Skipping ahead in time.

[lucidzfl]

Are there any rules on skipping ahead in time?

I do not want to follow the daily lives of some of my MC's once they create a settlement. I would rather skip ahead to the point that the next catastrophe happens.

is it fair to say, "6 months later" ?

I may not ever do another skip ahead again in the book, is it ok if I only do this once?

[beqs]

What about saying something in terms of seasons such as...

"By the time the snows fell..." or something like that? It seems a bit more fluid than "Six months later."

[aadams73]

"Six months later I was still standing on her porch. And, God, did I need to pee."

Yeah, it's totally fine. :D

[blacbird]

Are there any rules on skipping ahead in time?

Other than clarity, no. Go look at any number of famous novels (always good advice, IMO) and you'll find a variety of ways it's been done.

caw

[Matera the Mad]

It beats the heck out of day by day plodding.

[James D. Macdonald]

What with this and that some six months passed.

[Danthia]

Skip away, just make it clear that time has passed. Only write the interesting parts, and skip over the boring stuff :) It doesn't matter how often you do it. As long as the story is moving forward and keeping the reader interested, you're doing your job.

[sadron]

It's fine to skip time and make sure readers spot it.

[lucidzfl]

Oh it will definitely be spottable.

I've separated my novel out into 6 distinct "Books" each of which is about 15,000 words.

Between "Books" 2 and 3, about 6 months to a year pass. Basically at the end of book 2 they reach the site where they set up their commune. I don't really want to spend thousands of words talking about setting up tents, finding stuff to hunt, etc. Not that such things are boring, its just not what the book is about.

I want to fast forward to the point where they're already established and the good shit starts happening. :)

[Wark]

"You were asleep for six days."

I've never jumped further than that.

[James D. Macdonald]

Big time jumps is why they invented chapter breaks.

[lucidzfl]

Big time jumps is why they invented chapter breaks.

Yeah. I could definitely just do it at a chapter break, but it just so happens it occurs at the end of the second "book".

[SarahMacManus]

Yep, chapter breaks. Or any kind of section breakt. I've seen it done all the time.

[DMarie84]

It's fine. In my latest WiP I'm skipping ahead 300 years. That's going to prove to be interesting :P