Writing Literary Criticism

I don't write from an outline-- research papers being the exception. I also seldom brainstorm. I have a small journal in my backpack where I write ideas that hit me with unnatural precision, pieces of conversation I hear and notes I take during movies but it I don't often resort to that. I write from the moment I am in. I write from one thought that tumbles into two than three. I began writing about listening to my father read. I didn't know where I was going with it but I knew it was an image I wanted to create. From there I wanted to explain the difference in reading to yourself. I wrote about "The Giver" and the trouble I had processing the book on my own. I found that both these segments paralleled the particular stages of life I was in at the time. I continued on, searching through my memory of books and finding which ones I associated with a particular stage of life, like a smell can bring a memory back so can the written word.
I worked at changing tone as my voice developed through maturing. I gradual increased the amount of information I gave but hope that even in the shorter sections the experience of being that age comes through. I began with a straightforward segment on my parents giving a glimpse into how books came into my life, which I later cut for lack of space. I decided to focus on my own memories of the books rather than those pressed onto me. The final section  is more stylized as I come into my own.
The ending is conveying the fact that I am still unsure of reality mimics the thoughts I had during The Giver section and interpretive of the young adult stage of life. Nothing is for sure or permanent and I am lost between fiction and fantasy. The only concrete I have after college graduation are stories both my own and other peoples. I don't yet know enough to claim the theme of my own story, my own life but I am confident that some day it will make sense. That even that moment too will one day be nothing more than words on a page.
During the writing workshop I received feedback on pinpointing my voice by using conjunctions. I also made the substantial switch from past to present tense which was well received.