#head hopping

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hello :) With povs, can you have two different characters’ povs in the same chapter or space ish (third person)? Like could you have one character’s feelings and thoughts shown and then in the next paragraph it’s the others thoughts and feelings? I’m not really sure and I’ve been struggling over this for a while, as well as if you think writing in past or present tense is better for certain writing? I don’t know if any of that made sense but thank you and have a lovely day! :)

It depends on what POV you're using.

The one I think you're looking for is using a third person omniscient narrator. The story is told outside of the perspective of any of the characters, and the narrator knows all and sees all and care share this with the reader. E.g. they can head hop, revealing one character's emotions and thoughts and than another.

Examples of third person omniscient stories include Tolstoy's War and Peace, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

If you were writing in first person or third person limited...don't head hop. The entire point of first person is that it is limited to the 'I' character and so head-hopping would not make sense, because your 'I' would have no way of knowing what other characters are thinking and feeling unless they are a telepath. The same concept applies in third person limited, as while it is slightly more distant than first person, it is still within one character's POV.

With that said...while you can't head hop for paragraphs in first person or third person limited, you can switch to a different character in a different chapter and so have multiple POVs throughout a book that way. But doing it within a few paragraphs when you are not otherwise using an omniscient narrator will confuse your reader.

Present and also has pros and cons.

The key point with POV is to be consistent with whatever you choose.

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

The Horse Miraculous gave him a dark brown suit, white hair pulled back like a mane. He detransformed quickly before Plagg could make a quip.

That didn’t stop him, though. “Nice of you to finally canter in here, Pops.”

I love this little exchange! The thought of Gabriel with a ponytail (shudders) and plagg punning at him and Gabriel knowing he looks dumb and trying to drop it as fast as possible… (and I know the holders supposedly design the suits themselves, but I like to think Kaalki did a little sabotage). I love how you sprinkle humor throughout the story, knowing the right places to add it so it adds to and doesn’t take from the mood of the scene- whether it’s a tense mood or a sweet or emotion in between.

So my first question is do you see yourself as a funny person?

And secondly, how in the world do you write a character who is not like you? You said somewhere that Felix and Lila are hard to write because they are both “smarter than me.” I’ve always wondered how authors do this…

lolol odnlb plagg HATES gabriel 😂 he will take any excuse to mock the shit out of him! although this gabriel has been stuck in a i-deserve-everything-bad-that's-happened-to-me mindset, so he would just take it 💀 kaalki DEFINITELY sabotaged that man though. she wasn't about to let gabriel walk around looking good!

thank you i'm glad you like my humor 🥺 i think i'm averagely funny honestly! i'm probably funnier on paper than in real life, and i know lots of ppl funnier than me in both ways. but it does make me feel really good when people laugh at my jokes 💖🤩 especially if they work in my fics!

felix and lila ARE smarter than me okay. to write them i have to plan out their dialogue and what they say vs what they think and what each of them are thinking during that conversation or exchange. their minds work more quickly and make connections better than i do, but that doesn't mean i'm not capable of getting there on my own eventually! luckily i get to make them go at my pace, and let their brainpower show through the deductions they make with the information given.

as to writing characters different to me... idk! i just like putting myself in others heads/shoes. you've seen my enneagram thing so you know as a 9 i just do this anyway. it's all about focusing on what they think and how they think it and how they're going to react. i literally go into their head and think their thoughts and feel their feelings when i'm doing this! it really is like being possessed.

thank you so much for saying all these nice things<333 most of all ty for thinking i'm funny! favoriting this ask forever 🤩

[hood-ex]

whats head hopping? like pov change?

Yeah, the POV changes from one character to another in the same scene. For example:

At first, Dick thought it was a hallucination that his sleep deprived brain conjured up, but the longer he stared at the gleaming piece of metal that rolled between the ATM and Pat's Pizza like a tumbleweed doing a series of back handsprings, the more he realized that they were headed straight for one of those robo-mutts that nearly tore his finger off in Hoboken a few days ago.

