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How to Show a Time Skip in Writing

Written By الأحد، 12 ديسمبر 2021 Add Comment Edit
  1. In time skipping I mean the tool writer's use to skip to say for example it being Saturday and the writer wants to move story to Monday where school starts and your main character can talk to friends/ things get interesting again etc.
    How do you time skip so it is not obvious you are skipping boring days/ time to arrange your plot and characters?
    I don't want to do the basic thing like: next Monday, Bessy showed up to school getting a ride from her dad. Storming off Jimmy was crossing the road when a speeding car didn't see him enter the road.
    And unable to stop it hit him full force and sent him flying 25 metres across the road. his girlfriend screamed and ran to him while his friend went to stop traffic, his girlfriend sat beside him on the road sobbing afraid to touch him but unable to keep her self away begging him not to die.
    A month later after a operation or two and some intensive therphy later Jimmy got out hospital on crutches with his leg in a cask he was surprise to see his best mate waiting with his girlfriend by the car after the fight they had he wasn't sure they would ever want to speak to him again.
    What is the best thing to do? and do I need to use time skips so sparingly?
  2. End a chapter and start a new one perhaps? If it's a short story I don't know how to time skip; it's not one of my strengths.In an attempt to explore time skipping based on your example sentences it seems to me that in that instance its use rips the reader way too quickly away from a potentially devastating tragedy. It feels like saying, "Bob took two rounds to the head and his girlfriend wept bitterly." No big deal though, "thirty days later after surgeons poked around in Bobs head a couple times his gal and best bud (in a surprising show of goodwill) were hanging out by a car when he hobbled outside." So in the example given I wouldn't time skip but I'm sure it has its uses elsewhere. Best wishes :)
  3. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I don't think there's anything wrong with the basic "Next Monday" form of time skipping, but you need to follow it up with something interesting, not a summary of events.

    So something like:

    Next Monday, Bessy was back at school as if nothing had happened. Same cheerful wave to her father as he dropped her off, same bright smile as she sashayed up the front steps like she was a movie star at a gala event. The only thing that had changed was the way her show made Jimmy feel...
    ​
    Like, keep the time skip short and clear, then jump right back into the action.

    You use time skips to get past the boring parts, not to "tell" the important parts.

    Your next time skip is a full month, so I'd definitely do a new chapter for that. And then, again, show the important stuff instead of telling it. If you're in Jimmy's POV, probably at least some of the recovery process would be important, so I wouldn't skip it. but if you're in some other POV who wasn't part of the recovery and is only seeing what happens at school, you could start with:

    It was thirty-three days before we saw Jimmy again, and when he returned he was different. Crutches, yeah, and skinny, like all the surgeries had taken more of him than hospital food could replace. Quieter, too. Maybe it was just because he wasn't feeling well, but I got the sense there was more to it. Like more than his leg had been ripped up the day Bessy returned to school...​

    Or whatever. Keep the time shift part short and clear, and then write the story you want to tell.
  4. TWErvin2

    TWErvin2 Contributor Contributor

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    Pick up a few books you've enjoyed reading and observe the methods those authors used to skip time within a novel (or short story). It should give you a list of tools and examples to accomplish what you need to do. Just modify them to your story and writing style.
  5. I love this. Well said :superagree:
  6. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

    You can start a new chapter or use a page break or *** to show the progression of time and space
    in your story without much problem. I use *** and briefly mention how far the jump has been made
    if it is more than say a day or week. It would be too much of hassle to cover the long haul in my own
    piece if leaps in time didn't happen, and it would get kinda boring.

    Just my two pennies worth.

  7. Oh yeah, I forgot about page breaks!:agreed:
  8. Walking Dog

    Walking Dog Active Member

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    The last sentence before the skip is closure to the previous scene. The first sentence after the skip begins the next scene. You can start the next sentence with, "Monday morning..." Trust the reader. Writers explain things to a fault.

    Closure: Toby mounted his bike and pedaled home. He was going fishing in the morning.

    Begin: A fresh breeze brought a morning chill and lapped waves upon the bank, as Toby unloaded the fishing gear under the illumination of his headlight.

    .

    Last edited: May 31, 2017
  9. malaupp

    malaupp Active Member

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    Sometimes you can show how much time has passed by what the character is doing. If your last scene is on a Saturday night and the next shows the character walking into homeroom, your reader will usually pick up that it's now Monday. You can give the audience context clues without having to outright tell them. And if that's not possible, there's nothing wrong with a quick "x amount of time has passed" note. Although if you have a lot of time skips in just a couple of pages, you might want to take another look at the pacing of your story.
  10. thanks everyone! your advice are all interesting and helpful.
    I wrote the examples on the fly so apologies if they was not written real well, my brain was not cooperating at the time to help me remember my own stuff or some examples of other books usages with time skipping.
    thanks again :D

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How to Show a Time Skip in Writing

Source: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/time-skipping-in-writing-how-to-do-them-right.152441/

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