Stop! Avert Your Eyes from That Beautiful New Draft (For Now)!

By Margaret Anne Mary Moore        

Seeing my Google Doc’s “Last Opened” timestamp, I cringed. Though my essay-in-progress was a piece I was excited about, seven months had passed since my last revision. At that time, I put a few bullet points in virtual sticky notes with the directions I planned on taking—“More emotion needed; more about assistive technology”—but there wasn’t much to go on. Had I waited too long?

The essay, later published in America Magazine, describes my experience f...