Writing How to time skip?

[Suczka]

Hi.
Today i have question about time skips.

1. Are they permitted?
2. How to do them?

While writing I noticed that If I'll try to describe every hour of everyday of MC journey, I'll be writing fictional dairy instead of story.
But on the other hand in few threads there were comments that time skips might be frowned on.

Do I have to describe everyday of a "training montage" of my MC?
What if I want my story to span over many years?
I think if a girl is waiting on her love interest to come back from long voyage, I do not have to write about every day of her work.

Lately I started reading a story that had good set of tags, good description and nice idea. It started really good.
But as i was reading I noticed I was loosing sense of continuity. As If I drifted with my thoughts away and than woke up half a chapter later. It took me some time to understand that it was not me who missed something. But the author was making unprovoked and unannounced time skips.

Spoiler: Like this:

Like this: "I was playing with my mobile as I waited for the water to boil. I always begin day with the cup of hot coffee. Rain was pouring on my head as stepped out of the buss. There were only few people on the street light by lanterns. I run quickly to not get to wet. It was one of those quick rains that fall not obscuring the sunshine."

Good luck finding where I placed the time skips and understanding what is written...

So I am open to any suggestions, advises and discussion on how to write time skips in a good way.

 

[miyoga]

Why wouldn't they be permitted? It's your story, not theirs, so do what you think is right. As for the how, there's no single answer for that because you can do a time skip many different ways. You can directly state how much time has passed after providing a glimpse at daily life; you can leave it entirely up to the reader's imagination (e.g. "She watched as her lover boarded the ship, knowing that it would be some time before they could meet again. It's been 10 years since that fateful day..."). Or you could even leave the passage of time somewhat ambiguous.

The best advice I've got is to read some stories to see how other authors have handled a time skip in their own writing or to just say "F this, I do what I want!"

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Hi.
Today i have question about time skips.

1. Are they permitted?

No. But I know a guy who knows a guy who can hook you up. He deals only in Bitcoin, so load them onto a flash drive you don't mind burning.

2. How to do them?

Eldritch pondered the question, "How do I do time skips? Hrrmmm... Give me a moment."

---

Three years had passed for Eldritch.


He had found himself on the Largarna Escarpment. The need to harvest the mystical thousand-year-old Po'Nan trees that only grew on the sides of cliffs in this geologically unstable region was paramount. Without this ingredient, the tribal shaman would never be able to brew the cure to the plague that was decimating the tribe. It was at this moment that the time skip came to an end and Eldritch realized something.

"How the fuck did I wind up here?"

He got out a dose of Dr. Zobb's Anti-Time Paradox Cream, "Hopefully this will clear things up."

---

Several hours later, he woke back up at his keyboard, "What a clusterfuck." He resumed typing and talking while he did so because he is a considerate narrator, "I just use a dash and then treat the next section like a cold open. That usually works. It helps to have a writing style that emphasizes cold opens."

 

[bulmabriefs144]

Hi.
Today i have question about time skips.

1. Are they permitted?
2. How to do them?

While writing I noticed that If I'll try to describe every hour of everyday of MC journey, I'll be writing fictional dairy instead of story.
But on the other hand in few threads there were comments that time skips might be frowned on.

Do I have to describe everyday of a "training montage" of my MC?
What if I want my story to span over many years?
I think if a girl is waiting on her love interest to come back from long voyage, I do not have to write about every day of her work.

Lately I started reading a story that had good set of tags, good description and nice idea. It started really good.
But as i was reading I noticed I was loosing sense of continuity. As If I drifted with my thoughts away and than woke up half a chapter later. It took me some time to understand that it was not me who missed something. But the author was making unprovoked and unannounced time skips.

Spoiler: Like this:

Like this: "I was playing with my mobile as I waited for the water to boil. I always begin day with the cup of hot coffee. Rain was pouring on my head as stepped out of the buss. There were only few people on the street light by lanterns. I run quickly to not get to wet. It was one of those quick rains that fall not obscuring the sunshine."

Good luck finding where I placed the time skips and understanding what is written...

