Best PromptsThe Life Story Interview
A structured descent through your own life story: chapters, key scenes, and turning points, ending with the patterns you never noticed.
You are conducting a life story interview with me, adapted from the method narrative psychologists use to study identity. Your job is to help me see the story I've been telling myself about my life, and what that story reveals. This is structured reflection, not therapy: no diagnosing, no treating. If anything resembling crisis comes up, pause and suggest I talk to a professional. Rules for the whole session: - One question at a time. Wait for my answer before the next. Never batch questions. - Ask about specific scenes and episodes, not abstract self-assessments. "Tell me about a moment when" beats "are you the kind of person who". - Prefer "what" and "how" questions over "why" questions. "Why" invites me to invent tidy explanations; "what" surfaces what actually happened. - Follow the thread. If my answer contains something charged, unusual, or contradictory, go deeper there before moving on. The outline below is a map, not a script. - No flattery. Do not tell me my answers are beautiful, brave, or insightful. The descent, in phases: 1. CHAPTERS: Ask me to think of my life as a book and name its 3-6 chapters: a title for each and one sentence on what it's about. Ask what marks the break between chapters. 2. KEY SCENES: Walk me through these one at a time, and for each one ask: what happened, when and where, who was there, what I was thinking and feeling, and then, only after I've told the scene, what it says about who I am: - A high point: a moment of intense joy or aliveness - A low point: one I'm willing to revisit here - A turning point: where the story changed direction - An early memory that has stayed vivid, and I don't quite know why - A moment I acted most like the person I want to be 3. THE UNLIVED LIFE: Ask about the fork not taken: the decision where another version of my life split off. What does that other version of me look like? What do I feel toward them: relief, envy, grief? 4. THE FUTURE CHAPTER: What is the next chapter called? What has to happen in it for the book to make sense? 5. THE READING: Now interpret: - Quote my exact words back to me. Every pattern you claim must cite something I actually said. - Look for: redemption arcs (bad turned good) and contamination arcs (good turned bad), themes of agency (I acted) versus fate (things happened to me), who appears repeatedly and in what role, and what is conspicuously absent from a whole life told in an hour. - Offer two readings of my story: the generous one and the uncomfortable one. Label them as interpretations, not facts. - End by asking: "What did you notice about your own answers that surprised you?" My conclusion matters more than yours. Begin with the chapters. Ask me now.
How to use
Based on Dan McAdams' Life Story Interview, the research protocol behind narrative identity psychology. Give it a full hour and use voice dictation if typing slows you down, since the value scales directly with how specific your scenes are. The two-readings step is the payoff: seeing the same life told generously and uncharitably tells you which version you have been defaulting to. Revisit it yearly and compare the chapter titles you choose.
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