Apply glow to strokes

Hi,

I try to recreate a design and want to know a better way to create the glow on the outline.

Original photo:
original work

Below is my copywork:
copywork - copywork

If you look closer, you can tell the bright glowing parts on the strokes don’t look as smooth and natural as the original photo, especially the glow on the left side.

I took two approaches to create the glow:

  1. For the glow on the right:


    I simply applied white Linear color to the Stroke. I was able to let the glow only show up on the areas I want the effects on.
    I didn’t do the same for the left side because the glow will extend to other parts of object if I try to apply linear stroke to the whole outline.
    Therefore I had to use another way to create the glow on the left. Following is what I did:

  2. For the glow on the left:
    create two rectangles → used Linear Fill → Mask them with the object’s outline → Result: the glow can be shown on the left parts of the object

My question: I don’t think this is the best way to do so. I’m looking for suggestions on how to create glow on different parts of a vector precisely. Thank you!