Many beginning writers utilize quick switches in point of view, which is not used as often these days in the publishing industry.
Twenty years ago, omniscient point of view was commonly used in fiction. However, these days, a deep third person point of view is preferred most of the time, although there are exceptions, naturally.
In deep third person point of view, the writing is in third person but the language drops the reader into the character’s head and body.
When the point of view shifts to a different character in the midst of a scene, this is called head-hopping because the reader feels as if he is hopped from one character’s head into another.
Moving the reader from one character to the other so many times will often disorient the reader. This will also not allow the reader to feel connected with any one character in the scene. This reduces character sympathy and the reader may not care enough about the character to continue reading the book.
Stick to One or Two Points of View per Scene
Rather than moving from character to character, keep the point of view in one character’s head for the entire scene.
Some writers will shift to a second character in the scene, but they only do this once per scene and the shift is signified by a scene break, to signal to the reader about the new point of view.
So, at maximum, the writer should only have two points of view per scene—starting the scene in one character’s point of view, and ending in the second character’s point of view, with only one shifting in the middle. The writer should not shift from one character to the other and back again several times in the scene.
Several Point of View Shifts With Scene Breaks is Still Head-Hopping
Some writers will shift point of view several times in a scene, but separate each shift with a scene break. This is still considered head-hopping.
Even though the scene break signifies the point of view shift, the reader will still feel the negative effects of head-hopping—disorientation and/or reduced character sympathy.
Writers don’t want to give the reader any reason to stop reading the book.
Published Authors Head-Hop, but Unpublished Authors Should Not
There are a few published authors who head-hop or switch point of view several times per scene.
However, as an unpublished writer trying to break into the industry, writers should avoid these point of view switches in order to appear more professional to the editor or agent reading the manuscript.
The adage is, “Better safe than sorry.” A writer would not want an editor to reject a manuscript because it looks unprofessional due to the head-hopping or point of view switches. Don’t give an editor or agent an unprofessional reason to reject your manuscript.
The copyright of the article Head-Hopping in Writing Techniques is owned by Camy Tang. Permission to republish Head-Hopping in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
I used to think omniscient wasn't used any more--buying into all the how-to
books written by non-fiction authors--until I did a workshop on viewpoints.
Once I knew what to look for, I was greatly surprised to realize that I
had read many books that were in omniscient, but because the author had
done such a great job with it, the viewpoint wasn't noticable. I just got
a thriller by a new author that was in omniscient.
That being
said, omniscient doesn't have multiple viewpoints in one scene. It only
has one: The omniscient narrator. The narrator may zoom in for a closeup
on several characters and dip into their thoughts, but the scene is never
shown though their eyes. It's always filtered through the narrator.
But that misunderstanding is why some beginning writers gravitate
to omniscient and start headhopping. They haven't made up their mind who's
important in the scene, so they decide to use omniscient, thinking that it
shows all the viewpoints. Then they proceed to show the scene through each
character's eyes, instead of filtering through the omniscient narrator.
But even the narrator skimming the thoughts of the characters still
needs transitions or it will be jarring to the reader. The transition is
usually pretty subtle--often it's a line of dialogue. And, of course, in
the narrative, word choice is also important to stay within the omniscient
narrator and not going to a different viewpoint. That's also usually where
people have trouble.
** The adage is, “Better safe than sorry.”
A writer would not want an editor to reject a manuscript because it looks
unprofessional due to the head-hopping or point of view switches. Don’t
give an editor or agent an unprofessional reason to reject your manuscript.
**
I cringe when I see advice like this. I started my WIP in
third because of common wisdom. Viewpoint didn't work. So I tried first.
It was even worse. I took a viewpoint workshop to experiment with all the
viewpoints and walked away with ten solid reasons why the book needed to
be omniscient viewpoint--something I'd never considered before because of
common wisdom. I chose it knowing it might be a point against me with
agents, but also knowing that the book required it. It was either write a
bad book that I hated in in third or write a fantastic book that I loved in
omniscient.
Jun 20, 2009 2:36 PM
Camy Tang :
I appreciate your point of view! (no pun intended) One thing I want to
clarify is that I'm talking about genre fiction, not literary fiction. The
problem with omniscient is that many published authors do use it, but they
can because they're published. There are many published genre authors who
don't use it. There are many literary authors who use it.
As I
mentioned above, third person is used *most of the time* and *there are
exceptions, naturally.* Ultimately, you have to use what point of view you
want for your own story. However, in my experience, with writers trying to
break into the industry, most of them use deep third person for their debut
novel and there aren't many using omniscient who break in with that point
of view. Naturally, there are exceptions, but I was talking about the
general trend of debut authors. Camy
