Building a Back Bone

You know, it really is strange to hear about people being so critical about Twilight.  I'm not trying to defend the work, or defend it as a great piece of literary work.  Sometimes you just find yourself at the right place and right time.  I don't know, but I really don't understand why so many people hate on books like Twilight and My Blood Approves.  I think Twilight set up a much more realistic world than she is being credit for sometimes by haters.  I think too many people think of the movie when they think about what the characters look like and forget that this world exists best in text.  Those books were not designed (well I can't say that I know for sure seeing that I have never spoken to Meyers) but I can hope that they weren't designed to be the next To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men.  I hope that they are stories that allow middle aged school girls and almost thirty year old women like myself to coast into a world of non-reality where love and life can last an eternity.  I think what is most fascinating is the idea of living forever.  I would think a large audience must have considered the idea of living forever.  I mean it is intriguing!  Think of all the books you could read and write during a time like that under different pen names.  Oh I am salivating just thinking about it.

But I digress.  My editor (husband as I mentioned before) is almost completely finished editing the first copy of what I hope will be my first published book, of The Punishment Sequence.  I have to say that despite my ANT's I am actually pretty proud of this work and looking forward to getting my first overall critique about the story and not just my grammar and punctuation.  I have a horrible problem of also skipping over words when I type too quickly, so if I ever do that, I apologize and don't hesitate to ask me just what the hell I am talking about.  However, I also have the problem of thinking that every critique about my writing is a direct attack on me.  I really need to get over that and get a damn spine.  I wish getting a critique was as quick as getting a piercing.  BAM!  It's in, it hurts...but at least it's over and I can go on with my life.  A critique?  A critique can sit inside, eating away at my confidence for months.  How does one build a back bone? 

I find it increasingly more difficult to build a back bone in regards to my writing because most people react pretty positively towards it.  I loved writing in high school, and I was an English Major in college who wanted to take any class that involved essays rather than exams.  It will be tough...but I hope that I will survive my first big critique.  So there, in a crazy...not focused and certainly not organized manner you have the thoughts and confessions of a self-conscious author.