What is Story Canvas?
Story Canvas is a guided space that helps you shape your story idea. By answering a series of questions about your story, you clarify its key elements and foundations—then use your answers to get feedback on your idea or turn it into an outline. You’ll find it in the Plan tab of your Web Editor side panel.
What do I need to use Story Canvas?
To use Story Canvas, you only need the initial idea for your story. It doesn’t matter if you have already started writing it or are at the very beginning with a blank page.
How does Story Canvas work?
There are two parts to Story Canvas: answering the questions, and choosing a tool to use with your answers.
Answer questions
Story Canvas guides you through a series of questions, grouped into five sections that focus on the key elements and foundations of your story:
- Find your purpose: Clarifying your purpose helps guide your decisions as you develop characters, plot, and theme.
- Meet your main character: Understanding these elements creates the emotional core that powers your story.
- Build your story’s road map: This road map gives you a clear direction while leaving room for discovery as you write.
- Explore your story’s setting: A vivid setting helps immerse readers and makes your story feel real.
- Define your reader experience: Defining this experience helps you write with intention and connect with the right readers.
You can move through the sections at your own pace and start with what you know—you don’t need to answer every question right away. If you click “Save,” your progress is saved so you can come back and develop your answers any time.
Choose a tool for your answers
Provide the answers you have so far, and then you can use your Story Canvas answers with one of two tools:
- With Idea Feedback you can get more guidance and feedback (what’s working well, potential risks and opportunities) on the main character, story idea, conflict, setting, etc., so you can explore and develop your idea. To run it, open Story Canvas, select Idea Feedback, and choose Run Idea Feedback. Answering the main character and story’s road map sections gives you the most useful feedback.
- Outline Crafter (now in Beta) turns your answers into three beat-by-beat outlines. To run it, open Story Canvas, answer questions on your story, select Outline Crafter, and hit “Run.” Alternatively, you can paste your story notes into the text box.
You can update your answers as your idea develops and run either tool again for fresh feedback or a revised outline. Your previous results are saved in your Story Canvas history, so you can return to them any time.
How do I use the Story Canvas results?
You can keep returning to your Idea Feedback and your outline as you write. They’ll help you refine and develop your story and decide what you need to work on next.
Did you know… ProWritingAid has 25+ specialized writing reports to help you craft better stories, and you can run them in your favorite writing apps. Read more.