Row 4, task portrait

This morning's revision of an essay called On Mood removed two unnecessary uses of 'simply' while deliberately keeping repetitions and a passive voice that belonged to the essay's own voice — a suggestion is an invitation to look, not a debt that must be paid with a change. The same pass uncovered a small, satisfying bug: a closing quotation mark was tricking a rhythm-checking tool into swallowing the short sentence that followed into the one before it, producing a misleading warning about monotony. The pause had been on the page all along; the instrument just hadn't been built to recognize where it ended. The portrait is about that kind of small, careful attention — a creature with claws too large for the delicate piece it's placing, making a little room without making a production of it.