Non-Fiction Gallery

Head Hopping
by J. Daniel Seffens

As an editor, one thing I see authors struggle with time and again is focusing on the point of view of a single character. They have all these little people running around in their heads, acting out a story. With all the thoughts and feeling bleeding out on the page (or screen), sticking with those of only one character can be a challenge.

Since many writers get to know their characters to the point where they can actually converse with them, it is even more difficult to tell the tale with to many different ‘voices’ speaking to you. Therefore, for this problem, I only can offer a little exercise to practice overcoming this little obstacle.

Ignoring all voices but one while sketching out a story can be difficult, so I propose to try ignoring them all. What I want you to do is take a scene from a story of yours and rewrite it from an entirely new perspective. This can be a current work in progress, an old story, or something you throw together from scratch. The catch here is not to create a new character, but to write it from the perspective of an inanimate object. This way, there’s no voices to distract you.

Does this sound crazy? Perhaps, but it works. You may even like the new point of view and decide to keep it. Or you might try experimenting with different objects to keep the suspense with limited perspective. Try it a few times, and you might just learn of new, interesting ways to write.