When should one have a time skip of a year or two?

[CrimsonGenius]

It doesn’t mean the bad guys are waiting to twiddle their thumbs… it’s just back to back big bosses can run down.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

We need a bit more context, like the summary of the story, its genre, and the current situation for a good answer. Also, a year can be short and long, depending on the story's progression map. The entire MHA happens in one year, while in some media, a year-long time skip happens between almost every arc. To give a generic answer, create an important event, kill an important character, cause a catastrophic scenario, or hurt both sides so at least one group has a valid reason to dwell back to safety and wait until they recover.

 

[DeepWater]

Time skip right in the middle between book one and two

 

[QuercusMalus]

I have a hundred year time skip between book 1 and 2 so..... course that is because of a magical apocalypse that puts the mc into stasis, so take that with a pinch of salt and tablespoon of chili powder.

 

[Ruti]

It doesn’t mean the bad guys are waiting to twiddle their thumbs… it’s just back to back big bosses can run down.

do it during a time where nothing of major importance is going on. For example, MC is doing things not super important or detailed to get stronger, while evil organization A is gathering strength, numbers, and spies, for a big operation.

A way of doing this is by doing gradual time skips, with what's happening during that timeframe

IE
1 month later
MC did this or that
2 months later
Evil organization is staying low
3 months later
MC got promoted to X strength/guild rank
6 months later
Evil organization has begun to move
10 months later
Evil organization A has begun to move more fervantly
12 months later
Evil organization has this or that, MC has gotten this much stronger [insert monster/obstacle that MC would have struggled with a ton prior, now being easy to overcome]


All depends on what kind of novel it is, and how much would have happened during the inbetween

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Whenever it fits the story without derailing it completely.

 

[John_Owl]

time skip when nothing is happening or when day-in-day-out is the same routine. My story DragonBound has a couple year timeskip when Protag is training. I used one chapter to show his abilities pre-skip, his routine during skip, and then picked up post-skip with a chapter to show his new skills and the sudden break in routine, while mentioning how long the skip was. people don't want 5 chapters of "He's training. He's still training. he's STILL training. He's training some more." But 1 chapter of "He's training." then 1 of "Look how much he's trained" Can be good.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

people don't want 5 chapters of "He's training. He's still training. he's STILL training. He's training some more." But 1 chapter of "He's training." then 1 of "Look how much he's trained" Can be good.

Well... it worked for Dragonball Z... :D (Though the story allegedly goes: the writer wanted to take a month off just as the agreement for the anime was inked. He was told "Give us two months' worth of scripts for the manga,, and take a pass over the script for the first season of the show, and you can have one month off," so he wrote stories for the manga that were 90% characters powering up or training, and 10% other stuff; the studio sighed because they promised the time off and gave it to him ... and then came back when the anime had caught up to the those issues, asking him to write a script for them. "I already did. The books." So, you had EPISODES that were also 90% characters training or powering up and 10% 'other stuff').

 

[CrimsonGenius]

Well... it worked for Dragonball Z... :D (Though the story allegedly goes: the writer wanted to take a month off just as the agreement for the anime was inked. He was told "Give us two months' worth of scripts for the manga,, and take a pass over the script for the first season of the show, and you can have one month off," so he wrote stories for the manga that were 90% characters powering up or training, and 10% other stuff; the studio sighed because they promised the time off and gave it to him ... and then came back when the anime had caught up to the those issues, asking him to write a script for them. "I already did. The books." So, you had EPISODES that were also 90% characters training or powering up and 10% 'other stuff').

Because dragonball are a bunch of images. We write words. Some people would rather watch dudes charge and sling energy around than read about dudes charge and sling energy around.

 

[theInmara]

You can actually tell a story without any sort of a time skip at all.

But most stories have lots and lots of tiny little time skips that no one realizes are time skips. Like a time skip of a few seconds to a couple of hours. You don't usually tell everything that happens every second of every day that occurs within the story.

So, when you're telling a story, what you usually do is tell only the relevant bits, the events and thoughts that comprise the plot and skip over anything that's extraneous. In a novel or long web serial, there can be a lot of moments that seem like they have nothing to do with the plot, sidetracks, but that are relevant in that they provide context or serve as a comparison of some sort. You still end up leaving out a lot. How often do you describe your characters going to the bathroom?

But basically, time skips should happen organically from the need to leave out and skip over details that are irrelevant to the story, and to summarize those that are necessary but otherwise uninteresting.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Whenever you want one.