Week Two Blues

This condition has swept the NaNo community, coming in to week two and worrying about holding up your plot while holding up your life.
My word count is solid, but again, I'm going to have to back off this weekend because I have three research papers to write over the next week and a half and an new interp piece to get on its feet before the next Forensic Speech Tournament which is... oh yeah, just over a week away. Gah.
I know I need to prioritize, but my novel is really important to me. I appreciate and enjoy my literature classes, but in the end I want to be a writer and I need to develop those skills. Not the essay and research paper writing skills, but the creative writing skills. There is no class in the program that actually forces you to write a whole novel- this is my independent study of sorts (if only I were getting credit for it).
NaNo is probably more hands on training for a career as a writer than all my research papers because I really don't think I'm going to become a literary critic or professor or anything like that, I just don't think it suits me.
I'm just annoyed and stressed. My Forensics coach told me to ease off on my novel and I totally get why he said so, but I really wish I didn't have to choose. I wish I wasn't so crazy busy.

Raccoon of Triumph

Ta-da! This is my Raccoon of Triumph. It was a challenging 25 peice puzzle for ages 3 and up.
I decided to get rid of my summer blog background, we're getting frost, so I thought it was time for a more sober toned autumnal/winter scheme.

My Motto for the Day

This weekend was my first Forensic Speech tournament and I was nervous. I was thrown into one event only this week, so I was very nervous. One off our assistant coaches made us little slips of paper with inspiration quotations and pictures. I don't know if she did this purposely for me, because I'm an Anglophile, but she put "Keep Calm and Carry On" in the corner and it was my motto all tournament.
I knew I wouldn't be coming in top rankings my first time out, in fact I knew in some events I wouldn't even make near the finals, but I kept on. And I made it to finals on two events this weekend.
So, I'm looking to next weekend, hoping that it's only up from here.

Forensic Speech

Possibly the nerdiest competition in the world, Forensic Speech has nothing to do with science and dead bodies, it is a competitive speaking competition involving informative, persuasive and interpretive speaking.
So a combination of English and an almost element? Of course I joined the college's team. It's a clever way of keeping my theatre scholarship, but it's a lot of hard work. I'm currently piecing together a Program Oral Interpretation or POI. That is where you select various cuttings of poetry, prose and dramatic text that have a similar theme or subject and you build a program that weaves them together. So far I have two poems, one prose and one dramatic piece and I'm trying to find and work in a few more. The whole thing has to run 10 minutes when performed, it's harder to get the timing right than it would seem.
Since I haven't taken my program out to competition yet, I won't say what it's on, but I think it's clever and that some of my texts are original. But, that's what I've been up to lately. My first competition is coming up soon!
Next I'd like to get an After Dinner Speaking piece ready- ADS is an informative or persuasive speech that is performed in a comedic way. I was hoping to have mine ready for my first competition, but it's taking a while to come together. I think I have a good subject and it will be fabulous by the November competition I'm taking it to.
Must go Forensicate now.