworks, Narnia, Wheelhouse, Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett, Unicorns, Lord of the Rings, Fairies

Most popular response: Dragons, Magic

Supernatural:

Demons, Ghosts, Horror, Penumbral, Vampires, Twilight, Carrie, TV show, The Missing

Most popular response: Werewolves

It would seem, based on many of the spontaneous responses, that many YWSers have a very classic connotation of each genre in their minds (Star Wars, Dragons, Werewolves), although many also mentioned the first work from the genre that they could think of. @PenguinAttack even gave a full-fledged response. Here's what she had to say about fantasy and supernatural genres:






Popularity Poll

Sure, you can look up on the web any time what the current most popular teen books are and why. But I wanted to see what YWSers' preferences are when it comes to YA fiction. Here's what I came up with:

I was surprised to find that some of the YWSers participating in the poll chose less well-known titles as their favorites, and the majority gave unique answers; 55% of participants gave unique answers (the titles of which are enspoilered below). However, there were some trends accounting for the other 45%. The most popular book among YWSers? Why, Harry Potter, of course! The results are as follows:



55%- Unique (Other)
24%- Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling
7%- Percy Jackson / The Heroes of Olympus, by Rick Riordan
7%- The Tunnels Book, by Roderick Gordon
7%- The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare

Free Response

The last part of the poll consisted of one question: Who is your favorite YA fiction author and why? Here are some of the responses people gave:



@gokubrother:






@Payne :






@Cole :






@Rosey%20Unicorn :






There didn't end up being much of any repeats- again, YWSers like to stray off the beaten path in a lot of cases. The three that were repeated by participants are as follows:

-Scott Westerfield
-Tamora Pierce
-John Green

That's it for today! Vote here for topics of future Pollarity articles!

* Source: Wikipedia

YOU WRITE WHAT YOU READwritten by OliveDreams < PM: >

A place of magical creatures crawling out of the mist, supernatural beings lurking in the night and incredible powers emerging from the unexpected. These intricate and imaginary worlds explode onto our pages in the genre of fantasy.

@SushiSashimi333 gives us an insight into her most beloved fantasy worlds and how they have shaped the way she writes today.

Squills: Hi Sushi, would you mind answering a few questions about your favourite books?

SushiSashimi333: That sounds like a fantabulous idea Olive! Yes, I would be delighted to take part.

S: Great! So, which fantasy book are you most passionate about?

SS: I would have to say me favorite fantasy that I've ever read is... Well it would be between "Dragonfly" by Julia Golding and "Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones.

S: I’ve never heard of those! *adds to booklist* What do you love about them?

SS: I love them because both of the worlds in which they live are unlike anything ever seen yet they have that realistic touch that's rarely ever seen in fantasy. Of course, there are fantasies that take place in the real world, but these bring more of a real life feeling with realistic emotions brought into them. I also love the fact that the main characters are so strong and how they grow through the books.

S: Originality is key! I love it when fantasy books are refreshingly new. What about the nitty gritty of the style of writing?

SS: In Dragonfly, I love the fact that all the symbolism used throughout the book, is a recurring theme of the dragonfly. As for Howl's Moving Castle, I love Sophie's attitude towards Howl and how she acts after the unique situation she's put into.

S: What about your favourite characters? There is always someone we relate to.

SS: In Dragonfly, I would have to say Taoshira because, despite her being the youngest princess, she also proves to be the strongest and grows so much throughout the story. She goes from cold and seemingly heartless, to showing public emotion. In HMC, my favorite character would have to be Howl for his flamboyant attitude and yes, his immaturity despite being an all powerful wizard.

S: I also love a little dash of comic relief Now, how have these particular writers inspired your with your own creations?

SS: HMC inspires me to do something no one else has ever done before. Scratch vampires, wizards and everything like werewolves and unicorns. I want to be as original as possible with everything possible. Dragonfly inspires me to make characters that people can relate to and love dearly with all their heart. When it comes to Dianne Wynne Jones, everything she writes has a meaning, that without it, would change the book entirely. She also tends to make things a little confusing until you get used to her world. I don't quite think of it as an inspiration, more of as a habit that I picked up from reading so much of her stuff.



SS: When I finished both of these books I was very sad for many days over the fact that I finished them. That's hard to make me do.

S: Those kind of books will forever be in your heart. I’m sure we can all relate to that! Thanks Sushi!

COW SAYS NOVEMBER 17TH, 2013

written by CowLogic < PM: >



Since Christmas is coming up in a few hours or so, I two pieces of advice for you guys about giving and receiving.

1.) When life gives you lemons, eat the skin and give the pulpy insides to your best friend telling them that it's a really sweet tropical fruit and laugh at them when they bite into it.

2.) If you are ever offered Oreos by your friends and they taste minty and delicious, it's because they licked out all the filling and replaced it with toothpaste... stop eating them.

ASKPRUNOwritten by Blackwood < PM: >

Welcome to Ask Pruno, the advice column in which Pruno reveals he is your father after trying to kill you several times.
Pruno will answer any questions you throw at him, be it advice, personal opinion, solutions or philosophy.
Please note, this is the advice of Pruno, and it is his opinion alone. Nothing he says can be considered incorrect or factual, even if you disagree with him.



To Pruno, the hottest pixelated guy around,
I have a BIG problem. I want to steal all the boyfriends of my favourite characters, but I don't know how to do it. I want Tris to be forever alone so I can have Tobias, I think Hermione should back off of my Ron, and Bella needs to mind her own beeswax so I can have Edward! How do I steal the hearts of all these novel hotties?
-Lover of all things villain

Dear Villain Lover
Tobias is an idiot, he was only an interesting character until I found out he wasn’t older than 25. Why would you want Ron when Voldemort is 10000x more sexy AND is single. And Edward… really? I don’t know if I should laugh at you or laugh at you.
Have you seen my sexy portrait? Why don’t you fawn over me instead?
-Love Pruno.




To The Masterful Genius and Dictator,
Have you ever made your own candles before?
-Wax Girl

No, but I make wax objects out of the wax you peel off cheese before you eat it. Cheese is good, and wax is fun. I made a dice, a marble and a mutated death ring.
-Pruno



To Wonderful, Beautiful, and FABULOUS Great Pruno,

I have the flu. It hates me, and I hate it. Even with my medicine, I still can't seem to fix my cold, and even now, I'm coughing with absolutely no pride.
In order to be fixed, I need support, but before that, I must ask you the following. What should I do to help my current condition that prevents me from doing a great amount of things I often do?
-Troubled Cat

Dear Cat,
i dunno.
-Pruno




Would you like to ask Pruno a question and get a slice of his interpretations? You can ask him anything you want! It could be a personal problem, or writing advice and tips, even your calculus homework or something else ridiculous! Just follow this link to go to the submission form and fill it out. One submission per person per week.