Young Writers Society

It's that time of year again--time to write down your favorite memories from the past twelve months and preserve them forever in the 2023 YWS Yearbook! Everyone can make a post regardless of how long you've been a member. You'll look back on it next year and smile. :) Make a post and claim your spot below!

]You may post anything you like: shout-outs to specific people, stories or poems you really liked, what you read this year, pictures, favorite quotes, etc. You may make only one post, but you can edit that one post as much as you like!

*claims spot with a flourish*




2023 was a great YWS year, filled with fun and activities, and writing! Here are some of the highlights I want to remember!

YWS Highlights

NaPoWriMo - & all these loose-ends shall bind into a net
Our poetry crew put on an incredible NaPo this year, I broke a personal record of poetry-thread comments, writing 77 comments altogether! I had some personal hurdles in April that did not allow me to write poetry every day, in fact by April 26 I only had 8 poems written. I had to then write 22 poems in 4 days to complete NaPo (9 poems in one day alone) ... which I did! And I super proud of. I am happy with how my thread turned out - it was themed on loose-ends and ampersands (&&&).

& what is love except memory unbound

Reviewing

Some of my favorite review achievements and memories from this year...
My own YWS S'More Review Template that I wrote way back in 2020 really took off this year - and that was fun to see people use it around the site!

I completed Team Tortoise in July!


Probably one of my biggest highlights of the year was helping to organize and participate in the search for Golden Goose! I made my first ever tagbook The Search for the Golden Goose which was so much fun and we ended up being able to clear the Green Room with a new KotGR challenge unlocked too!




Not my best revmo showing this year, but I did write 10 reviews!

alliyah attempts NaNo??? - Tending our Housefires
Yes. I actually attempted NaNo and wrote 5,600 words of prose for this Historical Fiction / Historical Non-Fiction project. I'm really excited about it and hope to continue writing on it in the future!

This is your inheritance. I'm going to tell you the story of who we are...
from the beginning. And it all starts with the fire.

Social Highlights

In April - after a year of being lliyah I changed my username back to alliyah :3 gotta commit to the meme so I swapped out names on April fools day.

I absolutely loved Social Month especially freindshippoems

There was momentarily a penguin take-over? Or maybe it was bats? @DreamyAlice

In addition to the Golden Goose Challenge, I really really enjoyed Birthday Week this year and put together both a Scavenger Hunt and an epic clue hunt which was loads of fun to put together.



A little art highlight has been working on bird doodles for my trading post here I really need to finish these up though...

At one point @Nate almost took away the chicken genre but we put 20 chickens in the literary center and saved the chickens! it was exciting

Writing Highlights

I had three poems published in a book! And got to read the online book-launch with my bf and mom! It was so much fun!

I had another newspaper article that I wrote published in the local paper!

New Editions of COOP Zine 6 & Zine 5 & mini zine

New KB article on Content Warnings that I've been working on for a few years for YWS here

progress was made on my "Monthly Musings" chapbook and I am hoping to print a few draft copies at the end of December.

they say lightning never strikes the same place twice / & maybe that's why we write poetry - because we long to see, even through a makeshift mirror of word & life, of prayer & sigh, amidst all this vast night, what we look like when our hearts are set aflame

Link Garden

2023 Cake Day Post here

boundless

2023 inktober thread

Shout-Outs

*incoming later*

YWS

Scrolling through my wall, I found that 2023 started with a lot of chaos xD At the end of 2022, @Nate came up with some shenanigans and I briefly became Drake, as well as the CEO of Amazon...
profile.php?u=149699&c=1599729
The Username Change Log
And then on December 31 of 2022, @WeepingWisteria and I finished our RP duo, I Am Totally a Real-Life Wizard (Not Clickbait, I Swear!)
profile.php?u=149699&c=1602171
I also became one of the admins of YWS's best club, #23in23
profile.php?u=149699&c=1602370

And !!! I finished my first novel, Sunny and the Syntax Errors of Doom!! I am actually still kind of in awe :0 Thanks so much to @Omni and @looseleaf for running LMS, and for @WeepingWisteria for being my late-night LMS buddy ;D
Along with @looseleaf, I got even greener and became a GM on Feb 28 :]
The Mold Gets Moldier...
I finished NaPo for the second time =D And it was my best NaPo yet <3 I think I found my own niche with a combination of computers, chemistry, and poetry ^^
on computers and chemistry

