I’m writing this before the power goes.

The calm before the story.

Author

Stephen Stanberry
October 27th, 2025

In partnership with

Shocked, friend.

That’s the only word that fits right now.

It’s Saturday night as I write this.
There’s still power.
Still internet.
Still that quiet before the chaos that always feels… wrong.

If you’ve ever lived through a hurricane, you know what I mean.
The air feels heavy.
The sky looks tired.
Everyone’s pretending to be calm—but you can feel the tension humming underneath.

We’ve done the usual prep:
Water stacked in buckets, flashlights checked, devices charging.
The kids are already asking if school’s canceled Monday.
And I keep refreshing the weather app like somehow I’ll change the track of the storm by staring at it hard enough.

They’re saying the real action won’t hit until Sunday afternoon.
But tonight, it’s the waiting that’s loudest.

And while the house is still, I found myself sitting here, laptop open, trying to write this email before everything changes.

Because by the time you read this on Monday,
I don’t know what the island will look like.
I don’t know if I’ll have Wi-Fi, or power, or even a dry roof.
But I do know this:
I’m writing a story that hasn’t been written yet.

And that realization hit me harder than the wind ever could.

We talk about storytelling like it’s something we do after things happen.
After the chaos.
After we’ve survived.
After we’ve had time to make sense of it.

But right now, sitting in this calm before the storm,
I realized real stories aren’t told from hindsight.
They’re told from inside the moment.

That’s what makes them alive.

It’s easy to write when you already know how it ends.
It’s much harder to write when you’re still in the uncertainty.
But that’s where the truth lives.

And it’s the same for you.

When you share your story only after it’s tidy,
you rob people of the part they actually connect to
the part where you’re still figuring it out.

So here’s what I want you to try this week:

1. Write from the middle.
Not the victory. Not the conclusion. Write from the tension.

2. Capture what you feel, not what you know.
Logic comes later. Emotion is what travels fastest.

3. Hit publish before you overthink it.
Because every hour you wait, the truth fades just a little.

Storytelling isn’t about control.
It’s about honesty in real time.
And right now, I’m learning that all over again.

I don’t know what Monday will bring.
Maybe sunshine.
Maybe silence.
But if this email finds its way to you,
then at least one thing’s certain
the story’s still being written.

Till next time,
Stephen

P.S. If you’ve been waiting for the “right” moment to share your story this is it.
Not when things calm down.
Now, while the air still hums with uncertainty.
That’s where the real stories live.

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