pmmg
Myth Weaver
I feel the others have covered this one.
Sometimes the head hopping is noticeable and jarring, and sometimes it slips in and you wont see it till the 30th edit.
It may be an ugly step child, or a poorly crafted tool in the tool box, but you set the rules for your fiction. If you show its close 3rd with one POV, another POV in the same scene will detract from the work, so it should be avoided.
I was looking through my own stuff for examples, but I have become so accustomed to not head hopping that I am not easily finding a place. Which is to show that you can train yourself not to do it.
In my own writing, I have a hierarchy to it. Character A is the POV, but if they are not present, it is character B, and if they are not, character C, it always steers back to the top level character when they are present.
The only real trick is, you have to show why the POV character would know something about the non-POV character.
Becky did not like the answer, she knew Rosa was lying. "It was you," she accused. "You stole that ring before our mother died."
Rosa drew back as if affronted, her bow knitting, her expression both sad and pleading. "How could you say such a thing? She gave me this ring when she knew she was dying. I did not steal it."
Here we get Becky's thoughts, she is the POV, but we also get Rosa's reaction which can reveal her thoughts, even though she is not the POV. You just need to use the tools and make the magic work.
Sometimes the head hopping is noticeable and jarring, and sometimes it slips in and you wont see it till the 30th edit.
It may be an ugly step child, or a poorly crafted tool in the tool box, but you set the rules for your fiction. If you show its close 3rd with one POV, another POV in the same scene will detract from the work, so it should be avoided.
I was looking through my own stuff for examples, but I have become so accustomed to not head hopping that I am not easily finding a place. Which is to show that you can train yourself not to do it.
In my own writing, I have a hierarchy to it. Character A is the POV, but if they are not present, it is character B, and if they are not, character C, it always steers back to the top level character when they are present.
The only real trick is, you have to show why the POV character would know something about the non-POV character.
Becky did not like the answer, she knew Rosa was lying. "It was you," she accused. "You stole that ring before our mother died."
Rosa drew back as if affronted, her bow knitting, her expression both sad and pleading. "How could you say such a thing? She gave me this ring when she knew she was dying. I did not steal it."
Here we get Becky's thoughts, she is the POV, but we also get Rosa's reaction which can reveal her thoughts, even though she is not the POV. You just need to use the tools and make the magic work.
