Kindly Review

18Creating Your Satisfaction

It's taken a lot to get here, but now it's time to create! The creator has the plan in place. They know when Draft 1 is due. So now what?

Sharing an idea takes bravery. It's hard to express your ideas on a consistent basis and not be afraid of the consequences. However, creating a collaborative review process can help your idea become great. Embracing collaboration is fantastic, but first you must do the work.

The best way to embrace the feedback process is to let the creative production process do its thing. A creator's goal should be to make the first delivered draft their best work. The first draft is your opportunity to do everything you wanted for that project. But after you submit it to the feedback process, it's no longer your work. It's the team's work. The collaborative process of feedback allows your work to grow beyond your potential and be the best work it can be.

That also means you shouldn't present your first draft as a half‐baked shell of a project. It has to be the best work you can do. Submitting less than your best is dangerous and misleading to your reviewer. They will take your work at face value. They'll be wary throughout the process, wondering if it's up to snuff.

Kiss It Goodbye

In our agency, we use the phrase “kiss it goodbye” to define a creator's mindset once the initial creation is done. At the end of your creative process, get ready to let go of the ownership of your work and start the collaborative process. In writing ...