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x3pn01 | writing_train | 0.71 | Why does being a good writer seem impossible? When I was young, I unfortunately discovered Wattpad. I read a ton of horrible writing, but was still super inspired to create my own stories. I wrote some and generally had fun writing, but I knew it wasn’t ever good. When I draw, it’s easy to learn from other artists and learn to reference, and the more I do it, the better I get. For writing though, it just doesn’t seem the same? I haven’t attempted to write in a long time, but I feel like it’s something I just *cant* learn. Has anyone else had this feeling, and did you overcome it? | ims24wl | imrbomp | 1,662,114,615 | 1,662,094,119 | 1 | 0 | The truth is at the beginning of our writing journey, we were not good at writing at all. But through constant practice (writing and reading from your favorite artist), we naturally get better. I always as a teenager wanted to write. Too bad I discovered 'webnovel'. Almost all their stories were crap, the dialogue lacked subtext, the story lacked good descriptions, the character's motive for been too good or too evil weren't clear, to name just a few. And that was what I started to learn with at first. And my stories as you guessed were . . . crap. But then been an avid reader I soon found stories written by professionals and imitated their writing. I wrote almost everyday. Though, I never allowing my books to lie around my home because I was too embarrassed of my writing, I didn't want my family reading it. It was after two years I finally discovered I had gotten better at writing. Wanting to get rid of my old piles of book I stumbled upon my old work and read some of it. The tremendous improvement I had made in only two years! Nowadays, I still look back to like a few months ago and remark to myself how much better I became. I am not bragging that I am a good writer. I am only saying that with constant practice you will be better at writing. Consistency is key. So whether you feel it is something you can't learn, or it is something not for you. Just continue to write everyday, or look at your old works. You would be grateful. I promise you. | Identifying the problem is half of the solution. What in particular don't you like about your writing/something that you want to improve? You have to go into detail and look at concrete examples for specific situations. Am I not clear enough? Is the prose a bit off? How can I best convey what I'm trying to express in this sentence or paragraph? A lot of it is really just hard work + time + effort. But I can also agree that some people just have that *something* extra—something that even if I spend my whole life practicing, I'm not sure I can even achieve. You can learn to write well. But that doesn't always mean you can write a great story. | 1 | 20,496 | 1,000 | ||
x3pn01 | writing_train | 0.71 | Why does being a good writer seem impossible? When I was young, I unfortunately discovered Wattpad. I read a ton of horrible writing, but was still super inspired to create my own stories. I wrote some and generally had fun writing, but I knew it wasn’t ever good. When I draw, it’s easy to learn from other artists and learn to reference, and the more I do it, the better I get. For writing though, it just doesn’t seem the same? I haven’t attempted to write in a long time, but I feel like it’s something I just *cant* learn. Has anyone else had this feeling, and did you overcome it? | imsajue | imrbomp | 1,662,119,870 | 1,662,094,119 | 1 | 0 | Being a good storyteller is hard because telling and consuming stories is inherent to the human experience. What do you do when you're hanging with friends at a bar? Tell stories. What do you do at the barbershop? Tell stories. What did you do around a camp fire as a kid? Tell or hear stories. It's hard because we have developed a sense of a good story and a not so good story from literal life times of consuming stories, yet when we're getting started, we have little to no experience telling long form stories straight from our imaginations and putting them on paper. | Identifying the problem is half of the solution. What in particular don't you like about your writing/something that you want to improve? You have to go into detail and look at concrete examples for specific situations. Am I not clear enough? Is the prose a bit off? How can I best convey what I'm trying to express in this sentence or paragraph? A lot of it is really just hard work + time + effort. But I can also agree that some people just have that *something* extra—something that even if I spend my whole life practicing, I'm not sure I can even achieve. You can learn to write well. But that doesn't always mean you can write a great story. | 1 | 25,751 | 1,000 | ||
x3pn01 | writing_train | 0.71 | Why does being a good writer seem impossible? When I was young, I unfortunately discovered Wattpad. I read a ton of horrible writing, but was still super inspired to create my own stories. I wrote some and generally had fun writing, but I knew it wasn’t ever good. When I draw, it’s easy to learn from other artists and learn to reference, and the more I do it, the better I get. For writing though, it just doesn’t seem the same? I haven’t attempted to write in a long time, but I feel like it’s something I just *cant* learn. Has anyone else had this feeling, and did you overcome it? | imtks89 | imrbomp | 1,662,139,273 | 1,662,094,119 | 1 | 0 | Because something like art has visible improvement when practicing from another arttist’s style. It’s harder to tell when you’ve improved in writing. Nowadays, after practicing for like 5 years, I can look back at my original works and see the improvement, but hoo boy it takes a WHILE to convince yourself that you’re visibly improving. Trust yourself! You’re improving, even if you can’t tell right now! | Identifying the problem is half of the solution. What in particular don't you like about your writing/something that you want to improve? You have to go into detail and look at concrete examples for specific situations. Am I not clear enough? Is the prose a bit off? How can I best convey what I'm trying to express in this sentence or paragraph? A lot of it is really just hard work + time + effort. But I can also agree that some people just have that *something* extra—something that even if I spend my whole life practicing, I'm not sure I can even achieve. You can learn to write well. But that doesn't always mean you can write a great story. | 1 | 45,154 | 1,000 | ||
x3pn01 | writing_train | 0.71 | Why does being a good writer seem impossible? When I was young, I unfortunately discovered Wattpad. I read a ton of horrible writing, but was still super inspired to create my own stories. I wrote some and generally had fun writing, but I knew it wasn’t ever good. When I draw, it’s easy to learn from other artists and learn to reference, and the more I do it, the better I get. For writing though, it just doesn’t seem the same? I haven’t attempted to write in a long time, but I feel like it’s something I just *cant* learn. Has anyone else had this feeling, and did you overcome it? | imrbomp | imtwstm | 1,662,094,119 | 1,662,144,020 | 0 | 1 | Identifying the problem is half of the solution. What in particular don't you like about your writing/something that you want to improve? You have to go into detail and look at concrete examples for specific situations. Am I not clear enough? Is the prose a bit off? How can I best convey what I'm trying to express in this sentence or paragraph? A lot of it is really just hard work + time + effort. But I can also agree that some people just have that *something* extra—something that even if I spend my whole life practicing, I'm not sure I can even achieve. You can learn to write well. But that doesn't always mean you can write a great story. | I’m also a drawer and writer, so I understand your perspective. But ultimately, without getting too abstract, the difference between good drawing and good writing is really the same question as “what is good art”? People can watch the same tv shows and movies, and there is rarely a consistent agreement on which are good and bad. People can go to a gallery, and each person will prefer different works, and some may not like anything there. Writing is the same. In the end, writing and stories are personal. If no one else read a book, but one person found it inspiring and it helped them, does it matter? If the general public love a book, it sells a million copies, but the critics hate it, does it matter? If a book is loved by the critics and has awards heaped on it, but you think it’s pretentious and poorly written, does it matter? In the end, it is just our personal opinions. So if you forget about all that, and ignore sales and awards and fans, what are you left with? Ultimately, just a writer telling a story. The same thing we’ve done for millennia. The way my grandparents told stories to my parents, the way my parents told stories to me, and the way I now tell stories to my own kids. That’s all it is. A moment in time when we can share in a story together, as storyteller and audience. And if everyone involved is happy, if the audience feels connected, and most importantly if you enjoy telling a story, then what could possibly matter more? | 0 | 49,901 | 1,000 | ||
x3pn01 | writing_train | 0.71 | Why does being a good writer seem impossible? When I was young, I unfortunately discovered Wattpad. I read a ton of horrible writing, but was still super inspired to create my own stories. I wrote some and generally had fun writing, but I knew it wasn’t ever good. When I draw, it’s easy to learn from other artists and learn to reference, and the more I do it, the better I get. For writing though, it just doesn’t seem the same? I haven’t attempted to write in a long time, but I feel like it’s something I just *cant* learn. Has anyone else had this feeling, and did you overcome it? | imu40dr | imrbomp | 1,662,146,930 | 1,662,094,119 | 1 | 0 | Because we are our harshest critics | Identifying the problem is half of the solution. What in particular don't you like about your writing/something that you want to improve? You have to go into detail and look at concrete examples for specific situations. Am I not clear enough? Is the prose a bit off? How can I best convey what I'm trying to express in this sentence or paragraph? A lot of it is really just hard work + time + effort. But I can also agree that some people just have that *something* extra—something that even if I spend my whole life practicing, I'm not sure I can even achieve. You can learn to write well. But that doesn't always mean you can write a great story. | 1 | 52,811 | 1,000 | ||
x3pn01 | writing_train | 0.71 | Why does being a good writer seem impossible? When I was young, I unfortunately discovered Wattpad. I read a ton of horrible writing, but was still super inspired to create my own stories. I wrote some and generally had fun writing, but I knew it wasn’t ever good. When I draw, it’s easy to learn from other artists and learn to reference, and the more I do it, the better I get. For writing though, it just doesn’t seem the same? I haven’t attempted to write in a long time, but I feel like it’s something I just *cant* learn. Has anyone else had this feeling, and did you overcome it? | imrbomp | imv1a5f | 1,662,094,119 | 1,662,161,173 | 0 | 1 | Identifying the problem is half of the solution. What in particular don't you like about your writing/something that you want to improve? You have to go into detail and look at concrete examples for specific situations. Am I not clear enough? Is the prose a bit off? How can I best convey what I'm trying to express in this sentence or paragraph? A lot of it is really just hard work + time + effort. But I can also agree that some people just have that *something* extra—something that even if I spend my whole life practicing, I'm not sure I can even achieve. You can learn to write well. But that doesn't always mean you can write a great story. | It always surprises me that kind of stuff that becomes a best-selling novel. well, not always, but often. I think what people want is an easy-to-follow plot that is also engaging. What may that be? That's a good question to which I don't have the answer. I will repeat what others have said before, keep on writing. That's the only way to get better and finally creating something