Mentor Texts: The Magic Portal to Great Writing
Unleash the Power of Mentor Texts & Level Up Your Writing - FAST!
"Read everything and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write." - William Faulkner
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"If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you. - Natalie Goldberg
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"If you walk in the mist, you get wet." - Zen Master Dogen
The art of reading, analyzing and extracting writing insight from great books is a crucial skill that every writer must have.
No exceptions.
"But I already read lots of good books, and I still struggle with my writing."
That's Because:
1. You're not reading the right books for your writing style and, most importantly...
2. You're not reading books the right way - the way a professional writer does.
It's time to fix that.
It's time to extract all the writing wisdom of your favorite authors and put it to use in your writing.
The key that can instantly level up your writing by unlocking the wisdom of great authors, past and present?
MENTOR TEXTS.
Mentor Texts are existing examples of writing that can help you:
- Find the right publisher for your book by understanding precisely its in-house editorial preferences.
- Identify gaps in the market, and most powerfully...
- Understand, improve and master specific writing and storytelling techniques.
An example of the mentor text tools you'll receive by attending the workshop. Roxanne will walk you through each tool, with specific instructions on how to maximize their impact.
The basic principle is this:
If you want to learn how to develop characters, read a work that has brilliantly crafted characters. If you want to understand pace, read books by authors who are masters of pace, and so on.
It seems simple but, in reality, it's something that few writers are able to do effectively.
That's because it's much more than just reading a book or a passage. To benefit from mentor texts, writers must:
- Identify the specific problems they're seeking to overcome, and pick books that directly demonstrate the right way to address the writing issue.
- Find mentor texts that are age-appropriate and directly relevant stylistically and thematically.
- Understand the four kinds of reading necessary to fully extract lessons from mentor texts: Elementary Reading, Inspectional Reading, Analytical Reading and Synoptical Reading.
- Know how to read like a working writer, not a casual reader.
- Know how to put these lessons to immediate and impactful use in their own work.
Professional writers who use mentor texts know how to identify the clues they're looking for, isolate them, analyze them and put that knowledge to work on their own manuscripts.
Roxanne gets lots of practice signing book contracts! 😀
In one workshop, Roxanne Troup will teach you everything you need to know about finding, analyzing and using the right mentor texts for your style, age group and genre.
Roxanne has used these techniques to have 22 kidlit books published in just the last 7 years, with more on the way!
Spend some time with Roxanne and you'll have the wisdom the finest kidlit authors at your fingertips.
Any snag in your writing, any concerns about understanding the market, any fear that you "can't write as well as the pros" can be put to rest by accessing the right mentor text at the right moment.
In this comprehensive class you'll learn:
- The four kinds of reading necessary to fully extract lessons from mentor texts: Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical and Synoptical reading.
- How to find the right mentor text to deal with your specific needs.
- How to use mentor texts to adapt your story to suit current market trends and publisher needs.
- How to really understand what a particular publisher's editorial preferences are, and optimize your manuscript before submitting.
- How to identify an author's "special sauce" for techniques including Point of View, Voice, Story Structure, Pacing, Dialogue and more.
- How to adapt what you learn from a mentor text to your own writing style.
- How to use multiple mentor texts to detect patterns, commonalities and current trends.
- How to build a "writer's toolbox" that allows you to fully utilize every bit of wisdom you extract from mentor texts
...and much more.
By the end of this workshop, you'll be able to walk into any library, bookstore or online source and have the wisdom of the greatest authors of yesterday and today at your fingertips!
You'll also get a PDF handout to accompany the session that you can refer to while on your journey.
Your Instructor