Tag: Suzanne Johnson

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POV: Going Deep and Staying There February 2020 OCC/RWA Online Class

February 4, 2020 by Linda McLaughlin in category Online Classes tagged as Deep POV, OCC, Online Classes, Suzanne Johnson

February Online Workshop
POV: Going Deep and Staying There (An Interactive Workshop)
Feb. 11 – March 8

Instructor: Suzanne Johnson

About the Class:

It doesn’t matter if you write first-person narrative or third-person with multiple viewpoint characters—getting deep inside a POV character’s head is the key to writing stories that grab readers by the heartstrings, no matter what genre you’re writing. In this workshop, each participant will have a chance to examine the different expectations of POV within different genres, look at the pros and cons of each POV technique, and then take his or her own work-in-progress, a finished work, or a favorite published work and deconstruct it to take the POV deep and keep it there. Each workshop participant will receive personal feedback through a series of assignments.

Syllabus:
Lesson 1: POV–One of the Most Important Decisions You’ll Make
Lesson 2: POV and Genre (and a few words about head-hopping)
Lesson 3: POV Options, Pros, and Cons
Lesson 4: Hands-On Tips and Tricks to Deepen POV—Part 1 of 6
Lesson 5: Hands-On Tips and Tricks—Setting and Narrative, Part 2 of 6
Lesson 6: Hands-On Tips and Tricks—Action, Part 3 of 6
Lesson 7: Hands-On Tips and Tricks—Visceral Reactions/Emotion, Part 4 of 6
Lesson 8: Hands-On Tips and Tricks—Dialogue, Part 5 of 6
Lesson 9: Hands-On Tips and Tricks—Internal Dialogue, Part 6 of 6
Lesson 10: Balancing Third-Person Multiple POVs (three or more POVs)
Lesson 11: POV Hodgepodge and Wrapup

About the Author:

Suzanne Johnson has written more than twenty urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense novels and novellas from the pastoral setting of Auburn, Alabama. She realized her dream of becoming a full-time “hybrid” author in 2017 after finally leaving a career in educational publishing that has spanned five states and six universities. She grew up halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’s birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, including a firsthand introduction to Hurricane Katrina. As Suzanne Johnson, she writes the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series and other urban fantasy novellas and shorts. As Susannah Sandlin, she writes paranormal romance and romantic suspense, including the award-winning Penton Legacy paranormal romance series, The Collectors romantic thriller series, and Wilds of the Bayou romantic thriller series. She also works as a professional copyeditor for other authors.

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Request to join the online classroom HERE.

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Quilting 101 with @Suzanne_Johnson June @OCCRWA Online Class #plotting

May 29, 2018 by Linda McLaughlin in category Online Classes tagged as OCC/RWA, Online Class, Plotting, Quilting 101, Suzanne Johnson

OCC/RWA Online Class:

June 11 – July 6, 2018

About the Class:

Do storyboards, sticky notes, spreadsheets and index cards give you hives? Does your manuscript wander in circles – yet you’re afraid a detailed outline will suck the heart and soul out of your writing?

All you need is a simple word-processing program to stitch together the perfect quilt of a plot to keep your novel on track and moving in the right direction – while still giving your muse room to play. We’ll use a step-by-step technique to plot a novel from start to finish, and give you a huge head-start on your first draft (and the dreaded synopsis).

This will be a working course! Bring your best idea (the one that’s been bubbling in your brain for six months) or a manuscript that’s wandering in the desert, and we’ll shape it up and get it moving. We’ll also be deconstructing one of my own novels as part of this class as well as using examples from a variety of books in different genres.

About the Instructor:

Suzanne Johnson is the author of more than twenty published works, including the award-winning Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, of which book six, FRENCHMEN STREET, will be out on July 17. Writing as Susannah Sandlin, she is author of the Amazon top-selling Penton Legacy paranormal romance series, as well as The Collectors and the Wilds of the Bayou, both romantic suspense series. A displaced New Orleanian, she currently lives in Auburn, Alabama. Suzanne loves SEC football, fried gator on a stick, New Orleans, all things Cajun, and (hangs head) reality TV. She writes full-time along with running her own developmental and copy-editing business and dabbling in mixed-media art.

