Things I Would Change: Looking back and re-reading this piece about a year in the future, there are several things I would change. I would attempt to flesh out some of the scenes that were meant to personalize or introduce the main character. Some of the scenes felt quite rushed. I would work way harder on improving clarity. Some of the scenes got quite confusing, the wording was sometimes very awkward, and the pacing wasn't always satisfying. There were a few grammar mistakes that weren't outwardly horrible (except for the one where I mistakenly swapped two characters' pronouns), but there are quite a few personal syntax changes I would make. The most glaring issue was the rushed ending, but that was less of an ignorance problem and more of a time management problem. For a rough-ish draft and my first multi-week single writing piece, I am actually quite proud of the general story, some of the descriptive language, the flow of events, and the ties I made with previous works. It isn't perfect, but I am glad to see I have improved enough in a year to clearly see issues I hadn't noticed before, and I have learned a lot from the experience. Another point I thought I'd highlight, as it is one I'm sure many struggle with, is that I made the dialogue too "railroady" and expositional, like I was just trying to provide information instead of construct a realistic conversation. Sometimes, at least for me, it's hard to distinguish this while I'm writing, but it's important to obtain habits that help you to avoid this.

Some parts I think I did well were certain descriptions, the tie-in with the other story, the general story of Thomas, the twists, the research I put into city layouts and highways & how they affected the story, and the ending description of the city.

Favorite scene to write: Thomas Latimer following the Black SUV  /  Favorite Scene: Thomas Latimer Driving Back from Idaho  /  Least Favorite Scene: The Description of Mack 

Things I Would Change Looking Back: I had written this piece two years ago (as of writing this), and there is a lot I would change. This piece has all of the problems of the other multiplied by ten. To be fair to myself, this piece was meant to be more absurdist comedic than A Lead-Up to the Event, but that doesn't mean I wasn't trying to also make an engaging piece. A couple problems I have with this piece that are unique from the other are as follows: Some of the creative decisions I made were cheesy or already done, the grammar was far worse, the cover image was generated with AI (this was before I was made aware of the ethical implications of AI images), and the dialogue is odd. 

There are some parts of this story I was actually quite proud of. For example, the pacing (while not perfect) was about what I intended, some of the more abstract concepts were very interesting and creative, the main monster's character was portrayed interestingly, and the horror aspect was very well described.

Favorite scene to write: Instance #2 The Sighting  /  Favorite Scene: Instance #3 The Nature Walk  /  Least Favorite Scene: Instances #4 & #5