Friday, April 09, 2010

When to hop heads...tell me how you do it???



Since my writing has been lagging lately I've been reading a lot. Right now I'm reading Under the Dome by Stephen King, Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pinero (interesting romance about genetic testing) and something by Jennifer Cruise about a basset hound. (someone who knew we were hosting Frieda the Basset gave me that book the other day.)
So since I was once called a head hopper by a wonderful editor I've been worrying about this issue a lot. Some writers do this so smoothly you don't even feel it. The shift of POV is barely felt by the reader. Then there's others that I can see it clearly but for some reason it seems to work. Then there are writers who hop heads so often I have to back up and say...where was I?
So my question is how do you change POV's in a story? Do you have any rules on how you hop heads? Have you ever written a book totally in one POV?
Help!
I'm obsessing and I can't stop!

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

I generally notice head hopping and it bothers me tremendously. However, it doesn't seem that hard to avoid. Just start a new scene every time you head hop. Hop into a different head, begin a new scene.

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