- Working title
- Not Applying
- Situation
- The narrator has a job application open on the screen and spends too long adjusting small details that do not matter.
- What the narrator is avoiding, admitting or circling
- He is circling the fear that applying means inviting another rejection.
- Concrete detail
- The CV filename has been changed from final to final-new and then to final-new-actual.
- Emotional pressure
- Work confidence, age, pride and the suspicion that the process has already judged him.
- Suggested first sentence
- The application was not difficult, which made it harder to excuse.