Define Head Hopping and POV

CLEasterwood said:

When I change character POV, I denote the change with a # sign at the very beginning of the change OR start a new chapter. I make it immediately clear whose head the reader is in at the change. I NEVER, EVER hop into the head of a character between those chapters or those # signs. Is this considered head hopping or does it classify the POV as 3rd person omniscient rather than 3rd person limited.

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Then you are not head hopping. And multiple POVs doesn't mean it's omniscient. It just means...you have multiple POVs, which is common in fiction.

as LJD said.

What comes off as head-hopping is almost always due to a writer not having a clue what a narrative POV is, or why it is important for a reader. There can also be an issue of thinking that many POVs are "necessary", when they really are not.

caw

CLEasterwood said:

When I change character POV, I denote the change with a # sign at the very beginning of the change OR start a new chapter. I make it immediately clear whose head the reader is in at the change. I NEVER, EVER hop into the head of a character between those chapters or those # signs.

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Sounds like you've done just fine. Head-hopping is usually defined as a tendency for the writer to switch POV between two or more characters frequently within the same scene. It often happens 1) when the writer is attempting omniscient POV but gets carried away, thinking we have to know what everyone in a scene is thinking and feeling; or 2) when a writer doesn't yet have a good grasp on how to control and maintain a third-person POV for the duration of a scene.

CLEasterwood said:

In a limited 3rd person POV situation it can be necessary to get into a different character's head. Everyone says 'head hopping' is bad for the story, but what technically IS head hopping?

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Head hopping happens when a writer is firmly in the viewpoint of a given character (usually in limited third), giving the reader a narrative that stems from the voice and perceptions of the viewpoint character for a scene and not an external narrator, and they switch to a new narrative viewpoint without a scene or chapter break. Some writers also head hop because they're attempting to write in omniscient third and make a mess of it (because the external narrator isn't well-established and in control).

There are few things more confusing than reading a scene where Sue is (say) inside a room, being interrogated by someone, then bam, we're out on the street in Tom's viewpoint, or inside the head of one of the interrogators, without a scene break. I read a novel a while back where the writer (or maybe it was an editorial decision) did this--it was in limited third but made pov shifts with no line breaks or anything, and it ruined what would have been an otherwise good story, because I kept having to re-read lines and paragraphs to figure out what was going on and where I was in the tale.

When I change character POV, I denote the change with a # sign at the very beginning of the change OR start a new chapter. I make it immediately clear whose head the reader is in at the change. I NEVER, EVER hop into the head of a character between those chapters or those # signs. Is this considered head hopping or does it classify the POV as 3rd person omniscient rather than 3rd person limited.

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No, this is how pov shifts are generally done, and it is not head hopping. There could still be issues if they happen too frequently, you have too many narrative viewpoints for the story at hand (so readers have a hard time getting invested in any particular character), or if they don't advance the story in a coherent way, but plenty of successful novels are written in multi-third limited (and some even are in multi-first person).

Third-person omniscient is a different technique, one where there's an external narrator who is relating the events of the story in their own voice. They can dip into the perspectives of a focal character, shift perspectives within a scene (or occasionally, even in the same paragraph) or stick with only telling us about one character's perspective for long stretches of time (or they can simply relate the scene from without, without delving into anyone's thoughts or internals at all), but the sense is that the narrator controls what the reader knows, not a viewpoint character.

Here are some good links about narrative viewpoint (limited third is also sometimes called subjective third).

http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/26/point-of-view-the-full-story-introduction/

http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/26/point-of-view-part-two/

http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/26/point-of-view-part-three/

I understand head hopping is a no no, but some of the best writers do it. What I've learned is this, if you head hop as long as the reader clearly knows what head your in it's ok. Now since I'm new I don't head hop, but I've read many books that bounce b/w characters and it's fine. Some of my favorite authors do it and do it well.

"Head-hopping" is not changing point of view per se, but doing it badly.

Jan74 said:

I understand head hopping is a no no, but some of the best writers do it. What I've learned is this, if you head hop as long as the reader clearly knows what head your in it's ok. Now since I'm new I don't head hop, but I've read many books that bounce b/w characters and it's fine. Some of my favorite authors do it and do it well.

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Reread Roxxsmom's comment right before yours, and be sure you aren't mistaking multiple-POV or omniscient POV narration for what you call "head-hopping". And let's have some names of writers you think do this.

caw

Heinlein is the only one I can think of to hand, and KJ Bishop but she's not well known.

I wouldn't say "many" books do it though.

Nora Roberts head-hops. Can't say I cared for it in the one book of hers that I read...

I've just finished re-reading one of my favourite books, Christopher Pike's 'Final Friends' trilogy - he head-hops all over the place. My writer's eyes definitely noticed, but it was less distracting than I would have expected.

