For Instance Head Hopping

Here's my recent experience.  I had written the first part, about 800 words, of a longer short story and I was really excited about it.  I thought it was an interesting story and that I was capturing it pretty well by the third draft.  I was anxious to share it with the group to see if I was delusional.  They seemed to think it was worth listening to and I received only two pieces of feedback for improvement.  One was grammatical in nature, which I happily changed right away.  The other went something like this "Sometimes when you switch perspectives so often, it's a little confusing."

I have zero interest personally in breaking new ground in the art of fiction writing.  I just want to tell a story people will have been glad they read.  At the same time, out of the corner of my eye, I was a little inflated to think that by incorporating all these unannounced point-of-view shifts, I may have created a new post-modern contemporary approach to fiction writing. Sad to say I was a million miles from correct, or even from reasonable.


Now, I need to report that the writing group I belong to is gentle and supportive.  I know that some groups thrive on brutal direct feedback.  It is also true that our group is filled with writers all of whom are far more experienced than I am.  So, I at least had the good sense to listen to the 'confusing perspective' feedback.

It turns out, in this story I am so excited about, I had indulged in a writer's sin known as head hopping.  Of course, no one has the exact same definition of what 'head hopping' means - writing is an art not a science after all -- but according to the self-described "Mad Professor of Fiction Writing", head-hopping is the practice of switching point-of-view characters within a single scene.  So, at one moment you are the omniscient narrator, at another you're the hero, at another you're the villain or the boyfriend or the dog.  And the writer does all this so that it is confusing for the reader to know just who is thinking these thoughts or making these observations.  

And, it also turns out that this is a common problem for new writers.  C'est Moi.

So now, I need to decide whether to follow my pounding heart and plunge ahead with Part Two of the story or to follow my head and go back to fix Part One.  By comparison, Hamlet had an easy choice.  In the end, I decided on doing the repair.  Which means, I won't have anything new and exciting to read tomorrow to the Group.  

So, I'm going to share this blog entry and let them know how appreciative, if a little grumpy, I am.

Without a Writing Group, I never would have known I was not a brilliant inventor of a new form of avant-garde storytelling.  At least not yet.  

Join a Writing Group and listen hard.