validation story masterclass
Presented by the Developmental Editors of Pages & Platforms:
Anne Hawley and Rachelle Ramirez
Validation stories are one of seven primary Story Types used in many modern manuscripts, yet most writers don’t realize they’re building their stories with this Story Type and that there is a Validation framework (a master structure) that could help them get their story unstuck, check their story for its ability to meet or exceed reader expectations, and make their writing process easier.
Are you wondering about the following:
Are you writing Validation or another Story Type?
Getting your character out of their head?
Adding more internal characterization to your plot-driven story?
Giving your Validation story a solid structure?
What parts a Validation story needs?
If so, this Masterclass is for you.
Get ready to go deep into the Validation story, beginning with what Validation stories are even FOR.
We’ll question the typical definition of “Validation” and look at some alternative views.
We’ll take you through all the essential elements of the Validation Story and how to build them into your story.
We’ll examine the Validation Story in three different ways, with many individual story examples, and an in-depth analysis of the 2023 film American Fiction written by Cord Jefferson and Percival Everett, and based on Everett’s bolder, more transgressive 2001 novel, Erasure. The film contains all the elements of a good working Validation story.
And we’ll lay out a clear plan for putting those essentials into your Validation story with a practical framework you can use to construct your story.
At the end of this Masterclass, you will be able to:
Structure your Validation Story or character arc.
Evoke empathy for your characters.
Create story intrigue.
Provide emotional satisfaction for your reader.
Convey a thoughtful takeaway.
In the Validation Story Masterclass from the Pages & Platforms, developmental editors Anne Hawley and Rachelle Ramirez help you:
Learn the essential elements of the Validation Story Type and how to write the story that’s in your heart to tell.
Gain a set of tools to bring a story idea or zero-draft up to the level of a Professional Draft of a Validation Story Type.
Create a protagonist with a singular, clear desire (motivation, want, need).
Establish your story stakes, something the protagonist wants to gain and something they fear losing, that is specific to the Validation story.
Ensure the protagonist pursues their desire and experiences Validation-specific pressure and conflict, causing them to change.
Define a straightforward story premise that is reflected in every scene. (We provide several archetypal premise statements you can use as a basis for a premise more specific and personal to your story.)
Identify and drive toward the emotion the reader of the Validation story expects to feel.
Include the specific characters, situations, and moments your reader expects to find.
Discover whether your Validation story needs to be primarily plot or character-driven.
Understand the differing structure of a prescriptive (comedy, positive) Validation Story compared with a cautionary (negative, tragedy) Validation Story.
Take a deep look at the Validation story and better understand the kind of Validation story you’re telling.
Review many Validation story examples you can use to study for their use of essential elements, point of view, tone, word count, characterization, setting, description, backstory, and blurbs.
Take a deep dive into these concepts by analyzing the film American Fiction.
Join Anne & Rachelle for The validation story masterclass and finally get your story unstuck.
Rachelle Ramirez is a certified developmental editor who helps fiction and nonfiction writers structure and finish their projects. She is a co-creator of the Story Path course and numerous writing masterclasses. She co-hosts The Happily Ever Author Club and the Write Anyway Podcast, and is the author of the forthcoming book, The ADHD Writer: From Frustrated to Focused to Finished.
Anne Hawley is a certified developmental editor of literary, historical, and fantasy fiction, and is the author of Restraint, a novel of forbidden love in Regency England. She was the producer and writer of the popular Story Grid Roundtable Podcast, and currently teaches and develops writing courses at Pages&Platforms LLC.
Not sure yet if The validation story masterClass is for you?
Consider this question:
What kind of story are you writing?
Usually, when we ask writers that question, they’ll say something like YA, Women’s Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopian, Memoir, or Historical.
Those answers aren’t wrong, but they’re marketing categories and setting types often grouped as genres to help publishers direct readers’ attention to books they hope to sell.
Unfortunately, those categories are less valuable to you as a writer, especially while you’re still writing and structuring your professional draft.
While marketing categories and settings types are important, they can’t tell you:
How to construct your story.
How to meet ANY of the requirements of a professional working draft.
What your protagonist wants and needs—the desire that drives them.
What the protagonist has to gain or lose—what’s at stake for them based on the inherent stakes of your Story Type.
How the protagonist in your story will change under pressure from the antagonist.
Whether you’re articulating the premise or message of your story.
What kinds of emotions your intended readers hope to experience.
Clues to the types of characters, situations, and specific moments your kind of story should have to satisfy your reader.
All those elements? Those are what Story Types guide you toward. (Note: There are Seven Essential Story Types; Action, Crime, Horror, Love, Worldview, Validation, and Redemption.)
The Validation Story Type is necessary to tell and differentiate from the others. After all, you don’t want to promise your reader the kind of story they’ve been searching for and then deliver a different type of story. That’s a fast track to upsetting your reader and getting a one-star review.
By focusing on the Validation Story Type rather than marketing categories or setting types, you will:
Delineate a clear beginning, middle, and end—that is, a clear act structure—for your story.
Understand the general beats or situations your story needs to hit.
Meet reader expectations and spot clear opportunities to subvert those expectations to create surprise.
Define the basic desires (want and need) that drive your protagonist.
Construct your protagonist’s character arc by broadly defining what your protagonist has to gain and lose.
Clarify which scenes, settings, and moments belong and which need to be cut or changed.
Declutter your zero draft—or slot in scenes, characters, and moments you might have missed.
Break free from trying to fit the story you want to tell into a marketing category that isn’t right for it.
Know what emotional experience the reader of the Validation Story Type expects (whether they know it consciously or not) and write towards that emotion—and that reader—with confidence.
Define what pressures or conflicts you need to apply to your protagonist to make them change.
Finish your professional draft.
