The YWP Journal

THE CHARACTER FILES 01. The Girl On Fire Hello everyone! And welcome to The Character Files , a weekly article I'll be writing that delves into analysis's of popular characters! Starting off, I'll cover the face of young adult dystopia herself - Katniss Everdeen. There will be spoilers for the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, so be warned! From The Mockingjay Part 1 Risen from the Ashes (Background) “District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety.” -Katniss Everdeen, the Hunger Games   As were most of the non career districts, District 12, Katniss’ birthplace, was rife with poverty. Disease and starvation were rampant, many people dying from them. (It is interesting to note that, despite seeing ill people frequently since her mother treats them, Katniss is not desensitized to seeing sickness. In fact, she is one of the least desensitized to it.) And...

So, it is officially October! And of course, you know what that means - it’s spooky season! That’s right. Start the countdown to Halloween if you haven't already! However, October is the month of something else too, a challenge that lots of people who like to draw or consider themselves artists are participating in: Inktober So, what is Inktober? Well, Inktober is a challenge created in 2009 by artist Jake Parker that occurs every October. You make 1 ink drawing every day for 31 days. However, you are allowed to use mediums other than ink. You can draw a sketch in pencil then outline with ink. You can draw with a regular ballpoint pen. You can draw with digital "ink". The list goes on and on. That being said, the purpose of this challenge is to draw every day for a month and grow and improve as an artist. There is no "right" way or method to do Inktober. Drawing digitally, for example, is not in any way "lesser" or "worse" than drawing ...

    "Discourse 2019: The Forum Of The Future". Sounds cool, right? Finally, we get to move from these clunky, awkward forums to something sleek and futuristic and elegant! Except...not.     If you know me pretty well, you know I have a bane to pick with the new site, as I've been calling it for three years. It looks like an internet comments section, not a proper forum. The endless scrolling in particular is absolutely infuriating . So, when I heard we were moving to something new, I was excited. Discourse! Mentions, subscriptions, forum search! It seemed like a dream.     Then, Adult NaNo switched to Discourse. It seemed fun at first. Then, it grew just as frustrating as the New Site forums. See, Discourse still has infinite scrolling, only instead of a "SHOW MORE POSTS" button, it has a little slider you can drag to the bottom. This is slightly better, but only just, as it still lags, glitches, and frustrates almost as much as our...

It's come. The dreaded day. The emotional wreckage. That's right- the end has arrived. Every year, the forums of the YWP are wiped of their posts so the site doesn't explode. This year was no exception. On October 2nd, the YWP closed for a few hours while the mods erased every post that's been made in the year, except for a few exceptions like the Graduation thread. Then it was empty. A blank slate. Everyone had been working hard to find and save their favourite threads so they can put them up again after the Wipe. User emu made a thread where NaNoers can claim threads to remake so that almost every thread is accounted for. Another thread appeared in shadow of the Wipe, where basically potato cupcakes are baked, popcorn is thrown, screams are heard, and chaos breaks out as everyone sat in front of their screen and watched as the hour grew closer. Thanks, Splash, for heightening my terror. Though this was my first Wipe, I was told what t...