Time skip justification

[CheertheSecond]

If you didn’t mention certain crucial elements of the plot or character interaction beforehand, it became an ass-pulled.

If you stay too detailed, it turns tedious.


I have been having a bit of a problem about time skip. Do you have any general guideline to decide what you should time skip and what not?

 

[Deleted member 54065]

My main character died at the end of Volune 14.

I believe it will be stupid to kill him and then resurrect him for only a few hours, days and months, and also it's a major plot point for the later volumes for all my characters.

Hence, I took the 6-year time skip.

Why 6 years? My characters are teeners when the story started (except the MC who is a young adult). I don't want to go too far into their futures, hence I determined six years is enough.

 

[Domoviye]

I'm planning a time skip for both of my stories.
With one it will be a period of a few weeks, when nothing much happens but classes and daily life. I'll just do a quick "The last month had been..." type opening of the chapter, and get into the action.

The other is longer and covers most of the winter. It would mostly be soldiers training for war, being cold, and planning. Not something I'd want to write about in great detail and people wouldn't want to read. So I'll do a bit more detailed bit of exposition as the MC looks over the army getting ready to march as soon as the snow melts.

Basically if it's tedious and doesn't really help the story, skip it.

 

[Corty]

I did time skips after it felt like an arc was closed and completed, ready to move the story forward in a new direction. I just mentioned that years passed by, or something similar and that is it, dropping the readers into the usual start of a chapter, only by then they were older. Especially at first because I like starting my stories from childhood, following the characters through their lives. Nobody complained so far so that is a plus!

 

[CheertheSecond]

I'm planning a time skip for both of my stories.
With one it will be a period of a few weeks, when nothing much happens but classes and daily life. I'll just do a quick "The last month had been..." type opening of the chapter, and get into the action.

The other is longer and covers most of the winter. It would mostly be soldiers training for war, being cold, and planning. Not something I'd want to write about in great detail and people wouldn't want to read. So I'll do a bit more detailed bit of exposition as the MC looks over the army getting ready to march as soon as the snow melts.

Basically if it's tedious and doesn't really help the story, skip it.

The thing is how do you decide which is tedious and which isn’t?

 

[Snusmumriken]

The thing is how do you decide which is tedious and which isn’t?

There is a main plotline that guides the story. It isn't always the protagonist arc and it can be multiple arcs that the book is revolving around. Cater to them, the rest could be summarised afterwards piecemeal in small blurbs.


Timeskips are ubiquitous. Sleep time, Short walk from A to B when nothing happens, Return from a successful task. But we skip them without a second thought because they rarely do anything for the main plot.

The sides stories and sideplots are called like that for a reason, dont let them dictate the pacing of the main plot

 

[Domoviye]

The thing is how do you decide which is tedious and which isn’t?

Would you be interested in reading it?
Yes.
It's not tedious.

No.
It's tedious.

Look at it this way, you don't generally write about the MC going to the bathroom unless something interesting happens during that time that's important to the plot. Treat downtime the same way. If nothing important, funny, cool, horrific, or useful happens, you don't need it.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Would you be interested in reading it?
Yes.
It's not tedious.

No.
It's tedious.

Look at it this way, you don't generally write about the MC going to the bathroom unless something interesting happens during that time that's important to the plot. Treat downtime the same way. If nothing important, funny, cool, horrific, or useful happens, you don't need it.

I'm kinda confused with tedious and non-tedious time-skips too.

Thanks for the explanation!

Though, a related question:

Should I put in instances/scenes where characters are having conversation, yet their talk has connection to the conditions/settings of the time-skip? Is something like that considered tedious?

The conversation goes like, I present the current world, which was affected by the actions of the main characters in the previous volumes > a short 'recap' on what happened that led to the current situation > the attitudes of the characters on the death of the main character.

 

[Le_ther]

If you didn’t mention certain crucial elements of the plot or character interaction beforehand, it became an ass-pulled.

If you stay too detailed, it turns tedious.


I have been having a bit of a problem about time skip. Do you have any general guideline to decide what you should time skip and what not?

Same man I do wonder how some good authors possibly pull it. Mostly it happens when a arc comes to a conclusion then in the next chapter you go into a random mob which would be a side character meeting the mc after a huge time skip or something.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Same man I do wonder how some good authors possibly pull it. Mostly it happens when a arc comes to a conclusion then in the next chapter you go into a random mob which would be a side character meeting the mc after a huge time skip or something.

This one is a good example of a time-skip?

 

[Le_ther]

This one is a good example of a time-skip?

Dependending on how you end the last chapter/episode. Because cutting it to a perspective of a random mob out of nowhere feels like sudden but if you end the last chapter with a good summarized explanation it might fit and connect well.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Dependending on how you end the last chapter/episode. Because cutting it to a perspective of a random mob out of nowhere feels like sudden but if you end the last chapter with a good summarized explanation it might fit and connect well.

I see...thanks for the explanation.

I'm kinda confused in time-skip use as well, since it's my first time writing one.

Well, since my story isn't here, might as well spoil it. The Main Character dies at the end of the 14th Volume.

