Horrible example: In middle-school English class, our teacher decided to choose examples from a recent creative writing assignment to share with the class. She showed each example on a screen. One example was chosen as an example of good writing, one bad. The examples had our names on it, and she chose mine as the "bad" example, and proceeded to rip it apart. She was mean about it, not constructive. I was ashamed. My friend (who's work was chosen as the "good" example) tried to comfort me at the end of class and I shrugged it off as no big deal, but 30 years later I still think of that moment. It dampened my desire to explore creative writing for a long time.