I got some feedback in my fiction workshop today on the latest short story I wrote, and I actually walked out feeling a little disheartened by things. perhaps it was mostly that one student in particular berated the story, and of course I focus much more on criticism than praise. I rode away from class feeling defensive, thinking of how I might repay this student’s criticism, but even now that I think about it, I cannot recall what he said about the story, other than that he “didn’t buy it.” (note: this is a gross oversimplification of what he said, but it seems to get at the heart of all of the message he was trying to convey, but much more nicely put). and perhaps that’s what bothered me the most–the critic’s lack of diplomacy in the workshop setting. the way he made (what felt like) scathing remarks almost made me suspect that his remarks had more to do with his own insecurities as a writer than they actually had to do with my writing. nonetheless, I’m going to put my all into the revision process of this story, “Giving Up,” especially because the story itself is close to my heart and somewhat emotionally significant. I’ll be meeting with my instructor tomorrow morning, by the way, to talk about the story, so we’ll see how I feel about it then. anyway…I’ve been keeping fairly busy with school and other life stuff, but I’ll try to get another squirrel anecdote on here soon 😉