Hey all! So this isn't a new chapter but a personal arc-in-review. I wanted to do this to really look at my work, as the author, from the most objective lens I can. Of course, that doesn't mean that there won't be any personal bias or subjective views, but hopefully by talking about my own short-comings, thought processes and other things, I can hope to catch things that I can improve on in the future!

Before moving forward, I wanna give a huge thank you to all the people following the story. Beast has steadily been growing in audience and I'm extremely grateful that people are enjoying the story that I'm wanting to tell. I also want to give a special shoutout to SWKennington, Magicgearhulk, and the_random_user for voicing their criticisms as it has helped me tremendously with both boosting my drive to improve as a writer and to focus on the weaker elements of my story. So, once again thank you to everyone who has been reading BEAST and hopefully I can continue to deliver a narrative that people can enjoy reading.

I wanna start off by talking about the positives mainly because I personally feel like there are more negatives than there are positives to come from this prologue arc. I don't want to necessarily excuse errors in my writing by saying that I'm a novice writer and am still working on building my style and improving my narrative structure and content. However, I do feel like I should preface that information before moving forward.

But with that being said; let's talk pros.

When I first was brainstorming the idea for Beast, I really drew inspiration from Bloodborne and a lot of the different anime that I've watched over the past few years. And I think that the prologue chapter really captured the tone of the narrative that I wanted to push for, while not setting it in stone. While I wanted to push forward a darker tone, I still wanted to maintain leeway for light-hearted moments to shine through without making it feel jarring or illogical. While I don't think the execution of this was perfect, I think that there were a lot of moments that worked. Especially upon entering the academy.

Another thing that I personally thought was okay was the character dynamic and flow of dialogue. I spent a lot of time editing character dialogue and attempting to put an individual voice to each character. While at times I found the dialogue I was writing to be stiff, for the most part, I wanted to approach it from the perspective of making it believable. The conversations between Klaus and Jean, I think are a really good way to kind of explain my thought process. In the initial chapters, there was a familial tone that I wanted to bring to the relationship between those the two characters. Where after the events at the school, it would create a sort of rift between them. Looking back, I wish I could have fleshed out the initial relationship a bit more, I think, for the most part, the introduction and the build-up were okay. Overall, in regards to dialogue, I think is one of my stronger suits. That isn't to excuse the issues in the actual flow and sound of the character interactions, but more so a personal analysis of those aspects.

The reason I chose not to dwell too much on the initial relationship is because I wanted to create an air of mystery behind Klaus. Keep him an enigma as one of my friends said. This stemmed its own set of issues, but I think that I managed to accomplish what I wanted to with Klaus for the time being. Not divulging too much information, but not keeping too much from the reader.

The next thing that I wanna touch on was the first and, really only action sequence of this entire prologue arc. The fight between Jean and the bat-like beast was one of the toughest writing experiences I've had as a novice writer. I had never really written an action scene and ended up fumbling my way through the sequence. I was genuinely struggling to create a fight that was engaging and exciting without over-explaining to the point that the readers can't formulate their own ideas or choreography of the fight.

However, while it isn't perfect, I thought that the fight scene wasn't too poorly done. Originally, I wanted to get some panel art done for this chapter. Unfortunately, that plan fell through and I wasn't able to do that.

Something I enjoyed writing quite a bit was the friendship between Jean, Dae-Ho and Donny. The three characters all have their own individual circumstances and in a way, I wanted to use that as a skeleton to bring these three together. I also wanted to use it as a way to demonstrate the global scale of the narrative. I thought that pulling in characters from different cultures and ethnicities would be a great way to emphasize that fact without shoving it in the readers face.

The actual dynamic was also something I enjoyed writing. All three of these characters borrow a lot of personal elements from my life. Whether that be friends and peers that I know or elements of myself, I wanted to bring that sense of comradery to the story.

This covers the positive portion of the arc-in-review.

Now on to the negatives!

The overall feel of the academy portion of this arc did have a lot to be desired in terms of narrative weight and content. While I thought the pacing was okay, rereading through those chapters, I personally felt as though there was a bit of repetitive content. Especially in terms of Jean's character interactions. My focus for these sequences was more so on having Jean interact with the many characters in the story. But, in doing so, a lot of the character dynamics felt stilted and overdone. For example, the interaction between Klaus and Jean, while slightly different, felt similar to the conversation Jean has with Mrs. Yannis in the very next chapter. At least in terms of tone and content.

