So, over in Private Members, someone started a thread for all the positive things that have happened to WWers over the last year, and it's so lovely I thought I'd post the list here. And I do hope that people will add their own out here.

I only collected one thing per member into this post, except for the WWer who's coped and written so astonishingly well, while having a baby and a bereavement, that I couldn't help putting in more. But most in the original thread posted at least two or three. (bold and italics are only for ease of reading...)

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For me, I feel I have mananged to improve regarding pov and voice.

I think I think about writing more - I'm not technical at all, but I do find myself more on the look-out for pov stuff now.

I've worked so hard on the technique and grammar and now I'm learning to let go.

Mine is getting an email from a boy reader who loved my book Cracks.... Makes me glow every time I look at it.

My biggest one was to write book six after the pain and torture that was book five. I really didn't want to and yet I did it. And it's not half bad.

getting several dozen emails from young people studying one of my plays for their drama exams and saying how much they loved the words.

I used to enjoy writing about as much as filling out my tax return. Couldn't understand why people said they loved it and longed to get back to it when forced to do others things. Now I do. Long may it last.

I've worked out the writing process that works best for me (at least for my current wip) and this hasn't come directly from anything I've read or tutorial input but was just the result of me trying different things until hitting on the right (for me) balance between planning and spontaneity.

In a couple of weeks time, I will have had two books published in one year.

I'm proud of
-supporting my family financially. Husband has just started a PHD, not funded, and had no income last year. It's getting a bit better because he has two courses to teach this year and hopefully a core one next year. But my income from writing is what we're living on.
- That the publisher-led YA historical got decent reviews that particularly praised the quality of the writing (pretty much the only thing I can really control)
- That my agent said the voice in my own middle grade novel is 'just stunning. So beautiful, so original'
- That I got rave feedback from my students - 'loved it', 'brilliant module', 'best module I've taken' etc. etc.
- And generally, just proud of coping with the year, being professional, meeting every deadline, working hard and not dying.

I have no idea whether I will ever write another book but have absolute faith that life is beautiful regardless of what happens to my current book or any other books that may or may not follow.

My main triumph this year has been kicking this dastardly PhD novel into publishable shape, with baby in tow.

I wrote a story that the deputy ed at W(omen's) W(eekly) emailed me to say was one of her top favourites in the thirty years she'd been at the mag.

Mine include an email: "... you are a BADASS AUTHOR. I just finished A Secret Alchemy, and cried my eyes out because it was so beautiful."

I did everything I put on my aspirations list last year - write the Barrington Stoke novel, complete a first draft of the Scholastic novel and organise more school visits.

I'm positive that when it does go out - probably as self-pubbed, and it doesn't make a wave, I'll still be delighted, because for me, it was an achievement.

So, what good writerly thing has happened to you in the last year? Over to you.

Emma

Oooh- Emma, what a lovely thing to do, collating this list! Mine is in there so I won't repeat it, but what I love is the diversity within this- aren't we an interesting bunch?

Great idea, Emma - despite all the hard times, this thread proves just how much we are all getting from it.

Aw it's so lovely that you did this Emma!

This is a lovely thing to remember 2012 by! Thanks for collating it, Emma!

It is lovely to see all these positives in one place. Thank you, Emma

You're welcome. So cheering, isn't it. It's easy to lose sight of what everyone has actually achieved!

And another, from Private Members:

Written the book I am most proud of so far, and done so in the run up to having a baby, then edited it with a 3.5 week old.

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and from the version on the WW Home Page:

I was able to look again at a short story, rewrite sections, and submit it to a short story competition. I learned recently it had won the first prize, which includes publication in the 'Writers' Forum' magazine, and £300.