The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

Time Jumps

What is a time jump? It's a way of jumping through time throughout the story so you're not doing day-by-day journeys.

Now, you have two ways on how to jump. You have making a new chapter, because sometimes you can just start the next chapter off a few days or weeks ahead. And you have using different things in the chapter to indicate time has passed.

When you're doing either, you want to say something that lets your readers know that they've jumped. But you don't want to say something like, "9 days later." You want it to flow. So depending on the scene, you can describe the surroundings say for instance, in the beginning of the chapter, it's daytime and by the middle of the chapter, you jumped to the night. In this situation, you could describe the sky, or the bugs that chirp in the distance (such as crickets), or how street lights come on for the evening...

If it's a few days or so later, you can say something through the dialogue. For instance, you could say something like, "That was (insert time) ago that it happened, silly." You know, something like that. You could also try to state it relevantly in the narration. For instance, this is part of My Invisible Wound:

I felt the sweat on my forehead; it was dripping down my temples, "jumping" over my eyes as if they were dirt bikes flying over hills. My body became sore as I continued to run; my fists were clenched so tight that they were turning white and the tip of my nails were digging into my skin. My legs were becoming numb as it had felt like the first time I had run in years and my legs were never used to running further distances. The tail of my spine was beginning to feel like someone was pinching my lower back; and my feet were hurting from the weight it was carrying as it was my 255 pound body.

It was the day after I cut myself; two days after I was suspended from school. Two days after I made a scene in the lunch room. I thought that it was it. I needed to go somewhere, to leave. I needed to be gone.

Making a new chapter by itself can indicate that time has passed. Whether it'd be minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, a new chapter can make that happen with you even saying a word about how time has passed. Sometimes you could do like said above, by giving hints about how long it has been, but it really depends.

Another way to describe it without making a new chapter, is either by A) putting two spaces between the paragraphs for a time jump, or B) creating a specific sign that can indicate it.

What I mean by sign is basically using stars (*) or the squiggly lines (~) or by making your own. So it would look like ~*~*~ in-between paragraphs, or you could think of something else. Some ideas could be + + + +, ^ ^ ^ ^, - - - -, . . . ., : : : :, ~ ~ ~ ~, * * * *, etc. In My Invisible Wound, I made up my own which was :c: - this is used to indicate time has passed. So in a few scenes that I've used this with, here is how I did it:

I nodded, finally getting out of his arms. "Yeah, I'm okay." I slightly grinned and hoped that he didn't hear the trembling noise in my voice. I hoped that he didn't see the tear that was about to cascade down my face. "Anyway, I have homework to do . . ."

"All right," he said. He smiled as his eyes stayed in contact with mine for a mere second, then he went back to what he was doing.

                                                                                          :c:

It was midnight. The sun in the sky was gone, showing the other side of the world a beautiful day as its beams of light touched the ground. A blanket of black with bright dots covered the sky as a white and grey sphere hung itself on the black quilt like a decoration.

....

I didn't have to think about my answer, about my actions. My immediate response was nodding my head "yes."

                                                                                         :c:

The night clothed the sky above; the moon was full with a few mysterious clouds hovering around it. Elyes slammed his car door shut and we headed for the sand. Ahead was a crowd of people who stood, drank, danced to music, talked, and warmed themselves around the large, standing wood pieces that was caught on fire. Everyone seemed happy. It was like that place was meant for you to get away from the issues of life and trouble; a place to feel free and not care for a single thing. And for once in my life, I felt happy.

....

"I think I better go," he said. Instantly, he got up—putting the blanket on my bed—opened the window, and left, leaving it open. I got up to close it, but it took me a few moments to even do so as I saw him walking down the street, not even caring about the cold air that was encircling his skin.

                                                                                        :c:

"How is the story coming?" Jake asked, looking up to me from the school laptop.

....

All in all, though, I think the best answer is to just be creative. Try not to be like the show Spongebob and say something like, "3 hours later." Because that does make it look unprofessional. If it's for going back in time in a chapter, you could be creative and write down its exact time jump. For instance: London, England; March 19th, 1769. - And with each time you do something that goes backwards and forwards, you could try that.