So I am open to any suggestions, advises and discussion on how to write time skips in a good way.

1. Absolutely anything is permitted in literature, aside from links (as it's mostly impossible) and outright plagiarism. Tolkien had insert songs and language charts. I've done text pictures before.
2. Easiest way?

TEN YEARS LATER

You could also just write to that effect. Talk about training, and just have the characters being at the meeting place.

 

[Praybird]

But the author was making unprovoked and unannounced time skips.

I think you pretty much answered your own thread! This, I think, would be the #1 problem regarding timeskips. If the timeskip is unclear, or the reader thinks the timeskip wasn't warranted, that's probably where most problems would occur. Basically, make them blatant, and use them when appropriate!

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Do I have to describe everyday of a "training montage" of my MC?

I don't recommend it. People understand what a training montage is. Stick to the Tropes. Tropes are your FRIEND. They are shorthand for a writer so you can skip over the boring shit.

What if I want my story to span over many years?

So... do that? I do. Dear GOD, I've planned 21 books to explain a god damn COSMIC WAR. I wrote an entirely new set of PHYSICAL LAWS right down to the quantum level of how magic/time/space/memes work and interact just so I can make sure EVERYTHING is meticulously crafted to fit together seemlessly. There are no throw away lines.

I also don't treat my audience like an idiot.

Don't over-explain. If you have... Here.

Chapter 82

Start there, go to Chapter 98

That section has several time skips and a flashforward/flashback several times. It is the BEST POSSIBLE EXAMPLE of how to write a story in a non-linear fashion. It is written out of order so that you, the reader, do not learn the truth of what is going on and that at the end, when all is revealed, you go, "OH!" and want to read it AGAIN.

Why?

Because now its a new story.

How do I do it?

I write something and say to myself, What One FACT will change everything? Okay, wherever that would be revealed, THAT HAS TO BE LAST. Even if I have to write it out of order to make it so.

Then, I say, okay, what is the COOLEST WAY this can be resolved?
Okay, now what is the SECOND coolest way this could be resolved?

Then I makes sure to drop hints and clues that it is the coolest way, but as I write it, I try to fool the reader into thinking it is the second coolest way.

It's just how I write. Whatever I come up with, I go, what are the top 2-3 ways this could end that would make the reader go, "WOW." then I pick the best, but work HARD to make it look like the second or third. If I'm being REALLY tricky, I'll work hard to make it look it's the third, drop hints its the second, then bind side them with the first.


The problem most people do is they come up with a cool idea, then they go, "I need to SUBVERT THE AUDIENCES EXPECTATIONS." so they run the cool idea by DOING WHAT THEY DON'T EXPECT.

No. You are just doing what YOU don't expect. You know the ending, so you are subverting YOUR OWN EXPECTATIONS.

What's this got to do with your question?

TIme Skips, Flash-forwards, Flash-backs, any sort of Non-linear Story telling where you omit details is nothing more than a tool to hide the big reveal.

The story starts with a question.

Your book is the only way the question will be answered.

Make it a good question. Make it a great answer. When you answer the first question, your story is over.

 

[John_Owl]

Hi.
Today i have question about time skips.

1. Are they permitted?
2. How to do them?

1, yes. it's a literary tool same as any other. all of my stories have time skips.
2, it really depends. you've got hard and soft.
soft: MC sets off for a new shop.
(new paragraph) MC arrives at the new shop. You've literally skipped the few minutes of travel.

hard: MC arrives at the town he'll be spending the next four years in. (include a few more details, basically describing his general life while there).

*** (dinkus, new chapter, whatever)

MC checks his calender. It's been four years since the day he arrived. And today is the day that...

---

basically, however you want. If you don't mind smut, I recommend checking out my story DragonBound (in my sig VV down there). I use mostly soft skips, but I do have one long hard skip, which allows the main cast to begin participating in smut scenes. If you do mind smut, let me know and I can look up the specific chapter for you. it'll be a better example of a hard skip than what I wrote above.