Damian, who was a few feet ahead of Dick, didn't seem to realize the danger they were about to walk into. Dick had to stop him before the robo-mutt's sensors picked up on them. Doing his best to not draw attention to their location, Dick caught up with Damian and clamped his hand on Damian's shoulder, bringing him to a halt. Damian tensed at his touch but made no noise as Dick steered him behind a pump at a Quick-E's gas station.

Damian wanted to know what Richard had seen to make him so frantic.

"What is it?" Damian asked. He tried to see for himself by peering around the pump but froze when Richard shot him a rebuking look.

[tchistorygal]

SCY3 # 2 Tips: Point of View (POV) by Diana Peach

Welcome to a new feature of Story Chat Year Three – Tips/Author Shop Talk. This month our Tips Feature author is Diana Peach. At last count, she had published more than 20 titles in a variety of genres. Her blog is Myths of the Mirror. Diana started last month as one of our wonderful authors. with her Story “The Grand Adventure.” Story Chat is a unique blogging program in which a different author…

[pangur-and-grim]

I’m too gullible with people. I’ll have encounters and be like “aw they seemed nice ☺️” and then everyone around me will be like NONONONONO THAT WAS THE DEVIL!!!!!!!

[rozmorris]

Essential storytelling details I now do on autopilot – and learned by being edited

When I emailed my first novel manuscript to a publisher, I thought I knew what I was doing. I was already an experienced editor of non-fiction. Also, I lived and breathed stories (husband is an author, we talk fiction all day and night). I could get a story into the air, through storms and turbulence and bring it in to a safe landing. But I had a lot to learn. What I hadn’t yet understood was…

[stuckinapril]

friend wanted to see my tumblr, and when i told him i can’t show it to him bc it’s basically my personal diary he went “oh so I can’t see it but a bunch of strangers on tumblr can??” he literally does not get me. no one will get me like the people in my phone get me

[ninjasmudge]

silly maid shit, late for the maid hype

[dead-girl-tells-stories]

DC x DP Idea

After several years, Danny and Damian meet each other again at a gala. But there was no heartfelt reunion since the moment they led eyes on each other it was all-out war. Damian takes out a sword from somewhere and Danny just starts throwing hands.

The fighting is intense, and blood is being spilled (what are those glowing green specks?). They are screaming at each other in Arabic as it's easier to slip back to your mother tongue when in rage right? This makes the fight more personal.

Most people don't understand what they're saying but those who do look at the boys then Bruce. Bruce then back to the boys again. Like B, we know you're stupid but you fucked this person twice.... did you NOT see the red flags the SECOND TIME!?!?

The fight ends with Damian on the ground with the sword grazing his neck. He looks up to Danyal with the fear of god in his eyes, knowing that with one swift movement, he'll be dead on the dance floor. But Danny's eyes were cold and tired, they were dead. No spark, no sense of life in those chilling blue depths.

Calmly, Danny spoke to Damian. His voice was crystal clear, cool like a mountain stream.

"Just because you jumped into the fire behind me doesn't mean you felt the pain I did.  Your hand was held above the flames while I was being burnt in the fucking fire."

Damian begins to cry because he knows that Danny is right. No matter what he went through, it would never compare to what happened to his big brother. Even more so, when he feels long lanky arms wrap around him, a cool hand rubbing his back soothingly, and whispers of sweet nothingness entering his ears.

He cries because no matter what he does he will never be like his big brother.

[alollinglaughingcat]

i came back just to rb this post because ive been thinking about it as i write, because when I started writing my Who Got the Kids in the Divorce? lego monkie kid fic, I wanted to experiment a little with PoV's. i'm not sure why, but I just started... transitioning into different PoV's instead of using an indicator like a line break or new chapter.

this is from the first chapter:

the line not highlighted could, theoretically, be in either the yellow or the blue's PoV---it doesn't matter because there is no character-specific thought attached to it. the chapter up to this point had been entirely yellow's PoV, but, at the end, it switches to blue's PoV so that the reader's can get insight into something that blue was keeping secret from them (yellow/the other characters).

and while you could argue that the unhighlighted line counts as a sort of "line break" transition, I also do it in the same paragraph occasionally

even in the same sentence!

