Third Person Omniscient vs Head Hopping

Recently I’ve found myself in a quandary about critiquing another writer for the ‘head hopping’ error.  I mean, what actually constitutes head hopping?  In my role as a tech writer, I never encountered a POV problem.  And when I began to write fiction in earnest, I wrote about the characters and actions dancing around in my head, not giving much thought about POV. I mostly paid attention to verb tense.

In time, I realized that most writers (and certainly those who critique other writers) give a whole lot of consideration to a story’s POV.  So I studied the main points of view and attempted to follow the rules. Later, I found myself pondering the differences between third person omniscient, third person limited, and head-hopping.  When reviewing another author’s writing, how do we know when to tell them they need to ‘fix’ a paragraph because of head-hopping versus accepting a change in POV because the author chose to write in third person omniscient? 

I didn’t want to split hairs, but I did need a better understanding of what type of POV changes confuse the reader and rankle the editor.

As an English major I read a lot of literature written in the 1800s.  During that century, most novelists wrote in third person omniscient (check out some of the works by Tolstoy, Louisa May Alcott, William Golding, and Jane Austen).  But recently, most writers prefer third person limited.  Since ‘most’ doesn’t mean all, some more recent best sellers have been written in third person omniscient, like Frank Herbert’s Dune, Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea and Douglas Adams A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  On occasion, Stephen King writes in third person omniscient also.

But since third person omniscient is fraught with pitfalls, most current authors choose not to use it or they don’t do it well. Today’s writers are advised to “show, don’t tell,” which is easier to attain in third person limited.

So where does head hopping come in? How is head hopping different from third person omniscient? There’s no doubt that head hopping is unpopular because stories afflicted with these errors aren’t likely to win or place in writing contests and won’t get published.  A common head hopping mistake involves having the POV character “know” things that he or she couldn’t actually know (except in a fantasy where the character is a mind reader).  Outside of the mystical, characters can surmise that something about another person is true, but they can’t know for sure.

Another head hopping mistake involves a chapter or section written in the POV of Character AB while also containing instances of the ‘thinking’ or ‘feeling’ of Character CD. This often causes readers to STOP, back up, and re-read in order to ‘get’ it, an effect authors should not encourage.

With the third person limited, an author can have more than one POV as long as changes from one POV to another are obvious via a chapter or section break. I’m writing a YA book that has three POVs, which is certainly enough. I wouldn’t recommend creating nine POVs as George RR Martin did in Game of Thrones.  

Now that I have a better understanding of what is and isn’t head hopping, I want to re-examine what constitutes a well-written third person omniscient novel. Back in the 70s, it took me a year to read Anna Karenina, so I won’t be re-reading that one.  Instead, I’m going to read The Outsider by Stephen King. I’ve read most of King’s books, but some how I missed that one.

Write on!

Ann Gordon