Writer Confidence (Critique)

So I was sitting there, in my brownie costume (furry ears, borrowed ones, purple, no choice) at critique group last Sat., reading my pages. I knew it wasn't going well. The person to my left was tapping her pen on the desk as I read. The person to my right was petting the kitten and muttering. The Plot Queen and Ace Critiquer opposite me was making marks on my pages. At least she hadn't stopped and was writing a long note.

They hated the pages. Were they lost again in the dream-past-present passage? Did I screw that up AGAIN?

The pacing must be slow, too much set up or backstory. I'd brought twelve full pages, what could I cut? How bad was this going to be?

I continued to press on, confidence sagging.

They liked it. It was fine. I'd misread the cues. Yes, I needed to clean up the dream passage again, but part of the confusion was that it had been a month since they'd seen the story. There are some minor things to fix, but overall it was clean.

Writers' confidence is usually not great, especially in critique.

So may you all have a wonderful, confident, day.
Robin