I still haven't looked at the comments my WIFYR critique group left on my manuscripts. I'm a little nervous because they didn't seem too impressed with me when we were critiquing verbally, and I'm a little too close to the material right now for that.
Another few days, I suppose, when I'm farther along in the project and more confident in my choices. Because in the end, it is my story. Even if my peers thought Ethel flinched because she had a crush on Gavin, I still know it was because he was covered in boiling acid. And I still know why she seems like a jerk at times and why it's crucial for the story, and I know that the reason she can speak a few phrases in other languages is because she worked at a hotel waiting on tourists all the time.
So there are things in the first chapter that will be explained later. I just have to remind myself that even if my beta readers thought some of my ideas were clumsy and ridiculous, I know why I put them there. Sure, I can choose to make things more clear, but I don't have to pull them from my story just because some people think fantasy is a confusing and dumb genre.