For April's Camp NaNo, I revised my novel, Sunny and the Syntax Errors of Doom.
Camp NaNo '23: SSED Revisions

I was one of the winners of the Great Tortoise Race in June ;D I may not have ever won NaNo, but I've won the Great Tortoise Race every year since I joined >:]
For July's Camp NaNo, I started a new project: Chosen Sidekick.
Camp NaNo July '23: Chosen Sidekick
I helped run Roleplay month from July 15 to August 15. I held some workshops, started some roleplays, and joined a ton of roleplays. ^o^ Still need to help figure out ways to keep roleplays going... Anyways, hopefully Roleplay Month next year will be even better!
I found a beautiful dancing tomato gif that I will absolutely be posting everywhere I can:
 
Did not, actually, review during RevMo. >.<
Did Inktober - didn't finish, but got a lot further than last time!
clubs/2750/forum/80331

Participated in NaNo and wrote 8601 words. (I'll win it next time!) I am rather proud of the shiny badges I made, though 8]

Personal

I became a high school senior :0 also, I am about 2/3 of the way through my college apps >.>
Got my wisdom teeth removed ;-;

Shoutouts

Ahh I'm so glad I've gotten to meet some amazing roleplayers like @WeepingWisteria, @Ari11, @winterwolf0100, @Omni, @SilverNight, @Shady, @KateHardy, @LuminescentAnt, @Leya, @teatiime, etc., and lovely people like @starlitmind, @Euphory, @momonster, @gremlingeodes, @Quillfeather, @AilahEvelynMae, @KaiaJersaga, @AmayaStatham, etc. and fantastic poets like @alliyah, @Liminality, @Hijinks, @creaturefeature, etc.
(Some of those I met before 2023, but I'm still grateful to have met them =P Also, I can't remember when I met people, so >.>)
And recently, I've been having a lot of fun making conlangs with @teatiime and @LuminescentAnt, so an extra shoutout to them! And also hanging out in pads with @LadyMysterio, @Quillfeather, @AilahEvelynMae, @yosh, @KaiaJersaga, @Leya, @LuminescentAnt, @teatiime, and others I'm blanking on
And thank you to the rest of the mod team as well <3 you guys are amazing <333
Honestly, everyone on YWS is super cool Thanks for making this wonderful community feel like home!!

spot

Reviews

In the summer, I helped find the Golden Goose in the Green Room, and that was super fun!

I joined Knights of the Green Room, and I wrote some Green Room reviews including a super long one and I joined the After Watch and helped break the record!

During Revmo, I wrote 35 reviews and completed Team Tortoise for the first time! I also earned the dark cyan and medium sea green username colors.

Roleplays

I participated in The Search for the Golden Goose Tagbook, and it was really fun!
During Roleplay Month, I earned some RP Credits.

During RP Month, I completed all of the Daily Bounties and 21/25 of the Checklist Challenges! That was a really fun month, and I am super proud of myself.

I also participated in RP Weekend!

I started two RPs, The Ghost Games and The Speculation Club, and also was in a Roleplay duo with @Spearmint!

Social Stuff

I sent 40 gifts in Holidays in July to the people who follow me as well as random people!
I celebrated YWS's birthday, which was really fun!

I'm not sure if this is a social or review thing, but I got first place in the RevMo Banner Contest with this banner!

Other Stuff

Thank you @alliyah and @Spearmint for these two very cool avatars!

On this day I became Featured Member, and I was so happy and it was one of the most wonderful things that happened to me on this site!
Then I became a junior moderator here, and that was probably the best thing so far to happen to me on this site, and I am so grateful that it happened!
I participated in my first NaNo, and I didn't finish my goal, but it was fun nonetheless, and there were a few encouraging comments on my thread that really helped.
I started a book, Purple Stanes, in April, but now I have stopped and I'm starting the book I was writing during NaNo.
Lots of people liked this poem I wrote for some reason, even though it was really sad.
I participated in a clue hunt that @alliyah made that was really fun!
Not sure why I'm putting this here, but I joined YWS on Monday, April 3, 2023 at 2:18 PM. I remember when I first joined I thought stuff was kind of confusing, and I didn't really like the loom of the site, but now it's not confusing and I like how the site looks! I also looked at the Wayback Machine and discovered that lots of people who are retired mods now were still active mods when I joined, but I never noticed the change because I was confused about other things.

