Head-Hopping and a Cold Weather Walk

Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer. ~Plutarch, Moralia

I didn't get very many responses from people to my questions about guest blogs / author interviews yesterday. Darn it. I'm still asking, so feel free to comment today!

Maybe I'll do monthly themes and solicit guest blogs in that theme? This wouldn't work if I hit up bigger named authors (and yes, I did get a few folks suggested to me). OTOH, if I had, say "cowboy month" and I hit up... oh... Linda Lael Miller, that would work.

I'd better decide soon... January is right around the corner!

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HA... proof that "head-hopping" is confusing, even to the untrained eye.

Last night, DD and I were sitting side-by-side and she was reading. All of a sudden she growled, slammed down her book and looked at me. "Mom, first the story is told from this person, then that person, then another one. I can't figure out who is telling the story. It's CONFUSING."

I clarified. "You mean that it starts out from the point of view of one character and then shifts unexpectedly into another's?"

"YES." She slams the book again. "I hate it. I'm inside one person's head, I even get their THOUGHTS, and then I'm not anymore and I can't keep track. I don't want to read this book anymore."

"This book" happened to be the first in a series -- and my DD is a series freak. If it had held her attention, she would have gobbled up every last one. This author lost a rabid fan by breaking the "No POV switches" rule ... and my DD isn't an author. I've never talked about head-hopping to her. The simple fact is, it confused her... her biggest quibble was being in deep POV with one character and then getting tossed out.

I bring this up because I started reading a short story this a.m. -- and was in deep, deep POV with the heroine, and then WHAMMO! it changed to the hero, mid-scene. I really, really hate that. Changing at chapter breaks is fine and dandy, or even scene breaks, but this was at a pivotal point in the story (the heroine realizes that her new teaching partner is an old flame) and dumped me right out of the story. So, I shut down the document and deleted it off my computer. And the author, who is quite a prolific eBook author, lost me as a reader/buyer (I'm looking for more books to buy for my Nook!).

BTW -- anyone have any suggestions for some good, newer, books?

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Yesterday I took a walk for the first time in several days. Between the snow storm on Wednesday, and then the gale force winds on Thurs, Fri and half of Saturday it was downright inhospitable. The dog was going nuts, my joints were starting to ache... so yesterday afternoon, when I noticed the wind had died down (never mind it was 20 degrees outside!), I bundled up and took both my kids (DD and Dd) for a nice walk.

I did decide that I need flannel lined jeans, though. My legs were the only part of me that was cold. OH, and my eyeballs. I swear, they felt like they'd frozen solid.

Next year, I'm spending the winter in California. I have a friend who lives in Monterey. It's lovely there in the winter. Yeah.... sounds like a plan.

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Pet Peeve #2

The world may be full of fourth-rate writers, but it's also full of fourth-rate readers. - Stan Barstow

Okay... next reading/writing pet peeve: POV breaks, or "head-hopping".

People always throw La Nora out when this comes up, so we'll just get her out of the way right now: love her or hate her, Nora Roberts IS who she is, and can write whatever she wants. Until other authors are as big as Nora, they should (IMHO) play by the POV rule.

I lurked on a group with many editors discussing this very issue once. It was about 50/50 as to whether they'd let authors head hop or not. And, things were typically ambiguous or random, stuff like, "If the POV swaps are smooth, it's okay." or "If it only happens once in a scene, it's okay." Of course, there were some who put their foot down and said: NO HEAD-HOPPING. They were my heroes.

Fact is, IMHO again, POV switches are never smooth. I always notice them. Some bug me less than others, but they don't slip under my POV purist radar.

Additionally, I think that head-hopping is just lazy on the author's part. Sometimes, it's HARD to get something across when you only stay in one character's head in a scene. It's also the reason that choosing your POV character is so important, and why when I'm struggling with a scene, I'll sometimes try to write it from the other character's POV to see if it works better.

And, no matter the argument, I firmly believe that people who DON'T care about POV switches also won't care if an author is a POV purist. BUT -- and this is important!! -- people like me who don't particularly like head-hopping? They're NOT going to like your work if you jump around POVs willy-nilly. They may have bought your work once, but they won't again. What's more, you won't get positive word-of-mouth from them.

I don't know about you, but I prefer to annoy the fewest number of people possible with my writing. I know not everyone will like what I do, but I can make an effort not to push hot buttons that I can avoid.

What do YOU think?

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I have FOUR crocus that should bloom today -- and if the rain holds off this morning, I'll post pictures. Those of you down south are probably snickering at my excitement. After all, YOUR crocus bloomed two months ago. You're probably planting your veggie gardens.

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Gratuitous pet picture -- because Breeann is seldom so undignified. She's only started doing this lately:



I think Dakota is rubbing off on her:



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