Week Eight: reflection

As mentioned in my week seven reflection, the three chapters about the New Year's party are some of my favourites that I have written. In these two parts, I was particularly proud of how I was able to flesh out the location of the space where Alex grew up and where he exists. I drew inspiration from growing up in a rural community and how I interacted with my friends' animals for the scene with Alex, Mark and the cow Beatrice. I'm very happy with their conversation they have there about New Year's resolutions, as I think it's important to remember that part of getting better is getting worse, but I also understand that Alex's character is impatient and wouldn't agree with Mark on his point of view.

The part that I am most proud of across both chapters is the description of Mark on the roof. I'm not usually good at giving physical descriptions of my characters, as a lot of the time even I don't know what they look like. However, for Mark, I had a very clear idea of what he looked like, and wanted to get that across to the reader. I wanted to capture his softness while also expressing that he is traditionally handsome in a masculine sense. I think that I was able to get this across by describing Alex's observation of him.

Overall, I am very happy with these two chapters. I'm happy with how they provide a set up for later developments in the next chapter, and how it draws a close to the summer section of the work.

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