I read a WW comment a short while ago about how it's not OK to be in more than one character's head at a time. This is one of my great faults. I can have five characters all thinking at the same time! Can anyone tell me the official technique for getting round this?

I can't answer your question I'm afraid Ty - but my novel has three perspectives/protagonists and it was almost the point of the book to have it this way - so although many have advised me not to do it - well hard luck I have/am. (I know stroppy writer here!)
I would therefore not think of you being inside five characters heads as a fault at all, but instead if done well (and without confusion) I would consider it a great virtue. After all, in life, every event is seen/felt/heard from different perspectives according to the person that witnesses or experiences it.
I think I almost object to rules and restrictions (agents and publishers demands to do things a certain way make me uncomfortable - although not quite yet brave enough to rebel, I do conform) but isn;t writing an artform? Don't the greatest works of art in any sphere actually break the rules. I certainly don't want to read standardised novels which always follow the same format.
Have you posted any of your work with the 5 characters (apologies if you have) because I would love to read it.
I think it was Anna who once said that there are no rules in modern fiction - well perhaps there are textbook rules, but once you know them it is all right to break them. Correct me if I am wrong Anna, as I know I am paraphrasing your words. However, that gave me the confidence to just go with what I wanted to do/had to do - hence my three viewpoints. Can you elaborate better than my ramblings here Anna?
Shadowgirl
ps can you tell this is my current hobby horse!

I don't know about an official technique, but I always try to picture every scene in my head visually, like in a play or a movie. Whichever character my imaginary camera falls upon to write on, that is the ONLY character I try to really 'feel' and focus on. The others stay on the back burner, waiting their turn. You owe it to every character to give them a little QT! Hope that helps?!

Hi Tybalt, I am always getting into the same kind of trouble. This is what most bothered the editor about my one published effort, and when I sent chapters of the novel I am working on to the creative writing tutor who has been helping me, I got further stick for it. I too have been resisting advice. I like being in several people's heads at once. HOWEVER, I have found most of the advice I have been offered has paid off when I have taken it. On this front the advice is: never, ever change points of view within a paragraph; two points of view in one chapter is more than enough; ideally, stay within one point of view for a whole chapter. How many in one book ? - well Matthew Kneale in English Passengers went into about 6 different people's heads (whole chapters each), and was brilliant. For lesser mortals, two or three is as much as most readers like to cope with. I am slowly finding ways to limit my 'in-head' characters ( letters, conversations with ducks etc). I'm prepared to play the game their way until I know more about it, then maybe I can break the rules. (They might even be right, anyway). Cheers, Hilary

I agree with what Hilary says on this one. But of course you can speak from different characters heads if, for example, you give each character a section in the book, lots of novels are, and have been, written that way. Even alternate chapters between two characters works, and can be stunning if there is tension in the story. But basically if something actually works according to your readers, then it's got to be valid hasn't it? - People need to break new ground.
Becca.

Shadowgirl, Simon, Hilary and Becca,
Thank you for the advice on this sticky area -diverse responses but all useful. I, too, tend to write fiction like a stage play; different scenes, different spotlights. But there are times when it's not beyond reason to have two leading characters 'on the stage' at the same time. Nevertheless, I'll play by the rules until I've learnt the game more thoroughly.
Thanks to you all.

When I have to do this, I give each change of viewpoint a new chapter, and clearly head it along the lines of: "Fred's story"/"End of Fred's story". It seems rather heavy-handed, but people tend to skip-read more than they realise, and then get annoyed when changes in narrative viewpoint trip them up. A story hopefully takes its readers out of themselves, so any artifice - however well-meant or needful - that breaks the spell is as welcome as a loud noise when drifting off to sleep. Done well, your readers won't notice, or at least they won't mind; done badly, you'll lose them.

Yep- because confusing the reader isn't necessarily being radical or ground breaking, it can sometimes mean they just stop reading... Shadowgirl, you're dead right, whenever I teach writing the first thing I say is; 'The only rule is, there are no rules', and while that's not quite true, I do think that writing- particularly novels- for far too long has been ruled by the elite and their set of rules. So it's pleasurable and sometimes exciting to break them, or to ignore them. But really the thing about being in too many characters heads is, as Becca said and as I've said in response to people's work before now, about not jumpoing about too much in a paragraph, or as Paul says, labelling the changes if you want to so that it's clear. Ideally, good writing is a mixture of rule breaking once you have an instinct about where you're going and whose voice, for example, you're talking in.