How do you write time skips?

“Any advice on how to write time skips? I’m working on the second draft of my novel and I keep getting stuck on transitions where time passes. Sometimes it’s just a few days, but there’s also a big jump of several years in the middle. I never know if I’m doing it right. Thanks in advance!”

Time skips seem deceptively simple, but they can be really difficult to get right. Moving from one time to another seems like a simple leap, but it takes a lot of orientation to make sure that a reader follows along and can make sense of what is happening. You need to be able to move through time without losing your readers along the way.

When should you use a time skip?

Time skips should be used with intent. Not every moment of your character’s life needs to be on the page, so time skips let you cut out the parts that don’t serve your story and instead, focus on the moments that matter.

A time skip can be something as simple as a scene change, but they can also move forward years, or even decades! You’ll know what’s best based on the type of story you’re telling, but here are some reasons why you might choose to implement a time skip:

• Nothing plot-relevant happens between scenes.
• You need to show the passage of time for character development or world changes.
• Pacing demands that you move the story forward quickly.
• A significant event would be better revealed through its aftermath than shown in real-time.
• You want to create suspense by jumping past an event and revealing what happened later.

Picking the right time skip

Not all time skips are created equally. Or more accurately, not every time skip is equal for every situation. Different lengths of time require different approaches, and you’ll need to think about which is the most relevant for the scene or chapter you’re working on.

Short skips (hours to days)

Short time skips are the most common. You’ll often see them in scene or chapter transitions where one moment ends, and the next picks up in a relatively compact time frame. They’re the most common, and definitely the easiest to execute because a scene or chapter break usually does most of the work for you.

Medium skips (weeks to months)

The more time you skip, the more care is required, because there are a lot of things that could presumably happen off the page. Readers need a bit more grounding when they land in a new time after a longer skip, so you’ll need to make sure you give context clues. These will usually include seasonal changes, references to past events, or a character reflecting on their situation.

Long skips (years or decades)

The longer the skip, the more you have to think about context. Readers will need to be reoriented with how a character’s circumstances have changed, with the setup of a new status quo. When time moves on, a character will rarely be static, and the reader will not have had the opportunity to experience their development, which has happened off the page.

Some techniques for transitions

Use clear markers

Don’t make readers guess that time has passed. White space, scene breaks, chapter breaks, or explicit time stamps all work well. There’s also nothing wrong with being direct. Statements like, “Six months had passed since the funeral,” or, “It was Winter when the news finally broke,” give a clear passage of time, and clear context. They’re not the only options, but either way, clarity is key.

Ground readers quickly

After a time skip, readers will need something to anchor to. This might be a new location, a character’s changed emotional state, or a reference to what’s changed. This could also be a clear marker like I outlined above, or it could be simply showing a character’s new state of being.

Show, don’t tell

While grounding often works well with something a bit more direct, you can still use a lot of showing to do that grounding work. If a character was pregnant in a previous chapter, but the next takes place after the child’s birth, for instance, showing that character holding their baby is still a clear and direct grounding. A construction site in one chapter could be a completed building in the next. A planted sapling in one chapter could be a fully grown tree that now provides shade in the next. Details like this do double duty; they signal the passage of time while also enriching your story world.

Learn to use narrative summary

Sometimes, a brief recap bridges two scenes better than a hard cut. This technique,is often called a narrative summary, and it lets you compress time while still giving your readers essential information about what happened during the time skip. This works best when mixed with showing. You describe the passage of time and what is happening during the time you want to move through quickly rather than skipping it altogether.

Centre your character’s PoV

How does your point-of-view character experience this passage of time? For them, did it fly by or drag endlessly? Filtering the time skip through their perception can let you skip the unnecessary as a lot of world events won’t be relevant to them. You can then blend that worldbuilding into different parts of the narrative instead of info-dumping it at the time of the transition.