that people will enjoy | 0 | 67,054 | 1,000 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wtqfj | h2wr0aq | 1,624,558,163 | 1,624,556,959 | 106 | 12 | It's better to skip to the meat of the story, if the alternative is to describe in exhaustive detail unimportant events. | I’ll let you know in a few months | 1 | 1,204 | 8.833333 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wtqfj | h2ws2xf | 1,624,558,163 | 1,624,557,430 | 106 | 7 | It's better to skip to the meat of the story, if the alternative is to describe in exhaustive detail unimportant events. | Maybe we can discuss it in a week? | 1 | 733 | 15.142857 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wunly | h2wuhnv | 1,624,558,571 | 1,624,558,498 | 36 | 21 | My only question would be are you starting your story close enough to the end? Does the stuff before the time skip need to be written out or would it serve the same purpose as just a few lines of backstory? If it's all needed in the story then I don't mind time jumps, even several of them, as long as I feel like I'm not missing out on actual story (basic example: character runs away to join the circus, cue time skip two weeks ahead and now they're just one of the crew. Now I feel like I'm missing story and in this case, could've just started the story already part of the circus for the same effect). | I prefer time skips. I don’t want to watch them sleep, crap, and eat every meal. | 1 | 73 | 1.714286 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wr0aq | h2wunly | 1,624,556,959 | 1,624,558,571 | 12 | 36 | I’ll let you know in a few months | My only question would be are you starting your story close enough to the end? Does the stuff before the time skip need to be written out or would it serve the same purpose as just a few lines of backstory? If it's all needed in the story then I don't mind time jumps, even several of them, as long as I feel like I'm not missing out on actual story (basic example: character runs away to join the circus, cue time skip two weeks ahead and now they're just one of the crew. Now I feel like I'm missing story and in this case, could've just started the story already part of the circus for the same effect). | 0 | 1,612 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2ws2xf | h2wunly | 1,624,557,430 | 1,624,558,571 | 7 | 36 | Maybe we can discuss it in a week? | My only question would be are you starting your story close enough to the end? Does the stuff before the time skip need to be written out or would it serve the same purpose as just a few lines of backstory? If it's all needed in the story then I don't mind time jumps, even several of them, as long as I feel like I'm not missing out on actual story (basic example: character runs away to join the circus, cue time skip two weeks ahead and now they're just one of the crew. Now I feel like I'm missing story and in this case, could've just started the story already part of the circus for the same effect). | 0 | 1,141 | 5.142857 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wr0aq | h2wuhnv | 1,624,556,959 | 1,624,558,498 | 12 | 21 | I’ll let you know in a few months | I prefer time skips. I don’t want to watch them sleep, crap, and eat every meal. | 0 | 1,539 | 1.75 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2ws2xf | h2wuhnv | 1,624,557,430 | 1,624,558,498 | 7 | 21 | Maybe we can discuss it in a week? | I prefer time skips. I don’t want to watch them sleep, crap, and eat every meal. | 0 | 1,068 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x1fq3 | h2wr0aq | 1,624,561,600 | 1,624,556,959 | 18 | 12 | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | I’ll let you know in a few months | 1 | 4,641 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x1fq3 | h2wuywv | 1,624,561,600 | 1,624,558,712 | 18 | 10 | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | Nah, I don't mind. I prefer it over reading or re-reading mundane things. | 1 | 2,888 | 1.8 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x1fq3 | h2ws2xf | 1,624,561,600 | 1,624,557,430 | 18 | 7 | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | Maybe we can discuss it in a week? | 1 | 4,170 | 2.571429 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0boe | h2x1fq3 | 1,624,561,099 | 1,624,561,600 | 7 | 18 | To me its about pacing. If there isn't anything interesting happening don't include it. I always skip unimportant stuff in my stories. | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | 0 | 501 | 2.571429 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x19z6 | h2x1fq3 | 1,624,561,527 | 1,624,561,600 | 5 | 18 | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | 0 | 73 | 3.6 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x1fq3 | h2wwj2c | 1,624,561,600 | 1,624,559,411 | 18 | 2 | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 2,189 | 9 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x04gk | h2x1fq3 | 1,624,561,011 | 1,624,561,600 | 2 | 18 | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | 0 | 589 | 9 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0no7 | h2x1fq3 | 1,624,561,246 | 1,624,561,600 | 2 | 18 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | The main place I am bothered by uncalled for time skips is during dialogue actually. It doesn't take an hour for two people talking normally to exchange five sentences and yet I see this in fiction with absurd frequency. Literally like: *two people arrive at a maths class that is just beginning* "oh man this maths class is two hours long it's going to be so boring" "I know man, tell me about it... so what did you get up to on the weekend?" "Ah, you know, not much" "not much? Really? I don't believe you. I'm going to grill you for the real story at lunch" Teacher: "OK that's all we have time for today, for homework complete all the problems on page 37" "Finally, let's get out of here" ... And that's supposed to be realistic? | 0 | 354 | 9 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wuywv | h2ws2xf | 1,624,558,712 | 1,624,557,430 | 10 | 7 | Nah, I don't mind. I prefer it over reading or re-reading mundane things. | Maybe we can discuss it in a week? | 1 | 1,282 | 1.428571 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x48ix | h2ws2xf | 1,624,562,865 | 1,624,557,430 | 8 | 7 | For shorter spans of time like these, no. I do have some frustrations with stories that sometimes skip over long periods of time, and then someone else underwent a lot of change "off-screen" that felt forced or out of the blue because we didn't experience it, yet it's so important to the story. I do think there can be a danger of that within time-skips. And on the flip side, if a time-skip gets *too* long, I sometimes side-eye the implication that *nothing happened*/no one changed during that time. Things like years and years, especially if it's at a time period when people are likely to be undergoing a lot of change in a short amount of time (i.e. a young adult, a teenager, a retiree; or if those years were during something tumultuous). But as long as you avoid letting story-important changes happen off-screen, and avoid skips *so* long that a character *should* have changed but didn't, you should be okay. | Maybe we can discuss it in a week? | 1 | 5,435 | 1.142857 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0boe | h2x48ix | 1,624,561,099 | 1,624,562,865 | 7 | 8 | To me its about pacing. If there isn't anything interesting happening don't include it. I always skip unimportant stuff in my stories. | For shorter spans of time like these, no. I do have some frustrations with stories that sometimes skip over long periods of time, and then someone else underwent a lot of change "off-screen" that felt forced or out of the blue because we didn't experience it, yet it's so important to the story. I do think there can be a danger of that within time-skips. And on the flip side, if a time-skip gets *too* long, I sometimes side-eye the implication that *nothing happened*/no one changed during that time. Things like years and years, especially if it's at a time period when people are likely to be undergoing a lot of change in a short amount of time (i.e. a young adult, a teenager, a retiree; or if those years were during something tumultuous). But as long as you avoid letting story-important changes happen off-screen, and avoid skips *so* long that a character *should* have changed but didn't, you should be okay. | 0 | 1,766 | 1.142857 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x19z6 | h2x48ix | 1,624,561,527 | 1,624,562,865 | 5 | 8 | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | For shorter spans of time like these, no. I do have some frustrations with stories that sometimes skip over long periods of time, and then someone else underwent a lot of change "off-screen" that felt forced or out of the blue because we didn't experience it, yet it's so important to the story. I do think there can be a danger of that within time-skips. And on the flip side, if a time-skip gets *too* long, I sometimes side-eye the implication that *nothing happened*/no one changed during that time. Things like years and years, especially if it's at a time period when people are likely to be undergoing a lot of change in a short amount of time (i.e. a young adult, a teenager, a retiree; or if those years were during something tumultuous). But as long as you avoid letting story-important changes happen off-screen, and avoid skips *so* long that a character *should* have changed but didn't, you should be okay. | 0 | 1,338 | 1.6 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x48ix | h2wwj2c | 1,624,562,865 | 1,624,559,411 | 8 | 2 | For shorter spans of time like these, no. I do have some frustrations with stories that sometimes skip over long periods of time, and then someone else underwent a lot of change "off-screen" that felt forced or out of the blue because we didn't experience it, yet it's so important to the story. I do think there can be a danger of that within time-skips. And on the flip side, if a time-skip gets *too* long, I sometimes side-eye the implication that *nothing happened*/no one changed during that time. Things like years and years, especially if it's at a time period when people are likely to be undergoing a lot of change in a short amount of time (i.e. a young adult, a teenager, a retiree; or if those years were during something tumultuous). But as long as you avoid letting story-important changes happen off-screen, and avoid skips *so* long that a character *should* have changed but didn't, you should be okay. | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 3,454 | 4 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x04gk | h2x48ix | 1,624,561,011 | 1,624,562,865 | 2 | 8 | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | For shorter spans of time like these, no. I do have some frustrations with stories that sometimes skip over long periods of time, and then someone else underwent a lot of change "off-screen" that felt forced or out of the blue because we didn't experience it, yet it's so important to the story. I do think there can be a danger of that within time-skips. And on the flip side, if a time-skip gets *too* long, I sometimes side-eye the implication that *nothing happened*/no one changed during that time. Things like years and years, especially if it's at a time period when people are likely to be undergoing a lot of change in a short amount of time (i.e. a young adult, a teenager, a retiree; or if those years were during something tumultuous). But as long as you avoid letting story-important changes happen off-screen, and avoid skips *so* long that a character *should* have changed but didn't, you should be okay. | 0 | 1,854 | 4 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x48ix | h2x0no7 | 1,624,562,865 | 1,624,561,246 | 8 | 2 | For shorter spans of time like these, no. I do have some frustrations with stories that sometimes skip over long periods of time, and then someone else underwent a lot of change "off-screen" that felt forced or out of the blue because we didn't experience it, yet it's so important to the story. I do think there can be a danger of that within time-skips. And on the flip side, if a time-skip gets *too* long, I sometimes side-eye the implication that *nothing happened*/no one changed during that time. Things like years and years, especially if it's at a time period when people are likely to be undergoing a lot of change in a short amount of time (i.e. a young adult, a teenager, a retiree; or if those years were during something tumultuous). But as long as you avoid letting story-important changes happen off-screen, and avoid skips *so* long that a character *should* have changed but didn't, you should be okay. | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | 1 | 1,619 | 4 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2x0boe | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,561,099 | 2 | 7 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | To me its about pacing. If there isn't anything interesting happening don't include it. I always skip unimportant stuff in my stories. | 0 | 1,688 | 3.