The Beforemath

So I have to work in 10 minutes, but here's the deal. Wait, that probably needs a colon. Here's the deal:

The deal is, my story is getting discussed today in Fiction Writing. There are many other things happening today, including what promises to be an epic trip into town, but the Fiction Writing thing is, as I said, the deal.

I'm a bit nervous about the story's reception. I suspect I could have written a better story, and I'm glad if people can find mistakes, because that's why I take the class, but I don't want people to think it's crap.

I want to hear that it was good, but that there were fatal mistakes on about every other page. I want one of the Literati, their pretentiousness notwithstanding, to have found a part especially hilarious. I want everyone to like the some of characters and some of the scenes, which I spent a great deal of time on.

But I want criticism. Let's just leave it at that. This story is not my baby, it's more of a nephew. Criticism is good.

It's my inability to predict reactions that bothers me, not the prospect that there will (because there will) be negative reactions.