Robert Appleton's Blog - Posts Tagged "discussion"
How much head-hopping can you handle?
It's one of the Commandments of modern fiction writing (there are more of those than you think), decreed by the bastions of sound storytelling practice and advocated by most of today's editors and publishers:
Thou shalt not head-hop.
Jumping between different characters' narrative points of view in rapid succession is generally regarded as a big storytelling no-no. It's choppy, and can easily confuse the reader. Knowing exactly whose thoughts you're following and whose worldview you're connected to is vital to the link between author and reader.
I get that. And I agree with it. But like all Commandments, it can easily become blind dogma.
What about authors who can pull off POV switches seamlessly and leave no confusion? Several times in the same chapter? Granted, head-hopping back and forth from one sentence to the next is NEVER a good idea, but I'm sure we've all read authors -- probably from past generations -- who've artfully woven together multiple POVs in this way.
Frank Herbert's DUNE is one of the most famous I can think of. Even apart from the telepathic ability some of his characters possess, the amount of head-hopping in his diplomatic banquet scene, for instance, is astonishing. We get so many narrative POV switches, it's like we're sneaking round the table, listening in to each character's thoughts in turn.
That's the effect Herbert is going for, and he pulls it off. Sure, it's choppy from an empathic perspective, but I know exactly whose inner voice I'm following and what it's trying to tell me about the events unfolding.
Stephen King head-hops from time to time, but always intuitively. I've heard from other authors who don't mind the practice when it's done knowingly and for effect. Amateur writers fall into the head-hopping trap because they don't know any better. And it's right to make them aware of it. But should it, like passive voice and -ly adverbs, be verboten?
How much head-hopping can you handle?
Thou shalt not head-hop.
Jumping between different characters' narrative points of view in rapid succession is generally regarded as a big storytelling no-no. It's choppy, and can easily confuse the reader. Knowing exactly whose thoughts you're following and whose worldview you're connected to is vital to the link between author and reader.
I get that. And I agree with it. But like all Commandments, it can easily become blind dogma.
What about authors who can pull off POV switches seamlessly and leave no confusion? Several times in the same chapter? Granted, head-hopping back and forth from one sentence to the next is NEVER a good idea, but I'm sure we've all read authors -- probably from past generations -- who've artfully woven together multiple POVs in this way.
Frank Herbert's DUNE is one of the most famous I can think of. Even apart from the telepathic ability some of his characters possess, the amount of head-hopping in his diplomatic banquet scene, for instance, is astonishing. We get so many narrative POV switches, it's like we're sneaking round the table, listening in to each character's thoughts in turn.
That's the effect Herbert is going for, and he pulls it off. Sure, it's choppy from an empathic perspective, but I know exactly whose inner voice I'm following and what it's trying to tell me about the events unfolding.
Stephen King head-hops from time to time, but always intuitively. I've heard from other authors who don't mind the practice when it's done knowingly and for effect. Amateur writers fall into the head-hopping trap because they don't know any better. And it's right to make them aware of it. But should it, like passive voice and -ly adverbs, be verboten?
How much head-hopping can you handle?
