i’ve been sitting on a first(-ish) draft of a short story for a few months now, knowing i needed to revise, but generally daunted by the task.

to light a fire under my ass, i set the goal of sending it to a friend for critique by the end of February. but since stubbornness is my s p e c i a l t y, i continued to resist revising.

even up to the point where i told my friend yesterday that i was just going to send him the unrevised rough draft, warts and all (and with a boatload of caveats, no doubt, to assuage my ego).

that did the trick. i ticked through my list of revisions today, clearing up plot inconsistencies and refining the prose.

i think just knowing another pair of eyes would be reading my work imminently was motivation enough.