Stories that span long periods of Time

You mean show them taking baths, going to the potty and sleeping? Generally you just choose the events relevent to the story. My WIP is from February to May, 1969. I use news events specific to that period as background, as well as weather and other things. Charlie Manson was big news. Everyone was freaking out. The Beatles were about to break up. LSD was just made illegal. Vietnam was getting really bad, and there was a lot of depression, pill popping, going crazy. My setting is California (LA) so there is a lot of pop culture. The story takes place in California, and Florida, and some other locations. Between that, and choosing important scenes particular to my story, I have enough to fill up 10 books. My job is to distill it down to the most important scenes. Considering you may only have 100K words or less, you have to make it good.

How did those authors you mentioned do it? Don't just read the book, stop at the places where you see a time transition and study it. Then think about how you can use it.

DwayneA said:

but how do you show that a certain amount of time has passed between those scenes?

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Three days later I stood in the headmaster's office and prepared for the cane....

In other words, a short tell.

You might take a look at Class Reunion and After the Reunion by Rona Jaffe, although be forewarned, these are definitely chick books. The author tells the life story of her characters over several decades, and the format she used was interesting.

Hi, Dwayne. Everything I write spans weeks, months, or years. I don't tend to get real specific about the exact amount of time that has passed, because knowing the date is not material to my stories. I have one fantasy series where they're traveling by ship, so you know weeks pass between them leaving point A and arriving at point B. Another of my fantasy books takes place at a school so I mark the passage of time through the semesters and exams. I also mention how long has passed since key events ("It had been a year since {Big important event at beginning of book}, but he hadn't forgotten").

I have one book set on Earth that spans 2.5 years and marking the passage of time in that was easy. The seasons change, and there's all the holidays. My current main WIP spans weeks instead of months or years and I've been using the amount of time that's passed since the instigating event at the beginning to mark the passage of time.

I've honestly never started a scene with "blah blah days/weeks/months later". I haven't purposely avoided it, it just doesn't seem necessary. If your writing is clear and you structure your scenes properly, readers should be able to figure out about how much time has passed between. Besides, does it really matter whether it's been 3 days or 7 between scenes?

Use Her Name said:

You mean show them taking baths, going to the potty and sleeping? Generally you just choose the events relevent to the story. My WIP is from February to May, 1969. I use news events specific to that period as background, as well as weather and other things. Charlie Manson was big news. Everyone was freaking out. The Beatles were about to break up. LSD was just made illegal. Vietnam was getting really bad, and there was a lot of depression, pill popping, going crazy. My setting is California (LA) so there is a lot of pop culture. The story takes place in California, and Florida, and some other locations. Between that, and choosing important scenes particular to my story, I have enough to fill up 10 books. My job is to distill it down to the most important scenes. Considering you may only have 100K words or less, you have to make it good.

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Just an observation...The murders were not until August of 1969, and Charlie Manson did not become really big news until the trial started in June of the next year. Susan Atkins was in jail in the fall of 1969, testifying to a grand jury about what had happened, and that implicated Charlie. You might need to tweak your month span, depending on what you're mentioning about the case.

DwayneA said:

but how do you show that a certain amount of time has passed between those scenes?

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Books spaced out over a long period of time are normally divided into parts. If your book starts in 1995 and then moves to 1999, if you start 1999 in a separate part, you can re-establish the characters' surroundings. You're basically starting a new novel.

You can set the date at the top of a new chapter or simply tell the reader it's 1999 or whatever year you're using. And to pass the time, just use important events that work with the plot/subplots.

I really don't see what the problem is. Haven't you ever told a story that spanned large blocks of time? how did you do it.

Jim's graduation party in June was the big event in the neighborhood. When he left for college in September, we thought we'd miss him, but he called us almost every night.

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I just covered the whole summer in two sentences. No chapter break, just a little narrative.