Time Leaps

[Androxine Vortex]

I've noticed in different novels that when there is a jump forward in time, the author creates a new paragraph but as if they hit the enter key three times so there is a big black space between the time leap.

There is a scene in the beginning of my novel where the main character is in hiding and she goes to sleep in her shelter. Would it be alright to use one of these leap forward tools if the next scene, the character is already awake and preparing to leave, or should it just be a normal paragraph following and just say, Lira awoke the next morning...

 

[Androxine Vortex]

*big blank space
I can't go back and edit on my phone

 

[Ankari]

I think you can do whatever you want, but I've only seen that blank space, line, asterisks, used for POV shifts in the same scene. Why use the blank space to show a leap of time forward for such a short period of time?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Ithink the grammar people would object. My guess is either use some filler lines, (eg time passed peacefully for a few hours until -), or if you can't and it's a significant jump asterisks. Heck it may even be a new chapter. I can't tell without see the whole section.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[AnnaBlixt]

In my opinion, only use the blank line for when the perspective changes.

If you use it in the middle of a chapter just to show that time passed, to me that seems like sloppy writing. If the perspective doesn't change, you will be better off filling that line with words.

A blank space = a break.
A line of words = a flowing story.

 

[wordwalker]

It's mostly about how smoothly it flows, compared to the paragraphs around it. "When she awoke..." might be enough if you aren't deep in the details, or aren't stepping too far ahead into how much she's gotten done afterward. If it's a bigger jump, or the more she's frightened or excited or In The Now when she drops off, marking it looks better. Even your overall style matters-- how often do you rush things forward like this, or would it look odd in your story to this once make a jump without marking it?

But please: the proper mark for the more visible jumps isn't skipping a line or three, it's a line with one or more asterisks. Some published books change it to skipped lines, but that's because they take very careful note of where the breaks fall on the page; manuscripts can't risk that, and I've seen pages that simply bewildered readers when a scene break landed at the top/bottom of a page and got lost. Don't risk it, ever.

(It's still better than having a major unmarked shift and hiding it in the middle of a paragraph, though. Sigh...)

 

[Telcontar]

If there is a pretty significant chunk of interim time, I do use a full blank line to help the reader clue to that. Narrative space matching physical space of the text, and all that. I reserve using the section-breaker asterisks "***" for when there has been a shift in POV.

 

[Jamber]

Hi Androxine,

my feeling (for what it's worth) is that for sleep to be mentioned, it needs to fulfil a narrative purpose. If it's mentioned and then there's a break, that needs to be because something has shifted between the sleep moment and the next. Narratively speaking, it's like a gigantic em dash – when you wake, something meaningful has shifted (you had a dream, or you didn't have a dream and woke amazingly refreshed, or you suddenly sensed a presence or understood a puzzle, whatever). Those cases are where it's fine to mark it as separate with a line break or asterisks (if doing an ebook, the line break is a bad idea, as Wordwalker has said.)

In stories where not much is changing over (say) a long arduous journey between two points, as in much of Lord of the Rings, sleeps serve a different function -- mentioning it emphasises that while change is expected it isn't happening (endless days spent crossing a hilly wilderness, for instance). In that case similarity between pre-sleep and after-sleep moments is the key (a gross example: 'He woke in the same position he'd fallen asleep in, and for some reason didn't feel refreshed.'). Whichever way you use sleep, if it's not serving a narrative purpose, keep it as low key as possible -- 'He stopped for the night at a shabby inn, and woke the next day crawling with lice...' or whatever. (In other words, don't mention the sleep, just skip between both waking moments.)

I'm maybe reading too much into sleep, of course...

cheers
Jennie

 

[Addison]

If it's only a few hours or minutes then I've found, by reading stories, that a regular new paragraph works best. Only make large paragraph breaks if the difference is great, like months...maybe weeks.


On a related time note, this will probably/most likely be one of those "it depends on you (the author) and your story" answer type questions but I'll ask just to get opinion: How long should the story take? I don't mean to write or read but in the story-world's time zone...thing. Does the length of time, days-weeks-months, depend on the grand-epic or small-speedy nature of the story? Would it effect, or be effected, by the time?

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I saw it used in a novel I was reading earlier. The MC was fighting in a war and he heard the signal to fall back into the inner walls inside the city. It then does this three line space and the story picks up after he is back inside the city talking to a room of important people. I can see how some people might think this is lazy writing but I liked it because I feel like I'm only reading important things.

 

[Steerpike]

That's not lazy writing at all. Go with it.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

IM just not sure if I should use it after a sleeping scene. Hmmm...

 

[AnnaBlixt]

I saw it used in a novel I was reading earlier. The MC was fighting in a war and he heard the signal to fall back into the inner walls inside the city. It then does this three line space and the story picks up after he is back inside the city talking to a room of important people. I can see how some people might think this is lazy writing but I liked it because I feel like I'm only reading important things.

But that could be achieved without breaking the story up. A good writer can easily use three lines to explain that the fallback was successful and that they gathered for a meeting after stowing their gear.

IMHO, if there is a need for a three line space to signify a break in the story, start a new chapter instead. Within a chapter, I expect flow, unless the perspective changes.