Usually a proper segue is needed when switching POVs from character to character and if it’s done, say from paragraph to paragraph, the reader can start to feel like Sybil and cause them to draw out of the work. From my understanding, very few authors can pull off abrupt POV changes smoothly enough to not be noticable.

Also from my understanding, a third person limited doesn’t necessarily have to remain behind the eyes of one character throughout but it should remain in third person limited throughout. One of my WIPs is third limited but I fully intend on having a couple chapters from the POVs of different characters just so I’m not following one character around like a puppy dog. It’s a sly way to get some omniscience in yet remain in the same POV. JK Rowling did that in, I believe, all 7 HP books. For the most part it was from Harry’s POV but there were scene switches where we get insight into events that Harry doesn’t know what’s going on. Personally, it was a nice break from Harry’s sometimes PIA POV.

But yeah, getting inside multiple characters heads within one chapter is usually frowned upon. And I agree that there is a push for the author to remain inside the head of one character, which is where my confusion between omniscient and head hopping lay. It’s since cleared up and I’ve since realized that I prefer limited (I like a challenge) but the want to hop into another head is still there.

I recently read a book that was firmly entrenched in third person limited until about 2/3 of the way through, when all of a sudden we were in a completely different person’s head. I found it jarring, to say the least! And this was a recent publication, not a centuries-old masterpiece.

The problem seems to be when the story starts out in third person, then switches to omni, then switches back to limited third, etc. I think that editors and agents are vocal about this being a red flag because it demonstrates a lack of technique. They have so many submissions to read; when they get one from an unknown author that’s head-hopping all over the place, it’s a sign that maybe the author hasn’t mastered the pov technique, and possibly there will be other “beginner” issues as well.

Granted, once you’re a successful author, you can do pretty much whatever you want, which explains why we see head-hopping all over the bookstore. Until we ‘arrive’, us peons have to stick to the guidelines.

One person’s opinion :).