i do still use line breaks/new chapters to switch PoV's, but I have actually had a lot of fun transitionally naturally between one PoV to the next, particularly in the case of following a character to a different scene that the previous character couldn't be apart (if that makes sense; like the example above, where yellow can not over hear the private conversation that blue is having).

obviously, i don't do it without making it very clear whose PoV it is. typically, it's the start of a new scene/situation that indicates a PoV change (ex.: character A is leaving, or character B just got attacked or something), but there are a few moments where it is just a change in someone thinking about the same situation as another character

in this scenario, pale cerulean (the blue) is thinking that red is being calm/nice, but then we switch to red's PoV to see that it is absolutely not the case, and that they are having a miserable/anxious/angry time.

i could go on and on about all the little ways i like to switch PoV's in WGTKITD. it's very fun to do, and it makes writing WGTKITD fun even when im absolutely unmotivated to write a particular scene! it also allows the reader to gain insight they wouldn't normally have if, say, the fic was all in yellow's PoV, but, it also lets me prevent the reader from gaining certain knowledge by conveniently switching to another's PoV right when something juicy's happening ;P

i'm not sure if it quite identifies as head-hopping, but it really got me thinking!

Questions about fanfiction that I need everyone else's opinion on, apparently (part 2)

Head-hopping (also called head-jumping) refers to when the writer jumps between different viewpoints (or POVs) in middle of a scene, i.e. the writer includes thoughts, feelings, and references to lived experiences for more than one character in a scene. The perspective change can occur between paragraphs, sentences, and sometimes even within the same sentence.

It's different from a POV jump in a dual- or multi-POV story in that there's no indication of the jump (i.e. section break or new chapter), and there's sometimes more than one jump — to a third/+ character or back to a previous character's POV.

It's also different from Third Person Omniscient in that there isn't a separate omniscient narrator who sees and knows all (e.g. the narrator in the Good Omens novel). In Third Person Omniscient, the whole story is written from the narrator's perspective, using their 'voice' throughout all the narration, whereas in head-hopping the story is told from the perspective of two/+ characters, using each of their 'voices' during the parts being told from their perspective.

Some readers find head-hopping jarring because it requires them to resituate themselves in the different characters' perspectives each time there's a switch, and may additionally confuse them if references to other characters aren't consistent (e.g. writing "his head office" twice in one sentence and referring to the two different head offices of two different characters).

An example of head-hopping:

Crowley slips his sunglasses back on. He usually takes them off as soon as he enters the bookshop, but their discussion is making him far too uncomfortable and vulnerable to even consider meeting Aziraphale's eyes. Aziraphale hesitates before asking his next question, hopes that he's not pushing the matter too far, hopes that Crowley won't stomp out with some silly excuse instead of considering what he's asking. He rather enjoys spending time with Crowley and doesn't want this to come between them.

(sorry if it's poorly written/OOC, I wrote this on the spot because I didn't want to use any published fics as an example) (if you're not a fan of Good Omens, you have my apology for using it as an example) (if you are a fan, there are no spoilers; it doesn't refer to any actual conversation/event in canon)

If I've written the example in a way that doesn't illustrate the difference well enough, here are a few articles that discuss head-hopping, with more examples: link, link, link.

I personally don't like head-hopping. I'm probably at a 'dislike' but have in the past stopped reading fics if the hopping got too confusing or frustrating.

If you specifically do or don't like head-hopping, I'd love to hear why!

Please reblog for greater reach and more opinions!

Part 1 (includes reblogs with additional helpful info from @oliversrarebooks)

[megamindsecretlair]

If yall would've seen this nasty ass Terry fic in my head, yall wouldve chase me off the innanet 😩

[hyunpic]

[boobchuy]

I love amphibia I'm really happy it exists

[captainhysunstuff]

Light comes up with a brilliant plan to avoid their "bad ending" during the rain scene (inspired by/stolen from the Steven Universe episode "Fusion Cuisine": scene link). Light's final quote is also from "Giant Woman~".

Next

[spaghetti666lover]

New Spy X Family illustration!

we're being fed well