Status Updates From 12 Hours: The Selected Pape...

While contemplating how to articulate my dislike for the writing, I realized I haven't even started the story yet. This is just some elaborate prologue that sets itself in the world of the book while being written by the editor of the book series? She has a doctorate in... something, and refers to herself as 'professor'.
The Professor's writing is needlessly flowery and shoots itself in the foot.

I wonder where this is heading in the end...?

karen and her saying" Everything with a purpose,' "Doing things with a purpose always felt better than saying you were rushing- it always made me feel like I was in control of what i was doing instead of just reacting to something."

using that mentality towards his current situation

need to find out who and why
closure about attacker doesn't go with police

c

this when the story really starts to get weird and becomes more paranormal

" i never believed that mumbo jumbo, but my mama did. she said that every choice you make determine the path you travel on for life and that it determined how you will died, but not when. when you'd go was already written."|

“Was it that simple?wrong place wrong time, was it my fate?”
Major changes in thought process: now no longer concerned with himself he moves focus onto his attackers:
Driven by a NEED to know
Motive
Who they were
Did they mean to, mistake him for another, just fluke?

“I’m finished looking at what used to be. It was all bullshit anyway.”

Moves from religious afterlife thoughts into

Existential thoughts
-dread and panic
-examination of death, self and ego
-fearing death
-Anguish

Being physical transported from car into bodybag and police vehicle

“ The devil comes late but he comes right on time…”

Now 12 (lunch time)
He now accepts that he’s ‘dead’ in alley and how he’s mentally dealing with the reality of the situation

Afterlife -heaven hell or here on earth
Where was he going and why was he not there
What will he be forced to see and not be able to do anything about

His mom and her death and how she’d react to him now

Imperfect narrator/Protag but because of thought already shared w readers it’s hard to dislike him as he thinks about the women in his life
He jumps between bad decisions and actions that will hurt his loved ones when they find out to reflections of daughter as baby
Keep emotional connection with reader
Want to like him and feel bad for him and anxious anticipation for his future
More ominous and sad tone

“…a throwback to remind people of how it used to be. Nostalgia for the older generations, novelty for the younger, but bullshit all around.”

Thoughts link to what is going on around him but in more abstract ways. Ex. Click of camera sound made by cops. Trying to not think about dying
-why digital cameras make a click sound
-simulated sounds of shutter

Worried about what his wife, what cops tel her

“They better have been talking about that poor sap in the back—everything they said... it had to be about somebody else.”
Mentally click for cabbie about who they are talking about
“I scream, but they don’t hear it.”

“ I’m sorry,i whisper, and nobody seems to hear me. That's good. The message wasn’t meant for anybody but him anyway.”
Guilt and concern, sadness for nonexistent body in back well cops discuss the how badly he was hurt and how the possible motives, where they may be able to find evidence
10:48 open car door
Cabbie -Thought jumping between what cops do and memories, random thoughts linked to words said

“No matter how much I try to keep up, I can't catch the pace of the conversation.
It feels like a movie, like dialogue over the top of a chattering crowd, the sounds from each weaving around each other. Their voices blend together; their words fall on top of each other, merge into each other to make new versions.”

Cops are not helping or examining him physically - mentally can’t focus on potential motives

Themes:
Worry about cab and job
Lack of help
Why cops think prostitution was involved
People who attacked him

Built emotional connection with readers
Guilt and concern for others
Reflection of family life make you feel he’s a good man who cares about his loved ones and how they depend on him
Tone:
Anxious
Frustration
Anticipation
Worried
Informal
Accusatory
Pace: leisurely -time is slowed down

“She always came back with something smart something totally logical that made me feel like a neanderthal.” About Karen
Themes:
Memories of Karen
Body in backseat
-who they were
-didn’t know how they got there
-didn’t have a customer
-guilt for not helping them
-felt bad they died
LGBTQIA positive book - wife lectured him about crossdressing passenger and got mad if he called them men instead of women

“I might have to lodge a complaint when this whole thing is over and done.
What happened here today was uncalled for. I've been sitting here getting ignored, got some kind of neck trauma, and there's a body in my back seat. I understand there's protocol for things like this but come on. Are you telling me that nobody could stop to fill me in, tell me what to expect?... I can't believe nobody spoke to me..”

“I don't know what the fuck kind of fuzzy, distorted headspace I fell into while I was staring at the ceiling of the car… Felt like I had walked into a bunch of pollen and now everything was fuzzy, except…. Staring at it made me feel like it was moving, rolling in waves that got blurry at the edges and it made me feel disconnected... like I should be sick, but I couldn't quite get there.”
-wait for homicide

“At least they wouldn’t look like a bunch of assholes standing there with their dicks in their hands on the clock. Get a statement, fan out, see what they could find past the car, talk to the shop owners and see if they had cameras…canvas the place -isn’t that what they called it on tv? Fucking do something.”
Doesn’t realize cops think he’s dead and no one is gonna come help him or send ambulance