Head-hopping is like putting mustard in your cornflakes to get more texture.

I'd disagree with that.

Like anything it can be effective, but it has to be appropriate.

To me, head-hopping anywhere, including while in Third person POV, is jarring and should be avoided primarily because it breaks the reader's immersion in the story and whatever the existing POV character is experiencing.

Jan74 said:

I understand head hopping is a no no, but some of the best writers do it. What I've learned is this, if you head hop as long as the reader clearly knows what head your in it's ok. Now since I'm new I don't head hop, but I've read many books that bounce b/w characters and it's fine. Some of my favorite authors do it and do it well.

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I know, right.

KJ Bishop has a scene where two men are conducting negotiations with a third.

One of the men is staring at a painting, which dives off into his internal world and thoughts and memories in relation to the painting, and at some point in there transitions into the first man's internal world via painting; narrative then comes back "out" of that reflection but remains in first man's head.

I quite liked that.

This is the answer I put on every "head-hopping" thread:

Imagine there's a crowd on the corner, and all of them witness an accident. An officer asks them to tell him what happened.

Head-hopping is what you get when each of those people each tries to answer in their own voice from their own point-of-view. It can be a confusing jumble, so the officer tells them to be quiet, then points to one person and tells her to explain what happened. Once that single person begins to speak, incorporating details from the other witnesses, but all in her own voice, you've got an omniscient narrator who translates the others' experience through her own lens.

It's completely possible to switch from the thoughts of one character to those of another without head-hopping. You just have to keep the narrator's voice consistent. If your narrator is a 90 year-old Nana, then you don't want her to suddenly sound like a 6 year-old boy, even if she's recounting the part of story that involves that 6 year-old boy.

Cyia, that's a great way to put it.

There are writers who blatantly head hop and it's not jarring or confusing. But like all things in writing, pretty much anything CAN work if the writer has the skill to pull it off. The truth is, most of us don't have that much skill. Hence the need for formal structure and breaks to move us from one POV to another.

Bufty said:

To me, head-hopping anywhere, including while in Third person POV, is jarring and should be avoided primarily because it breaks the reader's immersion in the story and whatever the existing POV character is experiencing.

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I see it that way, too. Even back in the day when I didn't know anything about writing and POV, I often found it jarring and, on occasion, confusing.

Cyia said:

It's completely possible to switch from the thoughts of one character to those of another without head-hopping. You just have to keep the narrator's voice consistent. If your narrator is a 90 year-old Nana, then you don't want her to suddenly sound like a 6 year-old boy, even if she's recounting the part of story that involves that 6 year-old boy.

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I'm afraid I don't follow that. If the narrator is Nana, then all the narration issues from her perspective. She can't go inside the head of a child and tell us what he's thinking, no matter how consistent her voice remains. If we're shown the child's thoughts, then that's a hop from Nana to the child's POV.

Now, an omniscient narrator can offer a variety of perspectives, but the ON narrates the story from the outside. The ON is like a special camera that can observe everything and also has the ability to dip inside the thoughts and feelings of any character. The author, of course, has to control that, choosing whose perspective to use and when.

LeftyLucy said:

Cyia, that's a great way to put it.

There are writers who blatantly head hop and it's not jarring or confusing. But like all things in writing, pretty much anything CAN work if the writer has the skill to pull it off.

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I have yet to run across one who does.

And I don't think those writers who choose to change POV on the scene boundary are lacking in skill. Rather the opposite. Head-hopping is not something to aspire to, IMO.

I'm afraid I don't follow what you are trying to say, Cyia. Maybe your use of the word 'narrator' is confusing me.

I regard head-hopping as switching POV with no warning and in such a fashion as to be jarring- to me, it doesn't mean 'any change of POV'.

To me, in Third person Limited POV the 'narrator' is us, the writer - not the POV character. If the POV is changed from that of a ninety-year-old to that of a six-year-old there has to be a change of POV but that change is only a 'head-hop' when the change is done with no warning and in a jarring fashion.

The case you cite of a 'narrator' can only be from the viewpoint of an omniscient POV, or First person POV and in neither case would relating thoughts of different characters represent a change of POV from that of the narrator, who in those cases is also the POV (whether a character or not). Therefore, to me at least, head-hopping is not relevant in the instance you quote.

Cyia said:

This is the answer I put on every "head-hopping" thread:
...

It's completely possible to switch from the thoughts of one character to those of another without head-hopping. You just have to keep the narrator's voice consistent. If your narrator is a 90 year-old Nana, then you don't want her to suddenly sound like a 6 year-old boy, even if she's recounting the part of story that involves that 6 year-old boy.

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