Shoutouts

Coming soon to a yearbook near you...

May
May 31st: I joined the site! Best thing I ever did on YWS.

June
The Great Tortoise Race started! With 22 participants joining, it began strong!
What's even better is the race was finished with NINE participants, breaking a YWS record!

July
July 1st: I got the lead in an Alice in Wonderland play. ^^
Around July 8th, we cleared the green room and found the Golden Goose!
July 20th: I became a Knight of the Green Room
July 22nd: I became Featured Member
July 24th: Holidays in July started! In total, 1204 gifts were given!
The Afterwatch Knights began their duties of keeping the green room under 15 works, and broke another record for keeping it down for over 20 days!

August
August 1st: Social week started! We had all sorts of games and activities to participate in, including a Word Search, Truth or Dare, and coloring! We also had three days of free literary works
August 19th:We had this adorable little duck going around YWS for a while
August 20th: Final performance of Alice in Wonderland. Gonna miss it. But I made so many friends, and it was so fun to do!
August 29th: School started for me


September
September 1st: The beginning of RevMo!
September 13th: I got awarded the 100 days of Team Tortoise badge
September 21st: @FluorescentAnt made this beautiful banner!


Shoutouts

Update coming soon!

This year I...


-29
Joined because @LuminescentAnt convinced me! coincidentally on the same day as @spottedpebble <=== really cool person
Posted my first collection:
collection of poems.


-1
Posted collection two!
collection two
-18
birthday!

-1 to 30
Tried to do NaNo, Gave up, but am still working at my own pace!
-19
Posted my first short story, TSIFTACIFT
Though Scrabble is for Two, and Chess is for Three.
-20
Posted my first single poem, merciful.
merciful
-21
Started my project, the dedication collection!
the dedication collection (updates with time)


-1
Plotting for my scavenger hunt....
AND SO MUCH MORE TO SEE!


@LuminescentAnt, for telling me to join why double you ess
@AilahEvelynMae, for having grandmas pad... very fun
@Quillfeather and @KaiaJersaga, for being in said pad^
@GengarIsBestBoy, for spooky month
@creaturefeature, @envy, and @Lullaby, for having some amazing poetry
@OrabellaAvenue, for rabbits
and you, dear reader, for reading this yearbook.




-Yours Truly
tea in 2023! see you next year >:3

SPOT

I’ve been spotty on here but I’ll take a spot c:

Amaya Statham’s Entry
2023

YWS made my everyday brighter!! I would love to look back later to some of the things I did in this year. Great people, wonderful stories and amazing vibes made 2023 wholesome.

Newbie:

I joined YWS on a Wednesday January 18, 2023 at 7.36 PM . At first I got a little lost and started bookmarking loads of little pages I slowly found out, because YWS is so big with a wide range of places to visit, games to play, people to talk to and also read tons of things.

I joined YWS, because I wanted to see where a friend of mine was spending all her time. So, I actually joined to… 😁 kind of friendly 😁…stalk her.


At first I was a little hesitant and sceptical when I joined YWS.

Imagine you’re cold and you have to jump in a lake. The first thing you do is touch the water with one of your toes right? I do. Just like that, my very first work I submitted to YWS was In the elevator: with myself , right the day after I joined YWS on 19 January 2023.

After I posted my first work, I kind of ghosted 👻 YWS for a while, because I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into.

After I came back after a month or two, I was glad to read all the positive reviews/ comments on my work shortly after I posted it. I read them carefully and after that wrote a reply/ thank you note. The reviews were all kind with some critique here and there and this also gave me a push to take a more daring step and post some more of my works.

So after a while I got over the whole idea of YWS being sceptical. Why? Because of the positive vibe that hangs around here, everyone is so kind and caring. That gave me the confidence to make mistakes and learn from them, I am extremely grateful for that.

On 13 March 2023, I wrote my very first review to a story that @vampricone6783 wrote: My Very First Review On YWS

In contrast to one of my last reviews I wrote: 1 December 2023, Molly written by @Cozmo2024 I believe I have definitely improved my review writing. I think this is great, because that was one of the main goals, I joined YWS too; To Improve My Writing

That was me being a curious newbie to YWS!!

