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Ever look at someone’s finished work and think:

“Damn. They just knew exactly what to do.”

The opening lands.

The story flows.

Every sentence seems to be placed perfectly.

Simply put, they put their foot in it.

Meanwhile, your draft is sitting there with three different intros, a “meh” paragraph, and a particularly unsatisfying conclusion.

You compare their final product to your unfinished process.

Of course yours looks messier.

You’re still in the room where working is going down.

Most of the time, others never get to see that room.

Those on the outside see the speech.

The campaign.

The presentation.

The published article.

We rarely see the discarded ideas, confusing drafts, feedback, rewrites, and versions named:

FINAL.

FINAL2.

FINAL2ACTUAL.

FINAL2ACTUAL_USETHISONE.

Truly, it feels like every creative process requires at least three files falsely claiming to be the final one.

Mariah Carey reminded me of that.

It is no secret that I am a biiiig lamb(like, this is the second issue where MC was the teaching mechanism. First one’s here.)

She recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of Daydream and released a rough demo from a writing session of “Melt Away,” one of my favorite songs on the album.

I know the final song.

So when the familiar melody started, I thought I knew exactly where she was going.

I did not.

The melody was there.

Some parts sounded familiar.

The final lyrics?

Appears they were still being created.

At different points, Mariah tries phrases, says random things, goes “whatever,” and a weird snare drum randomly appears at one point?

But she slides right back into the melody.

The song is literally iterating.

That was incredibly valuable to the storytelling process.

The final version is a viiiiibe.

The demo lets you hear how much exploration and revisions happened before the album version.

Stories work the same way.

The idea you begin with may survive.

The words you use to express it may change five times.

You learn what the story is by working on it.

You also learn by seeing what another person receives from it.

That feedback is not separate from storytelling.

It is part of storytelling.

Because the story in your head and the story your audience receives are not automatically the same.

You know the context and the intentions.

Your audience only knows what made it onto the page.

That creates a gap between intention and interpretation.

And sometimes, you need another set of ears to hear it.

🛠️ The PHacilitator’s Corner:

Choose one unfinished story, post, presentation, or message.

Share it with one person.

Ask:

“What do you think the main idea is?”

Resist the urge to explain.

Listen for three things:

1. What they remembered.

2. What they believed mattered most.

3. What they thought you wanted them to understand.

Compare their answer to your intention.

If there’s a disconnect, that’s okay!

Did they identify the big idea?

Great.

Did they catch part of it, but focus on something secondary?

You may need to adjust the emphasis.

Did they leave with a message you never intended?

That is useful too.

Feedback gives you information before you spend hours polishing the wrong version.

The rough version is proof the story is still building.

How’d I do?