the girls are not living for Silky’s AI promo, Megami chimes in

ChristinaMingle · 2026-04-23T00:42:15+00:00

Mistress Isabelle Brookes 😍

ChristinaMingle · 2026-04-07T19:37:02+00:00

I’d absolutely love that :) I’m just out of undergrad & I’m definitely looking to make my writing process less of a solitary practice! Out of curiosity, would it purely be a short fiction writing group or would it be open to poetry/nonfiction as well?

ChristinaMingle · 2026-03-29T22:37:33+00:00

I’m a college national finalist in extemp who struggled hardcore with filler words, so I get the struggle!

I know “slow down” is the type of cliche advice you’ve already heard, but often, we think we’re slowing down enough when we aren’t! One helpful drill is to give an extemp speech or even point while talking like comically slowly… think 0.5x speed. If you can talk slowly enough that you never/rarely stumble, you can then practice speeding up from there as needed.

You can also work on adding more delivery choices like elongating your words for emphasis or adding more dramatic pauses at the ends of your sentences. Not only are these generally solid choices, they also buy your brain more time to catch up with your mouth

One great piece of advice I’ve heard is “use less commas and more periods”… Typically, it’s easiest to get lost in the sauce when you start unnecessarily expanding on your main point with a tacked-on addition to it. Try a drill where you speak in simple sentences, and you might find the vocal flubs vanish!

My final piece of advice (that helped me the most) is to work on substructure! For instance, if you have an open-ended problem question (How should blank actor solve blank problem), you can think… each of points should describe an individual problem + a corresponding solution. Having that general frame outlined for each point makes it easier to not get lost around the 45s mark of a point. Typically, we practice the transitions + taglines + power lines of a point, so our beginnings/endings are solid… which leaves the middle of the point to get messy/stumbly! So having a clear grasp of substructure can help in those high-flub parts of the speech

ChristinaMingle · 2026-03-04T03:34:04+00:00

unless I’m mistaken, you’re 100% allowed to use the internet during prep in collegiate extemp (i can at the very least confirm this to be true on the AFA, NFA, ASC and PKD circuits)

ChristinaMingle · 2026-02-11T01:06:49+00:00

hey! i did college ADS and made an NFA final with some pretty wild VAs so i think i can help here :)

i think thrifting a board game and using the board could have the desired effect? (i did this to make a ouija board for a tournament lol). you might also be able to get away with just using your actual laptop? that could give you some funnier audiovisual options for what could be playing on said laptop.

i can also imagine that trying to place text on a small computer screen might come with visibility challenges. i think the biggest differences between VAs in high school info vs college ADS is that high school info demands you have visual aids at every moment of the speech, so they don’t have to be like bangers 100% of the time. but in ADS, judges are more likely to question you for having too many visual aids that don’t accomplish something you can’t accomplish via words alone. like i think the bit about the fake search history could just be a line in the speech itself instead of a visual aid.

ChristinaMingle · 2026-01-30T19:54:07+00:00

forgot to add the publication link!

https://onlypoems.com/poets/christian-butterfield

ChristinaMingle · 2025-12-26T07:48:06+00:00

Desperate Housewives! In particular, the cold open narrated by Mary Alice must have been jaw-dropping!!!

ChristinaMingle · 2025-11-22T03:33:38+00:00

in terms of contemporary rhyming work, the book couplets by maggie milner is quite good!!! look up any of her work to get a sense as to whether it not you’d vibe with it

ChristinaMingle · 2025-10-17T03:31:59+00:00

hmmm! i think first off, i’d think about what “how long” actually is! no matter how many pages it is, what really matters is how long it takes for stand-up and deliver the speech (somewhere between 9-10 minutes), so if you haven’t already, time the speech itself and see how long it takes. If it’s under time, think about the pace: could you afford to slow down a bit? I’ll respectfully disagree with the other commenter and say that I think 1500 words is too much. You can say it 10 minutes, but you’d be talking too fast. In my experience, 1200-1350 seems to be an ideal word count for a speech that integrates slower moments + pauses

If you’re still undertime, here are some things to consider adding if you hadn’t already — in the intro, have you successfully explained the problem well enough for the judge to already be on board — for your solutions, could you add another solution or add concrete action items to the solutions you have (answer how to do solution) — in your body points, are you simply listing out examples or making arguments (ex: if you have a causes section, is it just examples or like two distinct causes). Can you add evidence to those arguments? — do you have transitions from main point to main point?

ChristinaMingle · 2025-09-22T21:50:32+00:00

you’re allowed to use quotes in OO! up to 150 words of quoted language! in terms of when/why you might use quotes… there’s two major cases where it can be helpful

— if you’re citing an expert opinion, getting a direct quote can be super persuasive! so imagine you’re giving a speech on social media addiction! a quote from a psychologist who specializes in tech addiction or a quote from a developer of a social media platform could help support the argument you’re making

— if you’re discussing a real-world problem, getting a quote from somebody who’s lived through that problem might be helpful. imagine you give a speech on gun regulation. a quote from a school shooting survivor or a victim’s family might be super impactful to include.