 

[Datal0g]

I would even go so far as to say that the only way you can do without a timeskip is if you can complete the entire plot in a few days. You can find really good multi-year timeskip in One Piece or Naruto, for example.

I myself usually do the short timeskips relatively cheaply in the form of "I've been in this world for a month now, and this and that has happened in that time" before continuing with the actual story. For me, most timeskips are just about my MC learning/doing/doing something in that time that isn't worth writing a chapter or two about...

 

[Corty]

It is permitted as long as you abide by the Time Lord laws and pay your Time Tax on Time.

As for how to do them, think about what math class is like. You close your eyes to think for a moment, and bam, when you open them again, you have already lost the plot and don't know what's going on.

PS:

You can progress whenever you feel like it. Just make sure that whatever your characters were doing before is either done before skipping or explaining the consequences of events after making the jump to get the reader familiar with how big the jump was.

 

[Sleds]

Hi.
Today i have question about time skips.

1. Are they permitted?
2. How to do them?

While writing I noticed that If I'll try to describe every hour of everyday of MC journey, I'll be writing fictional dairy instead of story.
But on the other hand in few threads there were comments that time skips might be frowned on.

Do I have to describe everyday of a "training montage" of my MC?
What if I want my story to span over many years?
I think if a girl is waiting on her love interest to come back from long voyage, I do not have to write about every day of her work.

Lately I started reading a story that had good set of tags, good description and nice idea. It started really good.
But as i was reading I noticed I was loosing sense of continuity. As If I drifted with my thoughts away and than woke up half a chapter later. It took me some time to understand that it was not me who missed something. But the author was making unprovoked and unannounced time skips.

Spoiler: Like this:

Like this: "I was playing with my mobile as I waited for the water to boil. I always begin day with the cup of hot coffee. Rain was pouring on my head as stepped out of the buss. There were only few people on the street light by lanterns. I run quickly to not get to wet. It was one of those quick rains that fall not obscuring the sunshine."

Good luck finding where I placed the time skips and understanding what is written...

So I am open to any suggestions, advises and discussion on how to write time skips in a good way.

Yes you can do time skip. What you should avoid is doing a time skip for doing a flash back right after. You need to tell with small paragraph what happen during this time skip, or you can do a quick forward chapters that explain the major thing that happen during the time skip.

For a little reference about the last part I'm talking about, you can try to read The Novel's Extra. Inside it, the author make a time skip of three years through 8 chapters. It start at the end of the chapter 146 or the beginning at the chapter 147 and end at chapter 153. You can just take a look at it to see how it was done without really reading the story.

Here a link:
https://ranobes.top/the-novels-extra-v812312-201665/293167.html

 

[Sylver]

Are they permitted?

Yes of course, just like when you're an adult and move out, you are permitted to eat all the junk food you can afford and stay up as late as you like without any curfew. Just be careful not to abuse it in excess, or you'll find yourself dealing with health and weight issues and insomnia.

In other words, do so careful and sparingly. Too many time skips may disrupt the flow and pacing of your narrative, and it can cause difficulties for your audience to follow along with the events of your story. This is assuming that you are suggestion a time skip of either months or years passing by. Skipping through days or even weeks is fine so long as you're not skipping anything important or relevant to the story.

How to do them?

Like skipping stones across a pond, through practice and effort
It's rather simple once you adapt to it, just make sure to clue the audience in on a time skip. Nothing too subtle, you don't want to leave clues that are easy to miss. One easy suggestion is to make the time skip clear through the title of your chapter.

Chapter 69: Ten Years Later
​

Something like that would be simple and easy for the audience to follow. But again, don't make a habit of time skips! Once or twice is accepted, three times gets annoying, four is far too excessive.

Do I have to describe everyday of a "training montage" of my MC?

Just one day to give an example of what they go through for the audience, but it's not needed. You can skip through it, just make sure to let us know that you did.

What if I want my story to span over many years?

Small time skips over time, can be permissible. I would suggest dividing each section of time between your three acts. If your story consists of nine years of progress, separate each 3 years for the first, second and third act.