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0boe | h2x04gk | 1,624,561,099 | 1,624,561,011 | 7 | 2 | To me its about pacing. If there isn't anything interesting happening don't include it. I always skip unimportant stuff in my stories. | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 88 | 3.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9r2g | h2x19z6 | 1,624,565,372 | 1,624,561,527 | 6 | 5 | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | 1 | 3,845 | 1.2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9aj6 | h2x9r2g | 1,624,565,161 | 1,624,565,372 | 4 | 6 | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | 0 | 211 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2x9r2g | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,565,372 | 2 | 6 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | 0 | 5,961 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9dbk | h2x9r2g | 1,624,565,197 | 1,624,565,372 | 3 | 6 | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | 0 | 175 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9r2g | h2x04gk | 1,624,565,372 | 1,624,561,011 | 6 | 2 | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 4,361 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9r2g | h2x0no7 | 1,624,565,372 | 1,624,561,246 | 6 | 2 | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | 1 | 4,126 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x5job | h2x9r2g | 1,624,563,461 | 1,624,565,372 | 2 | 6 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | 0 | 1,911 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x7ysm | h2x9r2g | 1,624,564,557 | 1,624,565,372 | 2 | 6 | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | I don't think it really bothers me if there is a good reason for it. No plot needs to start and end within a specific time frame. It's not like a 6 month timeline has to provide me with 6 months of content. I don't want to read about the MC going to the grocery store and having a hard time deciding what bag of chips they want. There's a limit for filler content and if a time skip can fulfill that without thinning out the plot, go for it. With my own writing, though, if there is a need for a time skip I will immediately revisit my plot. That's not to say I don't have any in my work, I just prefer to have a story with continuous motion instead of having to back track and play "catch up" with my reader on what happened over the last six months. I would rather deliver the whole meal on a single plate. | 0 | 815 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x19z6 | h2yd44q | 1,624,561,527 | 1,624,590,163 | 5 | 6 | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 28,636 | 1.2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9aj6 | h2yd44q | 1,624,565,161 | 1,624,590,163 | 4 | 6 | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 25,002 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xc8vw | h2yd44q | 1,624,566,511 | 1,624,590,163 | 5 | 6 | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 23,652 | 1.2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2yd44q | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,590,163 | 3 | 6 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 24,575 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2yd44q | h2xbu2u | 1,624,590,163 | 1,624,566,323 | 6 | 3 | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | 1 | 23,840 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2yd44q | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,590,163 | 2 | 6 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 30,752 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9dbk | h2yd44q | 1,624,565,197 | 1,624,590,163 | 3 | 6 | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 24,966 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2yd44q | h2xe8am | 1,624,590,163 | 1,624,567,449 | 6 | 3 | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | it really depends most of the time, if nothing interesting is happening then skip it and its okay im currently reading the Poppy War and im actually bothered a bit by the pacing and i feel that the time skips in the middle were too big | 1 | 22,714 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xj68d | h2yd44q | 1,624,570,024 | 1,624,590,163 | 3 | 6 | Maybe you could do a small summary of what happens during that time, as in "In the following days, they do.....until...." or something like that. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 20,139 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xne93 | h2yd44q | 1,624,576,215 | 1,624,590,163 | 3 | 6 | I think honestly, it depends on the type of story your telling. Where is the focus on? The story? The characters? The setting? Might make sense to skip very unnecessary events which hold little to no impact on the rest of the story. I personally don't enjoy when time skips are used to hide future "convenient" plot elements. I believe you should ground yourself somewhere so that those skips don't feel like an endless hat to pull elements from. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 13,948 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x04gk | h2yd44q | 1,624,561,011 | 1,624,590,163 | 2 | 6 | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 29,152 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0no7 | h2yd44q | 1,624,561,246 | 1,624,590,163 | 2 | 6 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 28,917 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x5job | h2yd44q | 1,624,563,461 | 1,624,590,163 | 2 | 6 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 26,702 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2yd44q | h2x7ysm | 1,624,590,163 | 1,624,564,557 | 6 | 2 | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | 1 | 25,606 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xfq34 | h2yd44q | 1,624,568,207 | 1,624,590,163 | 2 | 6 | As a reader, i would think that it's a bunch of missed opportunities, and if there were scene's i was specifically looking forward to I'd get annoyed, but i might not be your target audience | Honestly, while we can give you advice on this, your best bet is to pull out a book that you love and examine it for time skips. You'll be engaged in doing this research because it's a book that you love, and you'll get to see how one of your favorite authors utilizes time skips. As for my advice, I think you should only be alluding to time skips when it needs to be mentioned. Additionally, you can utilize paragraph breaks and chapter breaks to make time skips easier on the reader. As an example, let's look at *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (or *Philosopher's Stone* for you Brits out there). In Chapter 1, the scene takes place at the Dursley house after Harry, as a baby, is left with his Aunt and Uncle, who end up hating him, and their young son Dudley, who also hates Harry, after his parents' deaths. When Rowling transitions to Chapter 2, she chooses a moment in Harry's life that she feels is a nice meaty scene for the reader, and here is the beginning of the opening paragraph: >**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.** The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets** \-- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with this father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Notice how Rowling directly mentions the amount of years that have passed. She also *shows* the passage of time with a direct reference to Dudley Dursley growing up (and showing how Harry is not present in any photographs at all). It is very important here that the reader knows Harry is around 10-11 years old here, as he was a baby in the first chapter, so the exact number of years helps. In Chapter 2, the setting takes place at the Dursley house on Privet Drive, then the scene switches to the zoo. While at the zoo, Harry interacts with a boa constrictor that is in an exhibit. At some point, the glass breaks and the snake escapes. Within three paragraphs, the scene changes three times: >The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car,** Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?" > >**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house** before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. > >**\[PARAGRAPH BREAK\]** > >**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later**, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. Notice the **bold** parts. Now, another writer could have just ended the scene with the snake escaping and Aunt Petunia screaming and Uncle Vernon getting mad at Harry, then jumping a paragraph to everyone at the house. But the scene begins at *the zoo*, changes mid-paragraph to *Uncle Vernon's car*, changes at the start of the next paragraph to the *Dursley's house*, and then changes after the paragraph break to *Harry in the cupboard*. All of these events occur within the span of probably an hour or several hours (to get from the zoo, to the house, to Harry in the cupboard), but the author never has to tell us exactly how much time has passed. Now, watch how J.K. Rowling tells us how much time has passed at the beginning of Chapter 3: >The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started** and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. What is important here is that Rowling *weaves the passage of time into character development*. We know that the summer holidays are over by the time his Aunt and Uncle decide to release him (showing how much hatred they have towards Harry), and we also learn that Dudley (their son) doesn't take care of his expensive devices/things, and that he doesn't care for others (knocking down Mrs. Figg). This is the best way to tell readers about the passage of time: by telling them other useful information that has happened *during the passage of time*. Additionally, check out that parallelism compared to how Rowling described Dudley Dursley in the first paragraph of Chapter 2: all positive images, but in this one, everything has turned negative and sour very quickly. Great device used here. | 0 | 21,956 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2x19z6 | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,561,527 | 6 | 5 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | 1 | 7,649 | 1.2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2x19z6 | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,561,527 | 2 | 5 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | 0 | 2,116 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x04gk | h2x19z6 | 1,624,561,011 | 1,624,561,527 | 2 | 5 | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | 0 | 516 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0no7 | h2x19z6 | 1,624,561,246 | 1,624,561,527 | 2 | 5 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | No, as others have said, unless there's a good reason for it, it's better to skip past things that aren't relevant to the story. Also, time skips can be a good way to hide dead giveaways when it comes to mysteries. Unless the entire story takes place in real-time, there's no need to document every waking moment of a character's day. | 0 | 281 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9aj6 | h2xc8vw | 1,624,565,161 | 1,624,566,511 | 4 | 5 | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 1,350 | 1.25 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2x9aj6 | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,565,161 | 6 | 4 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | 1 | 4,015 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9aj6 | h2wwj2c | 1,624,565,161 | 1,624,559,411 | 4 | 2 | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 