11 / 18
Nov 2020

I remember when Martin wrote that he had to change the book plan, because he just saw the book starting with Jon standing on the Wall and thinking, “Boy, not much has happened in the last five years...”

I wonder how you handle the time sequences where the motions are so small they do not warrant the scenes, but to create the impression that some time had passed and it wasn’t empty.

Like, do you just start the next chapter with a catch up scene (i.e. Jon stands on the Wall) or you don’t mention it, until it’s relevant?

In my case, I absolutely need to have 3-4 weeks to elapse between the chapters with nothing much.

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    Nov '20
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For me especially circumstances where the time skip is so small I would have it built into both the dialogue and the visual aspect of what has changed in that story time.

So for example I plan to have at least one time skip coming up in my own novel I would put them small changes that happened into the character dialogue. However I would do it in such a way that it would blend into what is currently going on.

For me I was planning on doing a training sequence and so I would have the mentor mention things that happened during the time skip and then push the character into their next steps. So it builds off of what the audience didn't see but doesn't spend too much time on it unless there has a important transition during that short time skip.

Something similar might help in the 3-4 weeks time elapse that you are planning.

If you don't use dialogue it might be better just to give a short summary of what happened especially if anything happened that relates to your story over all, this can be in the form of maybe a letter or diary entry from your character, or even just a short description that works into where your next chapter goes.

I hope that these suggestion help with what you were looking for.

I just start the next chapter. There's a three week time skip at one point, and the chapter starts with my character reflecting on how he thought those weeks would've been enough time to prepare mentally for what was about to happen but it wasn't enough time at all

edit - I also have a two month time skip. In that chapter, I have the character setting up a time to visit and he says 'about two months' then the next chapter starts with 'Autumn break came soon enough' so that the readers know those two months have passed by.

If I write a time skip that relatively unimportant, I just add a break between sections and move on. if the 3-4 weeks is important, I would either address it in dialogue/internal monologue or just directly say something like "John hadn't seen Tim in a month".

I also prefer a non-linear storyline when I write for simplicity. Two of my characters haven't seen each other in 15 years. Since there is a lot of ground to cover in that time frame, I prefer to not bring it up until it becomes relevant as you said.

I usually just...say it. ._. Like, "over the next few months, blah blah went on until whatever day" or "a year later, character people were in yada yada".

Why...would you not? Is that a thing people do, just timeskip without mentioning it at all??

I guess I see how it could work, but I feel like timeskipping is a stylistic technique in and of itself, and it's kind of weird for me to think about people doing it without wanting to draw attention to it.

Like in a movie, when you do the panoramic shot over the crimson fall leaves to show that the year has progressed since the last scene, or in an anime, when you show the characters looking older with new outfits...it elicits a feeling in the audience, a sort of sentimental "aw, everyone's growing up, things have happened" reaction. And you can't really get that in prose unless you step out of the narrative a bit and explain it outright.

Have you seen The Witcher? They just jump all over the place in terms of 'when' it's happening and the audience has to kind of piece it together themselves. Personally I really enjoyed that aspect of the show, but I see how not everyone would like it. When it comes to writing/comics I feel like it's even harder to pull something like that off

Nope, I have not seen the Witcher. In this case, I don’t need to blend timelines, I just need a credible feeling that 2-3 weeks had passed without a significant advancement in the relationship, despite the characters living side by side.

Sometimes, one can be explicit on the time passed, like this:

Or on a more serious note, one can be explicit, while keeping the tension......ex: six months, three days and five hours have passed since my brother was killed....and still the police haven't found any lead....I can't wait anymore....i gotta do something.....there is this old saying....if you want something done, do it yourself...."

I haven't written in a huge time skip in my stories, mainly because they haven't been needed recently and probably won't be for a good while. Although, I probably will have to do that soon. I would most likely simply write it in as a summary of what happened in that month, usually, it's understandable why I skipped that time. Usually, it's just the characters going through everyday things or a new routine or such.

If it's a comic, there's going to be some character changes and cues that imply an age difference and probably a "5 years later" indication on the side.

That's basically my point...in a visual medium you can stand to be more subtle (like the "fall leaves" thing I mentioned)...just a little camera work or a few seconds of canned footage can portray the passage of time. And of course there's the time of day/year and the location that the viewers can see instantly; you can just jump right in and let them figure it out.

