Young Writers Society

Several months after his seventeenth birthday, Mallory Polnet, the first child of Mr. Leonard and Mrs. Madeline Polnet, drowned. Mallory's death was a freak accident, but, despite the reassurance and insistence of local authorities, his father never accepted the truth. Now, two years later, Mr. Leonard Polnet is one of thousands of missing persons cases forgotten by the FBI. But he isn't forgotten by his family.

Q, his youngest daughter, has never been able to recover from her brother's death, let alone her father's disappearance. Against the wishes of her mother and wayward sister, Q uncovers her father's old notebooks and, in the process, solves the case that has plagued her for a year.

Along with her best friend Belle and a hardy crew of dead teenagers, can Q find her father in the one place no living human has dared to go? Can she accept her brother's untimely demise or will she fight to have his life restored?



Word Count: 10,000
- Alternative Chapter Count: 6

Okay, but the rowdy dead teen from 1944 is what I feel like sometimes.

Looseleaf, this sounds super interesting! Mysteries are always so fun to explore, and you have several here! 10k words is a super achievable goal, so I'll be cheering you on this Camp Nano!

Okay but the title alone.
Love a good mystery and this sounds very twisty and spooky and fun!! I'm excited to see how this develops and I wish you luck with your Camp journey!! 💜

Thank you @Vincian and @Carlito! I'm really excited to be starting this!

Daily Snippet:

Before her son's death and her husband's disappearance, Mrs. Polnet had never missed a payment to her daughters’ piano instructor. Honey didn’t mind, she was too busy trying every cheap alcohol at the corner store, so Q was the only Polnet who was affected when Mrs. Polnet started forgetting payments. Q still played the piano after her instructor left, but her progress was minimal and, over the weeks, the piano began collecting dust.

So, today was pretty fun! I didn't have an outline accept some basic plot and character notes. I've got to make some more characters later (some dead bois gotta be planned), but, besides that, I'm all set to go!

Word Count: 491/10,000

Day Two!

Daily Snippet:

Q had never taken the subway after her dad had taken their savings and disappeared. Her mom thought it was too dirty and that “walking or taking an Uber is perfectly respectable and the best thing to do.” Q blamed not taking the subway before she was a teen for her odd fascination with the people in it.

alright bros day two of the Polnets! today wasn't really much though. she finished breakfast. she's meeting with belle and going grocery shopping for her mom later. she bought some nice expensive headphones with secret money she saved up. and now she's talking about some girl on the subway.

anywho, that's all for today!

Word Count: 910/10,000

Love that title, looseleaf! And the snippets really show a detailed family dynamic among all the characters!

Thanks, @Liminality! I really appreciate it!

Day Three (on Day Seven)

Daily Snippet:

Belle had a car: really nice one, at that. She probably didn’t need one in such a big city with so much traffic, but she had one, and everyone knew she did. Belle had a dark blue, 2004 Porsche Boxster Convertible with a dark brown interior and roof. It was a gorgeous car, Q had to admit, but it was too flashy and made her doubt the Joneses parenting techniques. A newly sixteen-year-old doesn’t need a Porsche, they just need something to drive them places. A Honda Civic would work just fine.

Alrighty, I may have finished chapter one?? I'm not sure yet. All I know is Q went to school, I wrote some details, Belle calls Q "Q-Tip," and they just got to the grocery store. Also, Q's a Bobby Darin fan, so, basically, she's becoming more and more like an exact copy of me every day.

Also, I broke the 1,000 mark! Yay!

Word Count: 1,572/10,000

Day Four (on day eleven)

Daily Snippet (warning: death):


OOOOoooo so Q's about to find out that his dad may be in the underworld (but he's not dead!!?). so basically Q's harassing her grandpa until he spills the beans.

Word Count: 2276/10,000

Day Five (on day twelve)

Daily Snippet:

“Whatever you say,” Grandpa returned to the journal, “‘Day One - I constructed a rudimentary device off of my blueprints. If I am correct, the particles at the end of this tube, see Figure E, will connect to granite in Mal’s stone. Once, and ONLY once, the machine is fully connected, may I attach myself to it with the straps, see Figure F. Then I may be able to see my Mallory again.’”

“That’s absurd.”

“Is it?”

“Well, Grandpa, I’m not a scientist but that seems like some crazy sci-fi junk to me. Maybe dad ran away and forgot his manuscript for a French sci-fi novel.”

alright alrightttt Q sort of knows (like she knows but doesn't believe it) what happened to her dad. this is moving a bit quicker than i would like so i might slow it down a bit from here or add more time in the underworld. idk.

Word Count: 3,338/10,000