The Three-Point Story Test
A real story must contain change, pass the dinner test, and be about you.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 92%
Dicks's definition of what actually qualifies as a story rests on three checks. It must contain a moment of change; it must pass the 'dinner test' (be roughly how you'd tell it to a friend at dinner, only slightly elevated); and it must be your own story so you can be vulnerable. Anything failing these is a report, a performance, or fiction the audience can't connect to.
Origin
Matthew Dicks's story-qualification checklist from Storyworthy.
Core principles
- 01Change is the universal appeal that lets strangers connect to content that has nothing to do with them
- 02Natural speech beats performance-art delivery
- 03Vulnerability requires the story to be about you
- 04A story about someone else 'might as well be fiction' because that person isn't in the room
How to run it
- 1
Check for change
Confirm there is a transformation or realization. Change has universal appeal even when the surface content is foreign to the listener — a non-teacher still connects to a story about someone finding confidence.
Pro tip Focusing on the change 'increases exponentially the universal appeal.'
Watch out Without change you have a report, which only connects with people who share your exact experience.
- 2
Apply the dinner test
Would you tell it this way at dinner? If so it passes. Strip out performance-art tics: no opening on unattributed dialogue ('Jim, time for dinner, my wife said'), no sound-effect openings ('Bang, the door opened'), no verbal detritus like 'you know' and 'like I said.'
Pro tip Aim for a 'slightly elevated version of the dinner story' — natural, but more shaped and uninterrupted.
Watch out Unattributed-dialogue and sound-effect openings are 'weird appendages from childhood' taught by non-writer teachers; never use them.
- 3
Make it yours
Center the story on yourself so you can offer real vulnerability. To use someone else's material (e.g. a grandparent's history), fold it into your own life: tell how their experience changed you.
Pro tip Dicks teaches descendants of Holocaust survivors to tell their OWN story and dip into the history only where it changed them — 'so it's no longer history.'
Watch out Telling a story purely about another person requires no vulnerability; the audience 'kind of doesn't care' that presenting makes you nervous.
In the wild
Dicks (fifth grade) and his wife (kindergarten) both report on their teaching days — one teaching the letter C, one teaching multiplication. The content is so far apart they don't connect. Only when the story is about change (a student finding confidence) does it reach a non-teacher.
→ Demonstrates that change, not shared content, is what creates connection.
Common mistakes
Performing instead of talking
Opening with unattributed dialogue or a sound effect signals fake, taught 'writing' rather than a story you'd actually tell a friend.
Telling someone else's story
It reads as fiction and lets you hide, offering the audience no vulnerability to connect with.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone building a keynote, pitch, or personal anecdote who needs a quick filter for whether they actually have a story.
Not ideal for
Pure fiction or third-party reporting where personal vulnerability isn't the goal.
From the transcript
“the dinner test is the idea that when you're telling a story in a formal way, if you're performing on a stage or delivering a…”
“this is a slightly elevated version of the dinner story”
“So, stories have to be about you in some way.”
“If I offer up the heart and mind of someone else, that doesn't really require any vulnerability.”
From the episode
How to tell better stories
Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy)