Remember this axiom, vampchick88, and all will be well:

"Those who do, can; those who can't, teach."

I personally would not be worried. An "F" is an undesirable mark, yeah...but you have a number of "A"'s to go along with it. Like msg said, you talk with your counsellor about how things at home have made for problems and do well on the SAT, and you're golden. I know from personal experience how a bad year or two can make your transcript look mighty ugly...

BEB

Also, don't sweat school in general. There are enough success stories drifting around of artistic geniuses who failed every academic course they ever took.

Writing especially; take not of how many times Stephen King used to get rejected by actual publishers (as opposed to mere schoolteachers).

Hey my final gpa in high school was a 2.9 and I got into quite a few colleges. I got a great score on my SAT ( which pretty much erases the bad grades from any college's consciousness) so don't freak out just yet ok:) Have your counselor ( yes I know, but you need this)write a statement of difficulty ( or whatever your school calls it) about your mom and the difficult year you've had and get a good score on the SAT and "poof" a bad year of grades will disappear... Try asking the creative writing teacher for samples of work she considers "good" that'll give you an idea what to shoot for.