Then on the 15th, a major character (though she is first introduced at this point) meets him. That's how it connected the 14th and 15th books. However, there is a time-skip of six years, and I'm kinda afraid I made it tedious by:

1). Giving the readers an idea of what became of the world in the past six years.
2). Giving a short recap on what led to the situation in the 15th thru character conversations. (Why the main character died.)
3). Showing the attitudes of the characters (main ones) on the fate of the MC.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

If you didn’t mention certain crucial elements of the plot or character interaction beforehand, it became an ass-pulled.

If you stay too detailed, it turns tedious.


I have been having a bit of a problem about time skip. Do you have any general guideline to decide what you should time skip and what not?

i've never cared for long time skips. I only ever used them for a skip of like a few years at the beginning of a story, or in a period of a few months to weeks. Just to enough time for events to have taken place.

Its only an asspull when everything works out for the MC. Me, im usually just setting up for them to get fucked somehow later on. Cuz i like my MCs to suffer. Or like, for traveling. No one needs to see a play by play of a month's long journey. You may wanna write SOMETHING about the journey itself and any encounters or stops. But mostly no one cares about dragging it on unless its important or at least entertaining.

 

[Snusmumriken]

I see...thanks for the explanation.

I'm kinda confused in time-skip use as well, since it's my first time writing one.

Well, since my story isn't here, might as well spoil it. The Main Character dies at the end of the 14th Volume.

Then on the 15th, a major character (though she is first introduced at this point) meets him. That's how it connected the 14th and 15th books. However, there is a time-skip of six years, and I'm kinda afraid I made it tedious by:

1). Giving the readers an idea of what became of the world in the past six years.
2). Giving a short recap on what led to the situation in the 15th thru character conversations. (Why the main character died.)
3). Showing the attitudes of the characters (main ones) on the fate of the MC.

Dont dump everything at once. Go at it like maslov's hierarchy of needs.

Start with the most critical \ immediate stuff (Now world is hunting your kind \ air is poisonous to breathe \ there is an assasin in nearby alley looking for you)

then as the plot continues - tackle longer term, less critical aspects during the lulls in the pace. (Lunches are abolished, the rail network had been down for 5 years so leaving the city is impossible)

and continue decreasing importance \ increasing timeframe until you get to the flavour stuff and stuff that has no time limit for completion. At which point it becomes just usual exposition

 

[LuoirM]

my old story was getting boring so i made every other character immortal and the mc sleep for 1000 years then he gotta go and find them again

justifiable: The "boring" part and "immortal" since people loves the old cast

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Dont dump everything at once. Go at it like maslov's hierarchy of needs.

Start with the most critical \ immediate stuff (Now world is hunting your kind \ air is poisonous to breathe \ there is an assasin in nearby alley looking for you)

then as the plot continues - tackle longer term, less critical aspects during the lulls in the pace. (Lunches are abolished, the rail network had been down for 5 years so leaving the city is impossible)

and continue decreasing importance \ increasing timeframe until you get to the flavour stuff and stuff that has no time limit for completion. At which point it becomes just usual exposition

Thanks for the answer, my good chap.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

None

A good story never do major timeskip and just move on with the story like usual.

Usually author do timeskip to ignore all the growth and plots that will possibly bore the reader and made them lose interest with the story if it continues normally.

Especially, it's very cheap way to get more "awe-and-shock" effect if they surprise the reader with "timeskip-powerup" than to show it gradually.

I didn't feel like against timeskip. But please show some interlude side stories on what happened during those times. And also, MAJOR SPOILER shouldn't exist inside time skip. It really feels like cheap way to escape plot hole for reader when it get explained after timeskip.

 

[WingsOfPhantasy]

In my opinion, as long as you give enough information about the story beforehand and give flashbacks about the timeskip as the story progresses, then it's fine,
As cool as what might happen in the timeskip might be to you the writer, it might not be for the others who have to read chapters on chapters of things that could be best summarized in a paragraph about the timeskip.
-
Also, my personal pet peeve; Isekai/ Otherworld stories that take for-fucking-ever to age up the MC. If it's done well and the MC being a little kid doesn't irk me as the story goes on, then it's cool.
Now I understand that the childhood developmental age is one of the best times for allowing an MC to integrate with their new world, but reading dozens of chapters of pretty much mostly ordinary business kinda feels like the story is going in circles.

 

[Snusmumriken]

None

A good story never do major timeskip and just move on with the story like usual.

Usually author do timeskip to ignore all the growth and plots that will possibly bore the reader and made them lose interest with the story if it continues normally.

Especially, it's very cheap way to get more "awe-and-shock" effect if they surprise the reader with "timeskip-powerup" than to show it gradually.

I didn't feel like against timeskip. But please show some interlude side stories on what happened during those times. And also, MAJOR SPOILER shouldn't exist inside time skip. It really feels like cheap way to escape plot hole for reader when it get explained after timeskip.

Go read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov. It is one of his best known short stories.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Go read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov. It is one of his best known short stories.

When you time skip so hard you recreate time itself