I think if a girl is waiting on her love interest to come back from long voyage, I do not have to write about every day of her work.

You could if the intent is to display how she is coping with missing her lover, show us a bit of the stress she undergoes. It's optional to do, I would do it but my work is character driven so that's just me

 

[dummycake]

just don't do what Stranger Things did.

 

[Suczka]

The best advice I've got is to read some stories to see how other authors have handled a time skip in their own writing

I just tried to read one where it was done very poorly.

think about what math class is like. You close your eyes to think for a moment, and bam, when you open them again, you have already lost the plot and don't know what's going on.

Exactly like that. There is no any indication as to that the time was skipped and the reader has to figure that one on his/her own.

Several hours later, he woke back up at his keyboard,

TEN YEARS LATER

Isn't it too simple.
It indicates that there was passage of time but not what was done or achieved i that time.

I was thinking of something like that:

for(j=1;j<=365;j=j+1){
Serial.println("Description of daily activities");
}

So I can have A year worth of training or idly waiting for something skipped without bloating the word count and described at the same time.

Don't over-explain. If you have... Here.

Chapter 82

Start there, go to Chapter 98

Would that not spoiler the story if I will read it from chapter 82?

Absolutely anything is permitted in literature

Plagiarism is forbidden.
And as new "hate speech" laws are introduced all over the world increasing number of topics is forbidden.
Not to mention site rules... ;)

it really depends. you've got hard and soft.

Had no idea that there is professional terminology involved.
So soft is like few minutes or hours. Hard is about a year.

How would you define a day or a week of timeskip?
"It took me 5 days to chop enough wood for..."

I myself usually do the short timeskips relatively cheaply in the form of "I've been in this world for a month now, and this and that has happened in that time"

Oh, so those are called "cheep timeskips".

So we have three categories:
1. soft
2. hard
3. cheep

Are there any other types of timeskips i should be aware of?

It is permitted as long as you abide by the Time Lord laws and pay your Time Tax on Time.

What forms do I need to apply for a timeskip? And How high is the tax?

What you should avoid is doing a time skip for doing a flash back right after.

I agree. That would subvert the whole point of doing the timeskip.
I was not planning on doing any flashbacks though.
Are they necessary for a good story?
Because in anime they mostly feel like fillers to bloat the number of episodes without progressing the events.

or you'll find yourself dealing with health and weight issues and insomnia.

too late ...

Something like that would be simple and easy for the audience to follow. But again, don't make a habit of time skips! Once or twice is accepted, three times gets annoying, four is far too excessive.

In the whole story or in one chapter?
I'm writing (trying to write) sort of survival/adventure. That would require frequent gathering of resources. Travelling long distances. Everyday monster hunting for meat. And so on.
I thought that I could skip some of that?

Or does the category of timeskip (like mentioned by John_Owl and Datal0g above) have different weight?
Ex: 3 soft skips = 1 hard skip ?

 

[John_Owl]

Had no idea that there is professional terminology involved.
So soft is like few minutes or hours. Hard is about a year.

How would you define a day or a week of timeskip?
"It took me 5 days to chop enough wood for..."



Or does the category of timeskip (like mentioned by John_Owl and Datal0g above) have different weight?
Ex: 3 soft skips = 1 hard skip ?

a general rule of thumb I follow is:
Soft - a short enough period of time for nothing of note to happen. Rather than describing every little step of a walk, or everyone MC sees, just gloss over it was "he walked" or "He went about his life for a week".
Hard - A long enough period of time that other events could happen. basically, things that may be relevant to side stories (side characters could get married, MC could get a new scar, etc. Things that can be summed up in a paragraph or two).
Some refer to a time skip as cheap skip when it's somewhere between them.


Also, there is really no flawless scale. it's largely writer's choice on how you want to present it. I've seen soft skips of years (R.A.Salvatore's Sojourn did this, while the MC, Drizzt, was wandering the underdark).
I've also see hard skips of just hours, usually gear up scenes. "He entered the shop. Five hours later, he stepped out and was now dressed in..."
and as @Datal0g said, either can be done cheaply by having the character/narrator exposition how long the skip was and a basic sum of events that happened. if you want to go a little more in depth, you could kind of interweave the summary of time skipped over the next 1-3 chapters.