You can do similar things in a comic...but in a novel it doesn't work at all. You have to pad out the timeskip with something, you can't just go straight to the next scene and start in with the characters doing things you didn't set up and talking to people that the reader didn't know were there. At best it'll look really jarring.

It's definitely easier in a comic where you can just put in some empty panels small to denote time (although only manga readers will recognize that trick--it's not used as much in Western comics) but in books, I've always appreciated when they just jump right in. Usually signifiers like holidays, sports games, tests, seasonal foods, and other things can tell time well enough. That and the narration can just...say it if time has elapsed.

You can illustrate time skips through narrations, or even just page breaks.

for instance, break the paragraph at the end of the first scene, and then pick up the next paragraph with a description of the person after time has passed.

say they just worked out, and that's what you're skipping. Describe the soreness of their muscles, the little adjustments they make every time they keel from one foot to the other. The feeling of fatigue.

in long time skips describe the fading of scares, or the enduring prominence. Describe the growth of hair, change of clothes, increase or decrease in size. deepness of voice. Or have them start by hazilly recalling the moment you just described from a distant future.

like, "gosh (events of chapter 3) were craxy broski. I can't quite picture them now. Not clearly"

I think there's a lot of contextual ways to hint at this/show it without just outright stating it, though finding out what you need probably would need specifics, because a lot of them can only work under some circumstances.

In two of my web novels, Hands Held in the Snow and ATL, I've done these sorts of timeskips that you mentioned on several occassions. Here are some of the ways I pulled them off:

  • In Hands Held, the main characters met for the second or third time, and with a strong implication of dating to come. The next chapter took place with only one of the characters, but the narration conveyed that the characters had spent quite a lot of time together just by mentioning some offscreen, inconsequential events.
  • In one ATL story, the protagonist finishes a fight scene thinks their duel with a villain is over. Then, the next chapter cuts to them, trapped in a house and forced to lounge around while avoiding the villain who was definitely not defeated permanently. The subversion of expectations gives a very natural way to convey that several days have passed since that event, and nothing of relevance happened in the meantime.
  • In Hands Held, both main characters have "throughline subplots" where the characters want to improve at some kind of hobby or interest. Showing how they have improved at these things is one way to subtly fill in the blanks of time passing without actually having to state anything at all.
  • In both stories, I often have done something where I will mention an event that is X months or weeks away, and then the next chapter shows that that event is very close. Through implication alone, quite a lot of time has passed. This one's probably kind of cheap though.

One element that seems to stick out to me is the contrast between the end of a chapter and the beginning of the next. Maybe the best method is to make sure that these two elements do NOT match? Such as, the ending of chapter X is somewhat resolutory, with no cliffhangers or driving tensions that need to be immediately addressed, so that it's like the "end" of some kind of continuum. Then, the next chapter is able to start on its own and convey that passing of time.

The way of conveying plot developments offscreen in stories has always fascinated me, so I like thinking about doing timeskips that aren't particularly "relevant" to the plot. It's a really fun topic!

They can occur between action sequences, characters, and the changing textures of the work. For the reader's mind to transition seamlessly, the work must begin with where they are in the current flow. As a reader, I have often been confused by poorly done skips. I would have to go back, re-read, and take additional time to figure out what just happened. A time skip is like a bridge in that both ends need to be secure. The believability of where one steps on and where one steps off, I think, must be equal.

Yes, I think what worries me the most is the tie off of the previous chapter and the beginning of the next one making people question that how come really nothing happens in those 2-3 weeks between them?

So, I am tempted to start with a bit of an inner monologue that recaps emotional happenings to bridge into the, “and now we’ve reached the critical mass, and it’s gonna blow!”

I am wondering if it is better than an intermediary scene of nothing happening...

Less is more. An apt descriptive phrase, for example, can convey that a character has been busy in the interim by painting him as overworked, tired, successful, etc.

I take it on a case by case basis with my time skips. Depending on how much story I have to tell in a single day in my characters life, the time skips may be as insignificant as, one scene playing out in the morning and then the next scene playing out at night. In which case I'll just use context clues. "The sun was setting. The sun was rising." Simple things like that. But then occasionally I'll have a jump that's a week later, or even a month later. I usually try to incorporate directly into the writing that there's a time skip. "It had been a week since he started hanging out with Miya." That sort of thing.

I only have one or two major time skips that I can think of, and I have those both separated by visions of the past. Usually my readers will know when a major time skip is about to happen because my writing will actually take them backwards in time before it goes forwards.