How to do a time skip good?

I

Iwriteforfun

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Just that. Say you want to zoom past the grind, how do you show the progress and smoothly integrate that skip into the story?

BTW: Please read my story!
www.scribblehub.com

The Endless Ascent

Alan is a nobody. A forgotten face in a world that barely noticed him. After a two-year stint in prison, he finds himself thrust into the Tower Endless, a brutal other world where he faces monstrous beasts. It's a chance to prove himself, to escape the life he's always known,...
www.scribblehub.com www.scribblehub.com
 
Jocelyn_Uasal

Jocelyn_Uasal

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I think you've just got to have enough distance between the jump, going like a week or even a month ahead might just look like lazy writing from a readers perspective.

I'm a big fan of absolute tone shifts from one to the other too, like a character crying over something really dramatic then *10 years later* they're in an employee uniform bagging groceries.
 
I

Iwriteforfun

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Jocelyn_Uasal said:
I think you've just got to have enough distance between the jump, going like a week or even a month ahead might just look like lazy writing from a readers perspective.

I'm a big fan of absolute tone shifts from one to the other too, like a character crying over something really dramatic then *10 years later* they're in an employee uniform bagging groceries.
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Hey, wanna do a review swap? I need more honest criticism of my work really. I just did a time skip, and I want to know if it was done right.
 
theInmara

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Jocelyn_Uasal said:
I think you've just got to have enough distance between the jump, going like a week or even a month ahead might just look like lazy writing from a readers perspective.

I'm a big fan of absolute tone shifts from one to the other too, like a character crying over something really dramatic then *10 years later* they're in an employee uniform bagging groceries.
Click to expand...
For shorter shifts, a montage works pretty well. Basically a narrative summary of getting from there to here.
Iwriteforfun said:
Hey, wanna do a review swap? I need more honest criticism of my work really. I just did a time skip, and I want to know if it was done right.
Click to expand...
We could give it a look. No need for a swap. We don't have anything in particular that's comparable that isn't super spoilery too.

Though, if you don't mind the spoiler and you want to read some super ramped up OP power gain for laughs and the heck of it, we wouldn't mind showing that off. Takes three chapters, though, if you don't count all the book and a half leading up to it as necessary build up and explanation.
 
BearlyAlive

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If you're writing lirpgs or any kind of progression story, just list everything like a log. Also works in war stories. "A fell, then B and C. By the time P fell, everybody knew the whole alphabet would fall..."

Diary-style also works for training arcs. Wrong way to use healing magic did that one in a fun way.
 
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CharlesEBrown

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My "time skips" are usually of the "The next few days passed uneventfully but then XXXX happens." or "Aside from YYYY, the week went by in a blur of preparations and mundane activities."
Stuff like that.
 
melchi

melchi

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I think the only bad time skip is one that leaves a bunch of plot holes. The main reason to do one is because the important stuff that doesn't need a bunch of time to complete is taken care of.
 
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LordKerrim

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Iwriteforfun said:
Just that. Say you want to zoom past the grind, how do you show the progress and smoothly integrate that skip into the story?

BTW: Please read my story!
www.scribblehub.com

The Endless Ascent

Alan is a nobody. A forgotten face in a world that barely noticed him. After a two-year stint in prison, he finds himself thrust into the Tower Endless, a brutal other world where he faces monstrous beasts. It's a chance to prove himself, to escape the life he's always known,...
www.scribblehub.com www.scribblehub.com
Click to expand...
Time skips are one of the things the author really butchers or perfects. In my opinion a good time skip is a time skip that doesn't feel like-excuse my language-an ass pull. If you have read the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruecchio ( f you hadn't then please do, its amazing) in the series each book has a giant time skip, that can range from 50 years to 300 years. And it never felt clunky except for the first time. In a good time skip, the MC is not the same, you SHOW why, don't tell. You can't make a 10 year time skip and the MC is still the goofy guy that he was 10 years ago, he maybe is, but now he has more of an edge or some melancholy, because 10 years is a long time for humans and many thing can happen in that time. Not just the MC has changed, but also the world, a human world is never the same after 10 years, I mean look at us. Is our world the same as it was in 2014? No, and your world needs to reflect that.

A bad time skip doesn't do any of what I have mentioned above. Time only passed in name and not in reality, that is why I dislike a lot of Xianxia novels, because like 10000000000000000 years pass and humans are still fighting with sticks or swords. Like bro, we went from horses to space craft in less than a 100 years!

I'm sorry if I sounded a little mean there, no bad feelings. But, my friend, in the end, do what you think is best. Don't take my words to heart, because my mentality of a realistic world is what have made me go insane while writing my work.
 
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