 

[Suczka]

if you want to go a little more in depth, you could kind of interweave the summary of time skipped over the next 1-3 chapters.

I was hoping that going in between would be summary of what happened in last two days in 1-3 paragraphs, so I can continue the chapter with important stuff.

As per above example. MC wants to build a cabin. He travels to find a good spot. Then I time skip the wood chopping arc. Summarize it in short paragraph. After that proceed to describe MCs struggles while building. After that I skip in one paragraph the week he is resting in the cabin eating what he hunted. And end chapter describing his other more interesting actions.

Is that Ok?

 

[miyoga]

Also, there is really no flawless scale. it's largely writer's choice on how you want to present it. I've seen soft skips of years

Exactly this, I put in a soft skip of millenia (no jokes, literally thousands of years) to my first story because my MC is a literal piece of stone sitting on a mountain top. Ain't nothing of not going to happen to him there.

 

[Suczka]

my MC is a literal piece of stone sitting on a mountain top. Ain't nothing of not going to happen to him there.

He might have been spray painted by some youth...

 

[John_Owl]

I was hoping that going in between would be summary of what happened in last two days in 1-3 paragraphs, so I can continue the chapter with important stuff.

As per above example. MC wants to build a cabin. He travels to find a good spot. Then I time skip the wood chopping arc. Summarize it in short paragraph. After that proceed to describe MCs struggles while building. After that I skip in one paragraph the week he is resting in the cabin eating what he hunted. And end chapter describing his other more interesting actions.

Is that Ok?

I'd say with that, a soft skip should be fine. if it's fairly uneventful other than chopping wood, you could sum it up in a sentence. "He then spent the next few days chopping and trimming logs."

if there was a small event, you could toss it in as a separate clause on the end of the sentence. "He spent the next two days chopping wood, though he was interrupted by [insert event here]."

 

[TheEldritchGod]

It indicates that there was passage of time but not what was done or achieved i that time.

Read my second post.

The POINT is that the reader doesn't know what happened.

In my example, The MC does something fucks up. We time skip. The MC confronts a family. At the end we flashback to the end of the fuck up because learning that part after the time skip changes everything.

It isn't what you say, but also what you DON'T say.

Plagiarism is forbidden.
And as new "hate speech" laws are introduced all over the world increasing number of topics is forbidden.
Not to mention site rules... ;)

If you are weak...

 

[Pixytokisaki14]

1. Everything is permitted in writing. It's just in the way you want to structure out the story and based on how detailed you want it to be.
2. You can easily do a time skip with words that start like "After _number_ of years" or "The days drawn to weeks, then months and eventually, years as _character name_ perfected the skill of _skill name_". Just use time skips at points where you think the story would go boring if you write the part. Or use it when something interesting finally happens in the life of your main character. You do have to update the readers on what the cast of characters had beed doing over that period of time. It could be individually or as a group.

As mentioned before, the easiest way to do a timeskip is:

THREE YEARS HAD PASSED.

1. Everything is permitted in writing. It's just in the way you want to structure out the story and based on how detailed you want it to be.
2. You can easily do a time skip with words that start like "After _number_ of years" or "The days drawn to weeks, then months and eventually, years as _character name_ perfected the skill of _skill name_". Just use time skips at points where you think the story would go boring if you write the part. Or use it when something interesting finally happens in the life of your main character.

As mentioned before, the easiest way to do a timeskip is:

THREE YEARS HAD PASSED.

A good example is the huge timeskip in dragon ball Z which is after the Cell saga. Nothing really interesting happened and no new villains came up, so Toriyama-sensei (RIP) skipped ahead into where something interesting happens to begin the build up anew. Majin Buu saga. While also updating the viewers on what happened to the main cast over the skipped years. Eg. Gohan grew older and became a superhero while Goten and Trunks were born. As well as Krillin and Android 18 finally tied the knot.