I Survived

In the end, it wasn't nearly as awful as my mind made it out to be. 

It began with introductions, then each author read the piece they were working on, or part of it.  We talked about what we liked, mostly.  We side-stepped what we didn't like.  We made suggestions for improvement, for tweaking.  No one said, "I'd give up on it and start over."  Everyone gave encouragement.  Everyone had input.  Everyone's thoughts mattered.

It wasn't a mutual admiration society.  Stinkers were called out, but in a nice way.  Good writing was recognized, as was not-so-good writing. 

Writers are people just like me.

If I found out one thing from my critique group, it's that.

Whether they brought brilliance or crap to the table, they were writers.  They wrote of who they wanted to be, who they thought they were, the stories they wanted to tell.  And everyone listened.

Isn't that what we want sometimes?  For someone to just LISTEN to what we have to say?