5,750 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x04gk | h2x9aj6 | 1,624,561,011 | 1,624,565,161 | 2 | 4 | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | 0 | 4,150 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0no7 | h2x9aj6 | 1,624,561,246 | 1,624,565,161 | 2 | 4 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | 0 | 3,915 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9aj6 | h2x5job | 1,624,565,161 | 1,624,563,461 | 4 | 2 | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | 1 | 1,700 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x7ysm | h2x9aj6 | 1,624,564,557 | 1,624,565,161 | 2 | 4 | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | A best seller once told me to condense the whole plot and make it happen in a day. But I didn’t take it too seriously. He made a good point though. People want the meat of the story. Some things should be skipped, but it depends a lot on the genre. For example, in an old fantasy novel, time may be skipped because travel might take a while. | 0 | 604 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2xc8vw | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,566,511 | 6 | 5 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 1 | 2,665 | 1.2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2xc8vw | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,566,511 | 3 | 5 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 923 | 1.666667 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xbu2u | h2xc8vw | 1,624,566,323 | 1,624,566,511 | 3 | 5 | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 188 | 1.666667 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2xc8vw | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,566,511 | 2 | 5 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 7,100 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9dbk | h2xc8vw | 1,624,565,197 | 1,624,566,511 | 3 | 5 | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 1,314 | 1.666667 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xc8vw | h2x04gk | 1,624,566,511 | 1,624,561,011 | 5 | 2 | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 5,500 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0no7 | h2xc8vw | 1,624,561,246 | 1,624,566,511 | 2 | 5 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 5,265 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x5job | h2xc8vw | 1,624,563,461 | 1,624,566,511 | 2 | 5 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 3,050 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x7ysm | h2xc8vw | 1,624,564,557 | 1,624,566,511 | 2 | 5 | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | I don't mind it as long as it's clearly outlined. I don't need a literal "two months later", but some sort of hint about how long has passed would suffice. I'd much rather that than one book I read where every chapter was seemingly the next day yet the last chapter referenced a year had passed since the beginning of the story and yet there had been no hint of it so I chalked it up to poor writing (the book was pretty abysmal so it wasn't surprising). | 0 | 1,954 | 2.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2xhkqs | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,569,176 | 3 | 6 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | 0 | 3,588 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2xbu2u | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,566,323 | 6 | 3 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | 1 | 2,853 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2xhkqs | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,569,176 | 2 | 6 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | 0 | 9,765 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9dbk | h2xhkqs | 1,624,565,197 | 1,624,569,176 | 3 | 6 | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | 0 | 3,979 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2xe8am | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,567,449 | 6 | 3 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | it really depends most of the time, if nothing interesting is happening then skip it and its okay im currently reading the Poppy War and im actually bothered a bit by the pacing and i feel that the time skips in the middle were too big | 1 | 1,727 | 2 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2x04gk | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,561,011 | 6 | 2 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 8,165 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xhkqs | h2x0no7 | 1,624,569,176 | 1,624,561,246 | 6 | 2 | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | 1 | 7,930 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x5job | h2xhkqs | 1,624,563,461 | 1,624,569,176 | 2 | 6 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | 0 | 5,715 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x7ysm | h2xhkqs | 1,624,564,557 | 1,624,569,176 | 2 | 6 | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | 0 | 4,619 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xfq34 | h2xhkqs | 1,624,568,207 | 1,624,569,176 | 2 | 6 | As a reader, i would think that it's a bunch of missed opportunities, and if there were scene's i was specifically looking forward to I'd get annoyed, but i might not be your target audience | It's only really annoying to me it the story skips time and never explains what happened in the time skipped. Unless it's really obvious like they fell asleep. Personally though if you're in the situation of writing about characters traveling I'd not skip it. It's the perfect time and place to add small details to the world and if you fill it with interesting things it doesn't feel like filler and can helo with making the world feel larger both physically and story wise. Also sometimes it's good to just wind down for a bit and bring the story back to Earth. Give the reader some time to catch up and think about the story before you throw them into another chunk. | 0 | 969 | 3 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2wwj2c | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,559,411 | 3 | 2 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 6,177 