This week has been focused on preparing for the speech contest this coming weekend…though I did take some time last night to move one step further towards receiving my Advanced Communicator Bronze level in Toastmasters by delivering a reading of my story “Companion” for my Storyteller series (Project #4).  I have recently finally gotten around to getting my qualifications submitted for my Competent Leader certification so this is a great Toastmasters year for me.  As I expect to get my ACB by Spring 2013 at the very latest it means I’m back on track with my own expectations.

I did learn one thing last week.  I did a final test run of “Vivid” for my club before I go on to the Division contest and I received some great feedback, including some from the winner of last years District 86 contest as well as a winner of the District winner of the International Speech Contest last spring.  I know I need to up my game if I want to move on.  “Vivid” is a good speech, but I need to look at it as if I was doing a play.  So, two of my stage mentalities have truly combined.  I will be taking further time to break down each nuance of the speech, maybe re-write a few more pieces to bring out more funny and give it an entirely new life.

This does not mean I’m not planning on writing something for tomorrow or Friday…but they may not get as much of my complete attention as they deserve.  “Vivid” needs to come first…and then we’ll see where we are after that.  Next week, I plan to write the next chapter of “Out of the Comfort Zone” if no surprises occur in my schedule.

Talking about schedule, I’ve recently added a whole bunch of new podcasts to my playlist that are all based on creative writing.  Some of them even have writing challenges as part of them and I’m truly looking forward to bringing some of them here.  I love writing challenges…they truly bring my best work to light.  I have a product called “The Writers Block” that I bought several years back but never really used…it’s a small book in the shape of a cube that has writing ideas on each page.  I’m going to dig it out and have some fun with that too.

Talking about challenges, I had originally thought of joining NaNoWriMo as that is pretty much the ultimate challenge. With the speech contest as well as my other obligations (Work, Toastmasters, Beavers, uh…Family, etc;) I realized there was no way I could devote the time to complete the set task of 50,000 words in one month.  My hat goes off to everybody else out there who will be involved with that…I just refuse to burn myself out.  My time is valuable to me, and so is my health.

Well, I hope everybody had a fantastic Halloween.  We’re left with a whole box of chocolate as we received practically no kids.  I’ll try not to eat them all.  That wouldn’t be so great for my health either.

Podcast of the day: Stuff To Blow Your Mind