A writer's woe

In the world of writers there is a lot of criticism about our works. Some days we take it well, others...not so well.

I have had a bad week of not so well. First I posted the end of a chapter on Miss Snark's First Victim. Great blog, by the way. In her drop the needle critic section for this month. I had so many grammar errors everyone who commented thougth English was my second language. I laughed, everyone I shared this comment laughed too. I made fun of it.

It sat in the back of my mind every time I sat down to try to rewrite my story. In those times I did not find it funny. The serpent, who some people named self doubt, and others have a different name for him, had crept in. I just took the time to check a dictionnary to see if crept or creep is correct. In case you are wondering I had creep written first. People I found this comment funny because I have an hearing loss, I know for a fact I don't hear the ending of words. So I mess up on present and past tense when writing as well as when I speak. People always want to know where I'm from. At the time I posted part of my chapter I was not thinking about my grammar. In fact I believed I pretty good grammar. Wrong! I glad I know now. I'm taking it with a big shovel of salt.
And then today I sat in my writing class after reading the first two pages of my YA novel, taking more criticsim. This time I'm told I need to state what my main character wants. While I had a hook, no one could tell what my MC wanted. The teacher also said a few things, basicly saying I had to learn how to set up my plot. Needless to say, I wanted to quit.
By the way, I'm not quitting!
I'm taking the writing class for a reason. To learn!
So back to the drawing board.
What does my main character want?
At what point does she start wanting it? Start the story there.
Find out how to increase tensing in plot.

Dear Reader,
What do you think?