My Cardboard Balcony

Deep End by Belinda Roddie I'd like to consider myself a little fish with big dreams, but honestly, I can't swim, and I'd drown in any kind of pond you fling me into. So this metaphor doesn't really work for me, does it?

Hi, everyone. In lieu of Storytellers this month, I am participating once again in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. My personal goal is to write at least 60,000 words by the end of November. For those of you who don't know,  [Insert Self-Discovery Here],  my recently published debut novel,   was a product of my work for NaNoWriMo 2012. I am hoping to see equally fruitful results this year. As of November 9th, I have: - Written 16,260 words. This unfortunately means that I am now below the word count I need to reach 60,000 words - at this point, I should be at 18,000 words. I'll be definitely working to catch up tomorrow. However, I am still on track for 50,000 words; it's just lower than my personal goal at this point. - Mostly outlined the entire story. There are some gaps, but I'll fill 'em up as best as I can. - Written an entirely different premise for a story based on a dream my wife had last night. Hey - I can get distracted sometimes, okay...

I am trying to focus on the positives. I really am. Because despite the mistakes I've made this week, the positives have greatly outweighed them. What bothers me is that it seems that every time I do well, no one's looking. Yet every time I become anxious, sensitive, obnoxious, careless...suddenly, everyone's eyes are on me. I have the absolute worst timing. So I'll just write what I did well here. And y'all can read it: 1. I had my former theater arts teacher discuss Hamlet with my first block English class, and it went really well. It was great to talk to him again after not seeing him for seven years. Thank you for taking the time to talk to my class, David! 2. I got to reconnect with some old classmates and theater colleagues. That was pretty neat. 3. I stood up for myself, other teachers, and students in regards to LGBTQ+ rights and the need to eradicate the use of derogatory slurs on campus, and I got recognized for it. I also self-advocated for teach...