Young Writers Society

Want to ask a little question about writing? Have a research question bugging you for your project? Don't feel like it's big enough to warrant a new thread? Post it here!

If your question gets a lot of discussion (3 or more posts), mods will split it off into its own thread so you can keep talking and let other people post little questions (and you'll get the notifications for it!)

Please use the @ tag when answering questions on this thread so people know when it's answered.

Happy researching!

Does anyone know how to draw Andy Black, kinda fast, but good so that I can use it as my background, and I have a character who looks like him.

Here is a picture...

Hey @ThatGeekyGirl, the best place to see if you can commission someone to draw him is definitely over at The YWS Trading Post! Maybe hop over there and either make a thread or reply to one of the ones that's open and taking commission

Hi there @ThatGeekyGirl. I'm afraid your question is a little unclear--are you looking to learn how to draw Andy Black yourself, or are you looking for a person taking art commissions that'll draw him for you? Clarifying on that will help us address your question as best we can.

If the latter and you are looking for somebody who takes art commissions, there's the YWS Trading Post where you can either find a listing that's selling art or make your own listing that's buying art in exchange for points or something else you have to offer. There's also the Art and Photography forum where you may be able to find what you're looking for as well.

Hope this helps!

Edit: Stella beat me to answering this but yes, she's absolutely right!

What is review star??
Sorry if it's obvious but I'm new here, aaandd

Hey there @toxicunicorn
Review stars are for the amount of reviews you do, the more you do, the more stars you get.
I see you've already earned your first star (5 reviews) and you're halfway to your second star (25 reviews).
Good job.
Here's the link to: Star Ranking System
Should give you some more information and a look ahead at how many stars are possible.

Why it feels like I love to write dialogues. Every time I try to detail what's in my head it is kind of different. Most of the time, all of the events in my story are figments of my imagination or dreams. I tried to write what's inside my head after my sleep but I quickly forget it too bad. Help!

Hi @Barcodes! For writing realistic dialogue, I like to picture the conversation in my head, with the two people conversing prominent at front. From there, I try to imagine them talking and what hand gestures or body movements they could make that I or my friends would do in real life. I don’t know how well that works out, but I do like trying to use my own experiences as guides for writing. I hope that helps!

In addition, for dreams, all I can say is some people like having dream journals to categorize their dreams and try to organize their thoughts. I don’t know how well those work either, but this website gives some information on dreams and such, while this one gives examples on how to create your very own dream journal. Hope that gives you ideas!

Alright! I have a quick question about using the -mancy suffix for a school/class of magic, even though -mancy means "the divination of".

The title of my book involves the word "Necromancy" and I'd really like to keep it for the automatic association of raising the dead, even though necromancy technically means divining with the dead. Initially, I had necromancy, and then mastery of classes -- so pyromasters/hydromasters/techomasters. (The magic deals in manipulation, not divining or discovering.) But it feels really weird to have -mancy next to -master.

So, I guess my question is, do other people really care that the suffix doesn't really mean magic? Or do people care about the suffix not really matching? If people don't care about the suffix matching, then I'll probably go with pyromancy, hydromancy, etc.

I want consistency in my naming process, but I also want the names to make sense xD Thanks for reading this ramble, haha

@Evander I actually didn't know necromancy meant divining with the dead, because pop culture has thoroughly made necromancers be those who raise the dead. Same deal with a "pyromancy" sounding like somebody who lights fires, because of its close similarity to "pyromaniac" which is heavily associated with arsonists.

People usually don't know the etymology of words to that degree, and if they do know the etymology of words to that degree they usually understand that pop culture and general understanding of a word varies from its original route. They might be a little grumbly people aren't using it the exact way, but it's not a deal breaker.

I'd rather have a more familiar word and a matching suffix across all types of magic than have a mix of them. Especially if that mix is in the name of an entomology difference a lot of the mass market will not know.

Case in point: entomology is the study of insects while etymology is the study of words. :P

This thread doesn't seem very recent, but I'll post this here anyways!
For anyone who has not experienced snow, what do you think it's like, what questions do you have, what are you curious about, etc. Also what did you think when you first felt snow and/or the cold?
(I'm writing for about a character who has never experienced snow, but I can't imagine not having felt it, so I'm not sure what it would be like from an "outsiders" perspective!)
Thanks!

Hey @Gnomish! I can probably help answer your question, or at least give a perspective of it. I'm Australian so we never got snow/extreme cold growing up, and it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I really experienced snow. I still haven't experienced a a snowstorm or anything like that.
For me, I genuinely find snow super magical, it's a novelty to me so the first couple of times I experienced it it was really exciting! I don't remember if there was anything that was different to what I expected - maybe it wasn't as fluffy as I imagined? Although I do remember finding it difficult to walk in because it got into my eyes haha. I never really considered that would be a problem!

I think generally I was just very spellbound - the last time I saw snow I just kept watching it fall from my window. The novelty maybe wore off when I kept ending up in snow up to the top of my boot, and I realised how much it was slowing me down, but otherwise but the very first instant of seeing snow was so exciting, and I felt a childlike glee about it and it just seemed completely amazing.

I guess the things I'm curious about is what it's like to experience lots and lots of snow over a long period of time, it's a lot of fun when it's just a day in the snow, or it's just a bit of light snow in the evening but I guess I'm not sure how I'd go with more extreme conditions. I still find the logistics of dealing with snow quite fascinating, how people and infrastructure are able to cope with it.

Hope that was vaguely helpful! I'd be happy to answer any more specific questions if you have them.

Thanks @TriSARAHtops! I really just wanted to get a bit of perspective, so your reply was very helpful!

Can anyone tell me what these ingredients are? (In understandable English.)

mRNA,
lipids ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 2
[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-
phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium
phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.