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Another major issue I had with the academy portion was that there were a ton of new character introduced. While I was writing these parts, I ended up pushing a lot of the side-character development to the back as I thought that I would be able to return to these characters at a later time. However, I realized that doing that would only hinder any weight that the narrative might have when shit starts to hit the fan. Because the interactions between Jean and these characters are so brief, it makes them feel expendable and as a result, makes it harder for the readers to care for their well-being.

Continuing on the topic of characters, let's talk about Jean. As the main character, I know that there is a lot riding on his development. Unfortunately, I genuinely feel as though his motivations and reason for accepting the situation were a bit half-assed. While I did do this on purpose, I felt as though, even his temporary motives should be made clear. And sadly, that didn't feel to be the case while looking back.

There is an unclear ambiguity to how Jean's character changes his mind on the situation. Simply saying that he had no choice but to accept it. While narratively, it works for where the story started and is going, it just felt a little hollow for me. His motivations are something that, as the author, I know are imperative. His purpose later in the story is something that I have set in stone and have fleshed out quite a bit in the brainstorming phase. But that still doesn't excuse the lackluster development of his early motivations in this prologue arc.

Even though there is a build up for the change in thinking, a part of me still feels as though it wasn't made clear enough. And even if it was clear, it just have the "oomf" that I wanted it to have.

Another major issue with this arc, staying on track with characters, are the one-dimensional aspects of certain characters. Especially, Eve. While characters like the Evelynn, Elton, and the Headmaster have some sort of character beyond just their archetypes, Eve is really the crux of the negative here. While we get some momentary depth to her, due to the archetype I chose, there wasn't much I did for her that went beyond that.

I won't talk about Serizawa here for obvious spoiler reasons. Just keep in mind that Serizawa isn't mentioned in this because she's only just been introduced and there isn't much for me to speak on without giving the later story points away.

The next set of negatives really stem from the issues that some of the users I mentioned pointed out. More specifically the solitary confinement. Looking back, I genuinely wished I worked on the chapter a bit longer than I had. The implications of solitary confinement raise a lot of issues. For example, I can see the readers question the brain power of the higher-ups, let alone the Headmaster. On top of that, the consequential implications it has for Jean is far greater due to his mental state (I'll critique this element later as well). Solitary confinement was genuinely only used a plot device to push the narrative forward and I do agree with people that it was a terrible call. While it might have functioned for the purpose of the narrative at the moment, the potential for confusion and issues to arise later on could have been a lot greater if this segment of the story was longer.

Now going back to Jean, his mental state. This was something that I feel I should have emphasized more as the author. While it plays an underlying role throughout the entire story up to this point, it just never feels coherent or consistent. And because of that, there is a lack of focus on it. I genuinely wished that I had caught onto that earlier and fleshed out the psychological conflict more. However, I am taking this as a learning experience and hoping to improve in this aspect of the story.

Now let's get to Klaus to end off this arc-in-review. What the fuck did I do with Klaus? While earlier I said that I was happy with what I had done with Klaus, I am still extremely disappointed that I chose to put him in the backseat to the level that I did. Especially considering his relationship to Jean. This is really the crux of the empty feeling I get from a lot of this arcs chapters. The first few chapters establish this relationship and in subsequent chapters, he takes a major backseat. While writing, the reasoning for this was that I really wanted Jean to come forth into the narrative more as the main protagonist. So, I ended up focusing more on his individualistic life rather than a cohesive narrative tying in elements and characters from the previous chapters that should have remained relevant.

Overall, this prologue arc was a really important moment for me. I had the opportunity to practice my writing a lot. Especially with styles that I was not really used to. While in my eyes there's a lot to be desired from this arc, I'm still proud of myself for working on it and putting it out there. Excuse my ego-boosting statement. Regardless, I learned a lot from reading the critiques as well as rereading my own writing with a critical lens. Moving forward, I encourage and welcome critiques.

I do want to continue to do these arc in reviews at the end of each arc in the future. Personally, they're very beneficial for me. But, let me know, as a reader, if you find this to be interesting. Nonetheless, thanks for reading through my ramblings and personal critiques.

Oh and one last thing!

I've made a twitter account for people who want to follow progress on Beast as well as any other projects that I might be working on in the future. I'll be posting things to help notify people of any edits that I might make to Beast, as well as polls for questions I have regarding things in the narrative. If that's something you're interested in keeping up with, follow me @CKoalaWN

Once again, thanks to everyone for all the support!

Much love

Confused Koala