POV (headhopping vs. multiple)

wryttenwyrd asks:
My question to you is about headhopping, commonly found in romances. Switching from one character's head to the other's can be done fairly well sometimes, but I personally find that device loathsome. As an editor, do you find this pov treatment (that's my nice word for it) viable in any other type of writing?

Actually, in my experience, romance has tended far more lately towards single POV (single per scene-- with two protagonists, most romance novels have to use both in the book). I see very little headhopping except in new authors and the bestselling authors who can get away with that.

But if you're reading bestsellers, you could well be getting more headhopping than you like! They can rely on their facility at storytelling more than their craft. But most romance writers are single-POV advocates, in my experience, as are most romance editors.

And I would probably reject any manuscript that came to me with headhopping, as to me that signifies a lack of control of the narrative and a lack of understanding of the reader's experience. If it was a great story, I'd probably ask the writer to learn about POV and resubmit. (You do sometimes get great stories with headhopping, because often that's a result of a particularly creative writer who is so great with character, she can't settle on any one.) Headhopping is often the sign of a new writer or a young writer, and usually a good new writer just has to have that pointed out and explained, and once she gets it, she can transform her work. But it's very much a transformation of mindset. It's hard, I think, for those who are innate single-POVers to understand that, because it's so natural for us to park in one POV and see everything from inside that character. But it's pretty amazing how quickly former headhoppers change when they understand what POV is, and what shifting means.

By the way, I distinguish between headhopping (uncontrolled shifting of POV) and multiple POV, which is shifting for a purpose, and the POV always in some character's head. That, I suspect, is truly the POV of the 21st Century, as it is more cinematic. (Omniscient was the dominant POV mode of the 19th C, and single-POV of the 20th C, I'd say.) Multiple POV and omniscient are closely related, and single-third and first-person are closely related; that is, each pair use much the same narration techniques and focus.

For a good example of how to do multiple POV in romance (and it makes very good sense in romance, as there are two protagonists, and both are present in most scenes, and both have journeys), read Susan Elizabeth Phillips's novels. Ain't She Sweet is great for that, and so is Nobody's Baby but Mine. She usually has four POV characters (has two romances in most books), and POV is carefully controlled. But she uses multiple POV to show how differently the characters interpret events, and that's a great reason to use multiple POV.
Alicia

POV questions

Very slowly working our way through your emailed questions--

Judy asks--
POV and head-hopping: some writers are of the opinion one must write an entire scene from only one character's POV, but there are times when a scene's impact can be enhanced by giving details from the POV of different characters. I've been told this is 'head-hopping'. Can you shed some light on how best to change POV? I know this is something with which many writers struggle.


POV-- well, first, there are no rules. Well, there are rules, but let's start with anarchy and work out from there!

The Point of View of a passage or a book should accomplish what you want to accomplish. And not all passages convey what you want through single-third POV. Let's say that you're setting this scene at a battleground, and you want to juxtapose the cold strategic planning of the general with what the grunt in the infantry line is facing. Well, a single-third wouldn't accomplish that, as we'd get only one of those two perspectives.

Or say that you're aiming at a comic effect in a scene taking place at a lecture, and the professor is using high-falutin' language but thinking about where he's going to eat lunch, and then we switch to a bored student, who is trying to take notes but also thinking about lunch, and then to the teaching assistant, who is in love with the professor and thinking about where prof will eat lunch so she can accidentally on purpose run into him there. Again, a more multiple-POV approach will really work here.

This isn't head-hopping. Head-hopping is the indiscriminate uncontrolled shifting that occurs because the writer doesn't know what he/she wants to accomplish and how to use POV to accomplish it. And if you're thinking, "This passage needs more than one viewpoint, because (whatever)," you're already controlling your POV approach.

How to shift... well, the most important thing is to keep the reader knowing whose head we're in. So if you're going to shift within a scene, do it as smoothly and surely as you can, so that the reader is immediately oriented in the new mind. Some techniques:

a) Use the new POV character's name right away: Judy glanced around the prison cell....

b) Quickly use a head word (like thought or felt or mused or wondered or ached or tasted)
to convey thought, feeling, or perception from the new perspective: Judy glanced around the prison cell, feeling claustrophobic....

c) Use some action for transference of perspective: Bob slammed the cell door, deciding to give her solitude to contemplate her future.

d) Use some object for transference of perspective: Furious, Bob held out the warrant. Judy took the paper, hoping he didn't notice that her hands were shaking. (Usually we'd go with a new paragraph with a change in POV, but sometimes, especially with object transference, that's sort of clunky-- try both ways and see what works best.)


e) Try skipping a few lines when you shift if you're only shifting once in a scene– but not if you shift frequently, as it will get annoying. Try it out, and feel free to go back to unbroken text if it looks/feels better.

Alicia