For more information about Suzanne, please visit her website: http://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com/. Click on the “Newsletter” tab for updates, release news, sneak peeks and special giveaways: http://suzannejohnsonauthor.com/newsletter.

Enrollment Information

This is a 4-week online course that uses email and Groups.io. The class is open to anyone wishing to participate. The cost is $30.00 per person or, if you are a member of OCCRWA, $20.00 per person.

For more information, check the class page at the OCC/RWA website: http://occrwa.org/classes/june-online-class/

Note: I took Suzanne’s class on Monster Revisions last year and can personally attest that she’s a wonderful teacher, and yes, the class was a working course.

Linda McLaughlin
OCC/RWA Online Class Coordinator

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Monster Revision & Deep POV: Suzanne Johnson – OCCRWA August Online Class

July 23, 2017 by Linda McLaughlin in category Online Classes tagged as Monster Revision & Deep POV, OCC/RWA Online Class, point of view, revisions, Susannah Sandlin, Suzanne Johnson

I’m excited about the August OCC/RWA Online Class, Monster Revision & Deep POV, with instructor Suzanne Johnson, who also writes as Susannah Sandlin. I have a manuscript in mind I want to tackle.

Pull out that WIP, ready-to-revise manuscript, or even a chapter from an already-published book, and get ready to dive into “Monster Revision,” an intensive one-pass revision system that’ll take you from Draft Zero to Done.

In this 30-day workshop, we’ll cover a one-week overview series of lessons, followed by three weeks of techniques that will leave you with a lot of tools in your revision toolbox. You’ll get individual feedback on your posted homework (yes, homework!), and I’ll work on a revision of one of my WIPS as we go through the course as illustration.

Part One:

* The Monster Revision Process: It’s easier than you think. Not fast, but not rocket-science.

* The Opening Scene Test.

* The Action-Reaction Test.

Part Two:

Warning: There will be color-coding. Take a deep breath and pull out those highlighters.

For the remainder of the class, we’ll take a sample chapter or two from your manuscript and massage it till it hurts. (You can try doing a whole manuscript during the class but it’ll be more effective to do the techniques on one or two chapters.)

We’ll be covering:

Methodology and color-coding, and why deep POV is an important part of revision.
Setting and description, including timeline, continuity, and backstory quicksand.
What’s important to show, and what is better told.
Dialogue as Action, and isolating character voice.
Internal dialogue: pace, voice.
Emotion: raw, ugly, visceral, internal.
The color wheel.
Read to the dog.
DIY Toolbox: manual and online.

About the Instructor:

Suzanne Johnson was happily ensconced in New Orleans as a university magazine editor when Hurricane Katrina sent her adopted hometown underwater. She took her Katrina experiences, added wizards and magic (and the sexy undead pirate Jean Lafitte), and began what has become the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series published by Tor Books. Writing under the name Susannah Sandlin, she also writes award-winning paranormal romance, including the popular Penton Legacy series for Montlake Romance, and romantic suspense and thrillers, including two series, The Collectors and Wilds of the Bayou, also for Montlake.

Suzanne grew up in Alabama halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’s birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of college football and fried gator on a stick. She currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she is a full-time author.

Enrollment Information:

This is a 4-week online course that uses email and Yahoo Groups. If you do not have a Yahoo ID you will be prompted to create one when you join the class, but the process is not difficult. The class is open to anyone wishing to participate. The cost is $30.00 per person or, if you are a member of OCCRWA, $20.00 per person.

Enroll here: http://occrwa.org/classes/august-online-class/

Linda McLaughlin
OCC/RWA Online Class Co-coordinator

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