WARNING: DO NOT TRY/DO THIS AT SCHOOL

Username Change:

When I first joined I went with the most random, creative, not popular at all, but amazing name: Rinisha

After a while I thought it would be cool to have another one, Tuesday November 21, 2023. I became:
Amaya Statham

Accomplishments!!

Ever since March 2023, I went to YWS with a whole different vibe. I was reviewing a lot and writing a bunch of stories. In total I think I’ve been mentioned in 8 Review Spotlights and a bunch of my works ended up in the Literary Spotlight.

I took part in four Review days this year from which the team I was in won two times; April 2023 Review Day Review & September 2023 Review Day Review
My name also appeared in one of the review days as one of the “Top 20 most used words”

At some point I even became FM; Featured Member May 5- May 19:Rinisha and a (Knight) Lady of the Green Room; Amaya's Chronicles

I was also one of the winners of RevMo 2023 , The Great Tortoise Race and RPMo ‘23. For which I got some shiny badges.
I won third place in the RevMo 2023 Banner Contest:


After hardworking and a lot of dedication to YWS, I became a JM for General Literature (Welcome to our newest JMs! )

I hosted one of the events for the December Holiday 2023 events which was: A Big YWS Family Picture To Remember 2023! About 27 people signed up which made me very happy to be honest. A lot of people were satisfied with the result which was great.

Here it is!

Personal:

Did anyone say Harry Potter?
I am a huge Harry Potter fan. (Not typically Harry Potter himself, but the movie), because of that I joined the Harry Potter Club and wrote this Article/Essay on Draco Malfoy: The Unlikely Hero

Global Melodies
@Spearmint and I both exchanged a lot of Spanish songs with each other, because we both love those songs. This gave us a brilliant idea to start a thread for others who also enjoy a foreign beat. That why we started this thread: Global Melodies

My Drawings
One of my hobbies is drawing with pencil and paper. I had quite some drawings stored up and at some point I saw some famous artists like @Rose , @Spearmint and @Ari11 sharing their art on the site which inspired me to do the same. I'm not yet a professional, but practise makes perfect right? Check it out: Amaya's Canvas

Stick to one project!!
At some point I could actually figure out how to stick to one project. That’s why I started another thread: How to stick to writing ONE novel/ story? for advice on sticking to one project. But after some time, I made it!! Yes, I did finish a novel, it’s not a big one, but small and finished. Feel free to check it out. (Click on the picture)


Poetry
Even though I am more a story writing person, I still managed to write seven wonderful poems:
1. Responsibility
2. Expecto Patronum
3. Blue eyes
4. You only fail when you stop trying
5. What Christmas Is Really About
6. Cloud Members
7. I Am My Own, Not Yours Anymore

50+ Short Stories
I am aiming to publish a book in the near future named: 50+ Short Stories
I am aiming for harsh truths, happy stories, fiction, but mostly realistic (because I want the stories to be relatable to people and I need to work on my realistic writing). I already wrote 10 of them this year!! Am hoping to continue this further on to reach my goal. Check them out here

Netflix & Marvel; Two of my closest friends:
I have watched a lot of movies/series in my life. That’s also where I get a lot of my inspiration for several stories/poems.

Netflix was most of the inspiration for the following essays/articles I wrote. I also wrote these to give people another perspective of these characters.: A glimpse into the diary of Bellamy Blake: Burdened hearts , Bucky Barnes: the hero behind the mask , Kaz Brekker: The criminal mastermind with a heart & Draco Malfoy: The Unlikely Hero .

Shoutouts:

The First shout out goes too… (*cue confetti canon)
If there was a YWS-er who I always bothered with tons of questions it would be @Spearmint . She is a wonderful person who helped me with a lot of things on YWS. I also collaborated with her on a couple of RP posts, exchanged songs with her, and that was so much fun. Mint’s drawings are just so cute and not to forget that cool username. Thank you so much for helping me and just being a great friend!!

A Sweet shout out:
@Rose is also one of those members whom I think YWS would be incomplete without. I started a RP with her called Plate vs Broom , one of the best things I did this year at YWS. She is always there with that special taste of humour and those bone-chilling thriller stories. As for the lovely poems she wrote, here is sth small I wrote: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Wherever you are I won’t forget you

A grateful shout out:
To the person who supported me from my crappy writing to the best stories I’ve written in my life. I appreciate that you read my stories, give me feedback and just your positivity. You are an incredible and MARVELous ( see what I did there) person @MushuCheesecake19 !!

Special thanks to my MaryAnna supporters:
@vampricone6783 , with her great horror stories and the origins which always had a mystery after a mystery and @foxmaster with those amazing reactions in her review which always made me feel great about writing further on.
(I might continue the story, but not in the near future. I was so far already when I decided to quit, but I just need to thank you guys for always leaving a sweet review on my Episodes. I appreciate it.)

Shoutout to the people whose Novels I was supporting:
Your novels were all individually cool, amazing and fantastic in their own way. It’s totally okay if you decided to stop writing them for some reason, I respect that decision. I do apologise for those I didn’t continue reviewing, please do not feel discouraged at all.

@LuminescentAnt for Purple Stones
@foxmaster for Dark side of the CoffeeMachine
@KocoCoko for Calamity and her Whims
@KaiaJersaga for Rehenowa
@MercedesBlue for Magic
@Messenger for Williwaw
@Ventomology for Loosely Lawful
@dragonight9 for Shadow’s Rising

Spoilered list of Shoutouts:

spot!

Claiming a spot! Someone remind me to come back to this xD

Icy's 2023 Yearbook Post

Past years

Personal Reflections:

This year has been busy both work wise and personally. In work related news, I narrowly avoided redundancy through restructuring at the end of 2022 so for most of the year I've been feeling a bit bitter over the whole thing. Our team headcount was also massively reduced with no decrease in workload... but things are maybe looking up for 2024 with more rigid processes in place and a bit more ability to tell my stakeholders to sort themselves out!

In November, I also brought home an 8 week old puppy. To say he is chaos would be an understatement. He's now 17 weeks old and it's getting... better? But I'm pretty sure teenage regression is going to kick my butt so watch this space.

Family life has been complicated, but I've become even closer with one of my sisters (something I didn't think was possible) so that's a nice thing to come from all the mess!

A mix of good and bad in 2023 but I'm hopeful for better in 2024.


Writing:

As always, I've not written nearly as much as I'd like this year, but I am a good chunk into a new novel, and feeling pretty good about it. It's a genre change for me, which makes it both more easy and more difficult. I still don't think I've fully found the style I want to write in forever, but this novel is a good exercise in reminding me I both can do, and enjoy, writing.

I also wrote a couple of haiku! (This is the most you'll ever see me dabble in poetry, so maybe NaPo for haiku in 2024? xD)

(Also, I read 52 books in 2023 which doesn't count as writing but surely counts as some form of research...right?)


YWS

In June 2023, I completed The Great Tortoise Race for the fourth year in a row. Reigning champion, anyone? I carried on with one review a day for the next few months, so my current streak is four complete months. Not bad! I was also part of the winning team (go Team Maple Leaf) for the Summer Review Challenge where we managed to clear the Green Room for the first time in a long time!

In September 2023 I took on RevMo yet again, completing over 50 reviews to earn a victory gold username for two weeks. I didn't quite make the checklist challenge, but we collectively slayed a lot of Green Room beasts!

With all this reviewing, I was due for some new stars. I rounded off 2023 with two purple and three red stars, at number 7 on the all time leaderboard. Maybe next year I'll get to the top 5? (Only 250ish reviews to go...eek).

In December 2023, I took over the editor position of Squills alongside @alliyah and @Liminality. We've all been writing for Squills for a number of years and I may be biased, but I think our first joint issue was a big success!


Shoutouts

All of you are what makes YWS such a special place, so consider this a shoutout to whomever is reading this. In addition though, I do have a couple of extra shoutouts I have to do:

My fellow editors @Liminality and @alliyah - I can't wait for us to co-captain Squills in 2024!

@Spearmint - thanks for leading the Gen Lit crew with me, I couldn't do it without you <3

@AmayaStatham, @RandomTalks - wonderful Gen Lit JMs, thank you for all you do!

@SilverNight - I've enjoyed reading The Last Spell so much in 2023, I promise to catch up in 2024!

@BluesClues - as always, my super cool friend who writes my favourite books. You rock my socks, pal <3

@Carlito who encourages me even when I haven't written for months and who lets me read her awesome novels before anyone else <3

@Nate last but not least, thank you for making YWS a reality!


See you for 2024 <3

claimed!

Claiming a spot =D