Resource Sharing: Romelle Broas on Using Mentor Texts

I've read over 300 books so far in 2016.  These are some of my favorites that have 

become my mentor texts.  

Before I started on my ReFoReMo journey this month, I downloaded Romelle Broas’ carefully critical Mentor Text Worksheet from the ReFoReMo blog.  I didn't print it out, but it was so thoughtfully arranged, I saved it on my desktop and tucked it in my mental file—To Deal With Later.

Then as I read through the mentor texts, I fell in love with a few of them. I read and reread them, trying to figure out why I found them so compelling. They were books I wish I had written, books like the ones I wanted to write. 

So I opened the Broas’ worksheet and looked at it again.  Then, I made a little folder on my desktop, copied the PDF into a Word document that I could easily edit, and began filling in the worksheets for the twenty or so books that I’d already decided I wanted to study from the first week's reading. 

Broas’ talks about how to approach mentor texts (and how to use her worksheet) on a guest post in Carrie Charley Brown’s site, but Broas' blog is also a rich resource.  On Feb. 8, 2016 she posted a wonderful analysis of breaking the fourth wall in picture books.  I signed up for her blog updates.  I can’t wait to see what she’ll do next.

Resource Sharing: Linda Ashman's Dialogue Manuscripts

If you didn't sign up for ReFoReMo this year, put in on your calendar for 

next year.  Only five days in and I've learned so much.  I've been so inspired

that I've already written this month's 12 x 12 draft.  Great stuff.  Highly

recommended.

I'm participating in Read for Research Month (ReFoReMo) this year.  I'm reading books I may never have found otherwise and being inspired by writers I love.  I'm also learning some new tricks that will help me bring some projects that have been in my head for a while into the world.  I love ReFoReMo and I'm so thankful to Carrie Charley Brown and Kirsti Call for bringing this fun challenge into the world.

This is the first part of the first page of Linda Ashman's picture book 

No Dogs Allowed.  You'll find the rest of the manuscript at the bottom 

of Linda's web page.  

One of the wonderful resources I've found is from the author Linda Ashman.  She introduced participants to the idea of a dialogue story.  I love these stories.  However, I'm not an illustrator, so I've felt as if this type of story was beyond me. (Picture book writers are frequently warned about not including too many illustration notes.)  Linda directed us to the bottom of her webpage where she has writer resrouces, including her manuscript submissions for four of her dialogue stories.  Yowzah.  Yippee.  I'm a huge fan of model texts.  I'm so thankful that Linda generously shared these files with us.  Now, in addition to being able to write the pictures I've been seeing in my head, I'm also inspired to revise an exisiting manuscript into a dialogue story--the story it has wanted to be all along.

Thank you Carrie, Kirsti, and Linda for helping me learn new tricks.