@writing
@writing · 2:02

Head hopping in writing - Yay or Nay?

article image placeholderWhat is head-hopping, and is it spoiling your fiction writing?
Head hopping is what happens when a writer suddenly changes viewpoint, character or POV, so that ends up abruptly pulling out the reader from one orientation and and puts them into another. So when one moment we are enjoying, say, character a viewpoint and seeing the world through their eyes, and in the very next moment we are watching events unfold through beef's eyes

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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 4:16

Head hopping in my book 🤷🏽‍♀️

So if I sound exhausted, that's what it is. It's because I've been living in the story. I wake up in the story, I eat in the story, I go to bed, in the story, I sit at the computer and I just stare at the computer and there are days. I mean, not days, but there are hours. I'm just staring at the computer, and I'm like, I don't want to read this
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:59

Failed experiments in head hopping

So instead I tried to write a version that was written from the first person, but from various perspectives. So hopping heads that way. Shahnaz mentioned that a bit. We see that in a lot of modern fiction where we get more of a braided narrative where the story is being told from many different first or third person perspective. But it's not really omniscient. You don't have that overarching narrative voice that's clearly sharing the tale
3
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 2:31

@bowie

I think after I'm done with this novel, I will write a novel someday in the first person narrative because I find first person narratives fascinating. And I find them really strong in their point of view, because everything is seen through the eyes of your protagonist. And it's just absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to read your book and just to see what book it is. How it's coming? All that good stuff? Well, my book is coming along
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