What's broken in your story?

Think of a story you tell often — about your career, a decision, or who you are. This canvas helps you find what it's missing.

Name the story

Write one sentence: the story you most often tell about yourself or your career. What is its core claim?

Sort the forces

Sort these into two zones: which elements does your story already have, and which is it missing — specificity, stakes, surprise, causality, silence?

Already in my story

Missing from my story

How urgent is the gap?

Mark on the spectrum: how much does the missing element actually weaken the story when you tell it to someone new?

Barely matters

Completely undermines it

The obvious fix

Write the one change everyone would suggest — add more detail, raise the stakes, add a twist. Then mark: does it actually solve the real problem, or does it only address the surface?

It solves it

It's a surface patch

The hidden trade-off

Look back at step 2. Name the one thing your story is protecting — what would you have to admit, reveal, or leave unresolved if you told it fully? That is the real story. Write it in one word.

Why that word?

Discuss Tell your partner: if you told the full version of your story — gaps and all — what would change?

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