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Am I the last romance reader in the world who's bothered by constant head-hopping?  I'm reading a novel now by a popular paranormal author (no, I'm not going to name her) and the abrupt POV shifts back-and-forth within a single page are giving me a headache!  I'm willing to tolerate it from Nora Roberts when I read one of her books because she's Nora freakin' Roberts and she's that good, but the rest of you?  Not that good. Yet.

Dorothy Dunnett's six book Lymond Chronicles are told from everyone's POV except the hero.   We're only in his head for one sentence.  And yet I defy anyone to read and enjoy those books without coming away feeling like you know the hero.

It takes effort to stay within a single POV for a scene, especially in a romance because you have two protagonists.  I've written scenes where I switched POV midway through because I thought it was necessary for the story, and I've written scenes where I deliberately went back and made myself write it all in a single POV.

New writers should hone their craft and work at not head-hopping, and editors should raise the standards.  Is that too much to ask?

Comments

Louise Marley said…
Head-hopping makes me crazy,too, Darlene. As do run-on sentences. Where are the copyeditors? *smiles*
4:17 PM
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