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2x04gk | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,561,011 | 3 | 2 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 4,577 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2x0no7 | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,561,246 | 3 | 2 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | 1 | 4,342 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2x5job | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,563,461 | 3 | 2 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | 1 | 2,127 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xa86q | h2x7ysm | 1,624,565,588 | 1,624,564,557 | 3 | 2 | It doesn’t annoy me as a reader, but as a writer I forget this is an option and usually end up wasting time filling in the space 🥲😅 | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | 1 | 1,031 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xbu2u | h2wwj2c | 1,624,566,323 | 1,624,559,411 | 3 | 2 | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 6,912 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xbu2u | h2x04gk | 1,624,566,323 | 1,624,561,011 | 3 | 2 | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 5,312 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xbu2u | h2x0no7 | 1,624,566,323 | 1,624,561,246 | 3 | 2 | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | 1 | 5,077 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x5job | h2xbu2u | 1,624,563,461 | 1,624,566,323 | 2 | 3 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | 0 | 2,862 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xbu2u | h2x7ysm | 1,624,566,323 | 1,624,564,557 | 3 | 2 | There are plenty of good examples of stories that are spread over big chunks of time, which necessitate time skips to get from one important, interesting bit to the next. Just some that come to mind, Harry Potter, each book takes place over a school-year. I think the author quite elegantly indicates the time skips between plot points by describing setting, which can enhance world-building without getting bogged down. Suzanne Collins is great at structure, and while I think Mockingjay is the weakest of the Hunger Games trilogy, you could still study how she covers relevant info for time skips. And don't be afraid to read what not to do, too. A bad example can sometimes be as instructive as a good. I hear Twilight is notorious for not skipping the boring bits, writing every day and getting bogged down. | I definitely prefer times skips like that than when there are too much mundane things happening, unless the chapter/book is built around those mundane things (Being a fan of the ''Slice of Life'' Manga/Novel, I really don't mind that happening when it's appropriate. I don't expect that to happen in more action oriented series) | 1 | 1,766 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9dbk | h2wwj2c | 1,624,565,197 | 1,624,559,411 | 3 | 2 | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 5,786 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2xe8am | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,567,449 | 2 | 3 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | it really depends most of the time, if nothing interesting is happening then skip it and its okay im currently reading the Poppy War and im actually bothered a bit by the pacing and i feel that the time skips in the middle were too big | 0 | 8,038 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2xj68d | h2wwj2c | 1,624,570,024 | 1,624,559,411 | 3 | 2 | Maybe you could do a small summary of what happens during that time, as in "In the following days, they do.....until...." or something like that. | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | 1 | 10,613 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2wwj2c | h2xne93 | 1,624,559,411 | 1,624,576,215 | 2 | 3 | Build up to it. This works best if your characters need to cover a lot of ground and not much happens in between. | I think honestly, it depends on the type of story your telling. Where is the focus on? The story? The characters? The setting? Might make sense to skip very unnecessary events which hold little to no impact on the rest of the story. I personally don't enjoy when time skips are used to hide future "convenient" plot elements. I believe you should ground yourself somewhere so that those skips don't feel like an endless hat to pull elements from. | 0 | 16,804 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x9dbk | h2x04gk | 1,624,565,197 | 1,624,561,011 | 3 | 2 | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | The best stories seem my skip all this stuff unless it’s relevant. If you have your driving principle, everything should be building toward that or cut it if you can | 1 | 4,186 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x0no7 | h2x9dbk | 1,624,561,246 | 1,624,565,197 | 2 | 3 | In story it annoys me, yes, unless it’s the time between classes in Harry Potter and there’s a reason for it, for example. Generally time skips should be reserved for the end of chapters where it makes sense. | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | 0 | 3,951 | 1.5 | ||
o76325 | writing_train | 0.94 | Does it annoy you as a reader when there’s a lot of unaccounted for time? In my current story, there’s a lot of “a few days later”, “three weeks later”, “months later”. Just wondering how annoying that might be as a reader. Some of it I do plan to fill in but not much. For example, there’s a pregnancy I don’t plan to account for because it was uneventful. There are a few projects the MC works on also and the fact that the project happened is important but not what happened during the project. Interested in hearing different perspectives on this. | h2x5job | h2x9dbk | 1,624,563,461 | 1,624,565,197 | 2 | 3 | Only tell the most interesting parts of the story. | I met Steven James at the Writers Digest Conference a couple of years ago. He talked about time passage and said you can get away with a lot of time passing (and skipping as you described) at the beginning and middle of the story but by the third act there should be a lot less time passage. | 0 | 1,736 | 1.5 |
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