The Wins File - Something to Read When I Feel Anxiety Over Writing

After running across the advice on Mez's blog and at Writer Unboxed, and then followed by a bad episode of the inner rage monster spitting vile, I decided I needed to write these out and remind myself how far I have come. In rough chronological order:

• The first of the few teachers who encouraged my writing and I can't even remember her name. She took over the gifted program and I finally got to do what I was really good at, reading and writing and not the math that everyone else was good at. She could have just let me read and write book reports to my heart's content, but asked if I wanted to write my own story. Help! Something's Out to Get Me in 1988
• You got Ms. Ernst to read a story about incestuous sexual abuse and ghosts to a high school class when you asked for feedback. That wins some kink points.
• Jesse said he really liked the character, that they seemed real after he read the Sherlock Scam. That was the first time I didn't have to dig for something beyond "good story."
• My query letter to Star Wars Adventure Journal got me a submissions packet in my senior year of high school. Lucas is still an idiot for taking the liscense away from West End Games before I had a chance to submit the game. And he can't write dialogue to save his life.
• I was the go-to script girl for the skits put on my Math-Science Upward Bound in Oklahoma, and I collaborated well with others; our skits got the biggest laughs.
• Play writing class--that format I had never attempted before, the one I chose such personal material to write about--everyone loved the "Front Porch."
• ARGUS Northwestern State University's literary magazine:
  • "The Bloody Hand" won first place in the Fall 1995 contest
  • "The Rose" was published in 1998 edition
  • "Dreams of the Dead" won first place in the 1998 Fall contest and "Elizabeth's Oak" won second the same semester
  The rest of the staff was under no obligations to publish anything I submitted or give me my first prize money for writing.
• "Gargoyles: Regrets" won second place at the 2001 Gathering.
• "Gingerbread Girl" was published by someone I don't know, so in no way can it ever be called a personal favor.
• "Covenant of the Restless" gained attention and would have gone further if the whole venture hadn't gone belly up. Which was not my fault because I dared to submit something.