Revealing ReFoReMo with Author Sue Ganz-Schmitt

By Sue Ganz-Schmitt

The conscious use of mentor texts is a new part of the journey for me.  ReForWhat?!  I thought when my friend Maria first mentioned the challenge to me last February.  I had no idea what a mentor text was until the moment that I signed up. I had already written four picture books by then including my newest book:  Planet Kindergarten: 100 Days in Orbit 

Anytime I’m near a store selling children’s books, I’m sucked in as powerfully as if I went too close to the event horizon of a black hole. It is an unstoppable force for me because reading great picture books is my happy space.   But, I have never poured through them as voraciously, or studied and analyzed them as deeply as I was inspired to do last March when I joined the ReFoReMo challenge.

My process has been to avoid reading picture books while writing them, so I am not subconsciously influenced by another writer's work, especially on a similar topic.  I want my writing to flow organically and without analysis first.  Then I get in several rounds of edits.  When my manuscript feels grounded, then I’m ready to pick up picture books again.

As a kid, I read piles and piles of Peanuts books.  After I wrote Planet Kindergarten, I realized that the voice of Charlie Brown (no relation right Carrie?) had influenced the voice of my hero ranting about his feelings of inadequacy and failure.  But unlike Charlie Brown, those rants turn into empowerment for my kindernaut character - "Failure is not an option!"  While I did not seek these out as mentor texts, I consider them retro-mentor texts that were filed away in my mental library from childhood.

Another book series filed away from my kids' childhood -that similarly influenced the voice of my hero was The Little Critter series.  I read many of these to my kids and always loved it when the protagonist would disguise his own fears by projecting them onto his parent. Here's how that looked in Planet Kindergarten when my hero was scared to separate from his mom:  "Mom slips her photo into my pocket, and squeezes my hand.  I don't want her to worry, so I stand tall."  

Planet Kindergarten was a guide for Planet Kindergarten: 100 Days in Orbit to make sure the story elements and  NASA inspired dialogue carried over into my newest book.  I also used Even Superheroes Get Diabetes to remind myself to keep it short (my first book was over 1200 words and way too long).  So, if one can self-mentor text, I did that too.

What I have learned from ReFoRemo is that it's important to read forward - not just from the past, or from your own work - but to dig into the latest texts and consider how they were handled.  What worked and what didn't? How are other writers successfully able to create engaging relatable main characters? How do they raise the emotional temperature in the story? How did they surprise the reader?   

I still plan to wait until I have written my story to read similar topics.  But my new plan is to keep reading while writing.  Bring on the next ReFoRemo!

Thanks, Sue,and happy launch day for Planet Kindergarten: 100 Days in Orbit!  

Registration for the third annual ReFoReMo 2017 opens February 12! Will you read and research along with us?

Sue Ganz-Schmitt is the author of: Planet Kindergarten, Planet Kindergarten: 100 Days in Orbit, The Princess and the Peanut: A Royally Allergic Fairytale, and Even Superheroes Get Diabetes. She is co-founder of an AIDS orphanage in Haiti, produces children's musical theater,  performed in RENT on Broadway, and has been a NASA Social Media correspondent.