Yay, my novel's backstory was better received in workshop than I expected. I expected lots of criticism because of the poor writing, but I guess it helped that I was writing in a world I've been developing for a while now, about characters I'm invested in. Part of me wonders if it was the best piece to do for workshop because a lot of the things people wondered about are going to be answered in the novel. Also, because this was more of a backstory than an actual chapter (in my mind, anyway), I'm not sure how useful some of the more specific suggestions will be. Still, I got lots of great feedback and some good ideas and things to consider as I move forward with the novel.