Time gaps in a novel
I am having issues when it comes to how time passes in the book I'm writing. I usually find myself describing the day from start to finish, and that's just useless material since nothing relevant happens 24/7. But I can't find a way to skip one week, one month, or whatever without making it awkward. Any advice?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42232. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
You are accessing this answer with a direct link, so it's being shown above all other answers regardless of its score. You can return to the normal view.
If your issue is with the telling of the passing of time, then you could try to show it.
This is done by relating events or facts that the reader know would take a certain amount of time to happen.
I give you some examples:
One season, or one year:
The trees were already pushing their flowers out of the buds when MC arrived at Famous Village.
A few years:
The last remedy to lice was to shave her head. She cried and MC could do nothing but to stare at her bald head from the window. "Hello" she said one day. She had grown her hair to the shoulder, and wore it in tight locks.
A few decades:
Eclipses are rare. It was the second they were looking at, and mom's hair had turned white in the meantime.
Years:
The sow had made three litters. And from these, one piglet had grown into a fat and prolific sow too. MC was struggling to keep her last newborns at bay.
Couple of days/weeks:
The coach returned to London ten times before it brought news of MC's uncle sickness.
Moments:
The door slammed. The feet rushed down the stairs. There she was again, opening that damned door.
0 comment threads
Skipping hours, days, months, even years, is standard in fiction. In fact, it is narrating non-stop through the tedious everyday that's non-standard.
How do you skip time then?
Think of every scene as a mini-story. It should have some sort of opening, some "meat", and then it gets wrapped up (as @Alexander says). Then the readers know it's time to jump to the next mini-story. There should be some arc connecting those mini-stories, some logical progression between them. Same way there is a logical progression between the paragraphs of an essay, while each paragraph is also its own mini-story.
As an example, let us look at some time skips in The Lord of the Rings. For simplicity's sake, I will focus on one chapter alone: book 1, chapter 3 - Three is Company.
The previous chapter was all about Frodo learning about the Ring, It was wrapped up with:
'Me, sir!' cried Sam, springing up like a dog invited for a walk. 'Me go and see Elves and all! Hooray!' he shouted, and then burst into tears.
Chapter 3 opens:
'You ought to go quietly, and you ought to go soon,' said Gandalf. Two or three weeks had passed, and still Frodo made no sign of getting ready to go.
There is a logical progression: from realising what Frodo has to do, to making no progress with doing it. There is also a mention of time, so the reader knows where he's standing. And the next scene is opened with the bit of conflict about Frodo's delay.
The scene is wrapped up with the issue of the delay being resolved - a decision has been reached. The next scene, again, by logical progression, opens with the consequence of that decision:
One summer's evening an astonishing piece of news reached the Ivy Bush and Green Dragon. Giants and other portents on the borders of the Shire were forgotten for more important matters: Mr. Frodo was selling Bag End, indeed he had already sold it - to the Sackville-Bagginses!
The scene of the hobbits' reaction to the news wrapped up, there is nothing more to tell for a while. The next scene starts:
Gandalf stayed in the Shire for over two months. Then one evening, at the end of June, soon after Frodo's plan had been finally arranged, he suddenly announced that he was going off again next morning. 'Only for a short while, I hope,' he said.
The focus of this scene is Gandalf's absence. Within that scene, time passes:
At first Frodo was a good deal disturbed, and wondered often what Gandalf could have heard; but his uneasiness wore off, and in the fine weather he forgot his troubles for a while. The Shire had seldom seen so fair a summer, or so rich an autumn: the trees were laden with apples, honey was dripping in the combs, and the corn was tall and full.
Autumn was well under way before Frodo began to worry about Gandalf again. September was passing and there was still no news of him.
With these examples before you, you can see how time can be skipped between scenes, or within a scene. Treat each scene as a mini-story: figure out what it's about, and tell that. Then progress to the next mini-story in a way that makes logical sense. "Logical sense" should be guided by narrative, by what is the story you're trying to tell. "What happened next" is secondary: it might be not interesting and skipped entirely.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads