How exactly do you jump months into the future?
In my novel, it starts out around Thanksgiving time. I'd like it to end up towards the end of spring, but I don't want to write all of the months in between. Do you just skip weeks at a time-- i.e., 'Weeks passed, and there was nothing of importance going on so the author is just going to move on'? Or is there a better way?
Thanks *leaves cookies*
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The Fear - NaNoWriMo 2008
72,308 / 50,000
Mar 29, 2008 - 21 11
Depends on your goal.
You can just start the next chapter and then make a reference to the previous with a time reference:
Janet came out of the store with a bag of groceries and saw Harold. In the two months since their last meeting she had almost forgotten him.
OR:
That was a week ago, now she wants to look for someone else.
Just chose whatever comes naturally to you. Experiment and see what works for your setting.
Hope this helps.
18,008 / 50,000
Mar 30, 2008 - 04 17
There are many stories where the next chapter says "Two months later..."
If your stories has chapters that are date and time stamped, that could show a time warp.
If movies can do it, so can any story.
65,949 / 50,000
Apr 2, 2008 - 13 01
My Novel, "The Excruciator" has a deliberate time warp. It's chancey but, the end to the story is actually the Prologue. Whereas, the chapters flip non-sequentially by character. I worked on several other novels that began to seem too pat time wise. I was determined to try this just once. The Epilogue is actually a new beginning for the heroine.
I've had it critiqued by several friends and asked them to make notes on their copies where they felt they wanted to comment. All said they loved the idea of the death of one of the two main characters in the Prologue.