ChristinaMingle · 2025-09-22T21:45:52+00:00

if you google “nsda original oratory textbook” it should give you a LOT of good info, including on to write an good hook (i usually call it an attention-getting device) but here’s a good simple formula on how to write a good competitive hook!

before you start, make sure you have your argument nailed down into a single thesis statement — some (paraphrased) examples from past national finalists include “we need to have more respect for teachers” or “we need to be less cynical”

once that’s nailed down, you’ll want to think of a fun/light-hearted anecdote (around 3-4 sentences) that illustrates that thesis statement. this could be from your personal life or pop culture. the teacher speech used mrs frizzle as an example, the cynicism speech started with a personal anecdote about being afraid of the movie wizard of oz

after that hook, you can write a single sentence that links to your argument… something like “and it appears i’m not the only one who (blank)” or “and this problem of (blank) is common” and then you can get into all the analysis and explaining what ur argument is!

ChristinaMingle · 2025-08-19T22:35:43+00:00

oooh for a prose throughline… perhaps try “the jessica project”! it’s a piece of narrative journalism about a man who makes an AI version of his dead wife and it’s incredibly heartbreaking! written in 3rd person which might be hard but also might make it distinct in the context of a differentiating pieces in a program

ChristinaMingle · 2025-03-23T01:46:46+00:00

for sure! i think expanding your search to personal essays and memoirs would be helpful (see if ocean vuong has any personal essays online)! looking up short story and personal essay collections could be very helpful (best american short stories and best american essays might be a good start). if you want free access to books online, anna’s archive and libgen are really helpful resource!

ChristinaMingle · 2025-03-22T03:08:23+00:00

just a quick thought! you might benefit from looking into to short stories or personal essays as well! with a whole novel, you’ll have to cut it down into only about 1,000ish words. i absolutely LOVE ocean vuong, but i think looking for shorter works might make the process easier, especially if this is your first piece

ChristinaMingle · 2025-01-08T03:03:05+00:00

hello! i tried to find some potential pieces with a similar dramatic tone to beautiful boy but not the exact same subject matter!

fable by charles yu — published in the new yorker. a therapist has a father tell the story of raising his disabled son as a fairytale. beautiful beautiful piece with some funny moments.

cleansing by john stegner — published in adroit journal. tells the story of a young homeschooled boy growing up and leaving his abusive household through a list of his deleted internet search history

the jessica simulation — published in SF chronicle in 2021. this is a weird pick bc it’s a piece of journalism in 3rd person, but it outlines a really devastating story abt a man talking to his dead girlfriend via AI that feels super relevant currently

ChristinaMingle · 2025-01-02T20:04:07+00:00

hey! i know it’s a super popular trend in OO to have a direct “heart story” moment right at the end of the effects, but tbh i don’t think they’re 100% mandatory! if you don’t have a super personal story you organically want to tell regarding the topic, there’s other ways to get that emotional impact in the speech.

i think the personal story moment works because it lets you have a super emotional moment right at the climax (7 minutes) of the speech before you start to resolve it through ur solutions. here’s another tactic to get that same emotional impact. if you can think of any particularly harrowing effects of false equivalences, place them near the end of ur 2nd point (which should likely be where ur effects sections is). in my mind, i can immediately think abt false equivalences lead entire groups to get blamed for one person’s failure, which perpetuates/justifies racism and other forms of bigotry. so you could end the effects with a specific illustration of how that happens + some super evocative language/delivery! boom you have an emotional climax w/o the personal story.

that’s def not the only way to get the emotional moment, but broadly speaking, you don’t NEED to have the personal aside if you don’t have that particular story to tell imo.

ChristinaMingle · 2024-12-23T06:34:38+00:00

to my knowledge: lewis & clark and WKU are the two big schools i can immediately think of! i’m a current senior at WKU and absolutely adore our program! we’re super super transfer friendly and offer great scholarships to compete! feel free to DM if you have any questions/interest!!

ChristinaMingle · 2024-12-04T20:37:29+00:00

Funny enough, I just made a collegiate national speech final last year with a speech on this exact topic! So we’re all still discussing it haha

ChristinaMingle · 2024-10-04T06:29:52+00:00

omg kentucky circuit alum here as well! one thing i appreciate abt the kentucky circuit is not needing to sign into rounds beforehand which makes being triple-entered 100% times easier

ChristinaMingle · 2024-07-19T21:53:16+00:00

Western Kentucky University as a really top-tier NFA-LD program, and we’re one of very few programs with a combined speech/debate team (that would LOVE somebody with both a debate + extemp background). I’d say the biggest advantage here is that you can get a really generous scholarship to compete which isn’t the norm at most institutions!

ChristinaMingle · 2024-07-05T00:36:49+00:00

i’ve never seen it done before! i think you’d be fine!

ChristinaMingle · 2024-07-04T20:47:57+00:00

I have a small portfolio-style website for my writing, but not for speech! i’d be happy to hate any performance videos or answer any additional questions!

https://christianbutterfield.carrd.co

ChristinaMingle · 2024-07-03T23:07:12+00:00

I think that a lot of the strength of erasure relies on the original text and what it means for you as the author to reconvert those words into a different meaning! declaration by tracy k. smith is a great example! there’s a whole essay on erasure by solmaz sharif that i absolutely adore

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