Let's say that you're writing a long passage in past perfect, like a flashback or a memory. Is it considered acceptable to only use past perfect for the sentences at the beginning and end of the passage and then switch to past simple for the rest?
I ask because it gets tedious to both read and write so many "had"s...
Past some point it's not as much about what is grammatical or appropriate as what, exactly you are trying to say. Repeated words are emphasized in some way, to illustrate a point. For example:
The young governess was upset. After all, she had been the one to get the children to write their Christmas lists, and it was she who had gone to the store, she who had done the shopping, she who had carted all the presents home, she who had carefully wrapped each, and she who had placed them decoratively under the tree. She didn't expect the children to have given her thanks, lost in their own selfish worlds as children are, but she did expect the parents to have shown some gratitude.
The repetition of "had" in this passage emphasizes all the various effort the governess made to buy presents for the children, to legitimize her annoyance. The writer might use this to illuminate the subject's train of thought, how each effort compounded the insult.
It could easily be written in the way you describe:
After all, she had been the one to make it a nice Christmas for the family: she got the children to write their Christmas lists, went to the store, did the shopping, carted all the presents home, carefully wrapped each, and placed them decoratively under the tree, and yet the parents had not given her any word of thanks.
This is more or less the same as the previous passage, but without the extra emphasis.
