Hi Sara,
I have to start dinner in a few minutes, so I'll respond to this part: (It'll be so nice when my kids are old enough to fry chicken cutlets)
Your question about introspection pieces.
Introspective pieces have traditionally been stories told from the POV of a character, more of a look inside of their heads during a particular episode or moment or whatever. It's not really a story per se of "I did X thing, then Y thing happened, so I responded by during z thing." It's more like "X thing happened and here's how I feel about it," or "I want Y thing to happen so this is what I'm going to do."
To use examples of things I've written (simply because they pop into mind because I'm more familiar with them), a story like "Erased" is not introspective, even though Lois' thoughts about how bad Clark is when she finds him in Arkham are included. Something like "There's A Fine, Fine Line" WOULD be introspective because its Lois's thoughts and feelings about Clark dumping her "for her own good." It's not telling a traditional story. Which is fun because we can get overlap sometimes - a story where Perry is pondering why Lois doesn't see through Clark's disguise would be eligible for both introspection and supporting character. One which shows Lex's thoughts about pursuing Lois and how he's going to win her from Superman would count toward introspection, supporting character, and best villain.
The main difference is that the introspection is just thoughts rather than action.
