The Time Skip: Fast-Forwarding Through Fiction

"Five years later..."

Three words that change everything. Characters are different. The world has changed. And you missed it all.

Time skips are one of fiction's most powerful and dangerous tools.

What Is a Time Skip?

A narrative jump forward in time, skipping over events. Can be:

• Short: Hours or days
• Medium: Weeks or months
• Long: Years or decades
• Extreme: Generations or centuries

What happens in the gap is implied or revealed gradually.

Why Use Time Skips

Training montage alternative. Skip the grinding, show the results.

Character development offscreen. They've grown without showing every step.

Setting change. The world can transform.

Pacing control. Skip slow parts, keep momentum.

New status quo. Establish different circumstances quickly.

Aging characters. Children become adults.

When They Work

Clear progression. We understand what changed and why. The character that emerges makes sense as an evolution of who they were.

Emotional resonance. The gap matters to characters and readers. Time passing should feel significant, not arbitrary.

Justified length. The time needed makes sense. Five years to master a complex skill feels appropriate. Five years to walk to the next town doesn't.

Discovery is rewarding. Learning what happened satisfies curiosity. The gap becomes a mystery worth exploring through hints and reveals.

Both eras matter. Before and after are both compelling. The story has momentum in both timeframes, not just one carrying the other.

When They Fail

Skipping the good stuff. When what happened during the skip was more interesting. If readers are more curious about the gap than what happens after, you skipped wrong.

Inconsistent changes. Characters developed wrong or not enough. The transformation needs to feel earned even if we didn't see it.

Unexplained gaps. "What happened to X?" without answers. Loose ends from before the skip need addressing.

Cheap drama. Drama from time skip that wasn't set up. "During the skip, your mentor died" feels like cheating if we had no investment.

Wasted potential. Everyone wants to see what you skipped. Some content is too compelling to summarize.

Types of Time Skips

The Training Gap

Skip months/years of practice, emerge powerful. Very common in progression fantasy.

The Recovery

After trauma, skip to when characters have processed (or not).

The Generational

Skip to next generation. New protagonists, same world.

The Civilization Skip

Centuries pass. Everything changes.

The Reunion

Characters separate, skip to meeting again changed.

Handling the Gap

Flashbacks: Show key moments from the gap Dialogue exposition: Characters discuss what happened Gradual reveal: Information emerges naturally Mystery: The gap itself is a plot point Accept it: Some things don't need explanation

In Web Fiction

Time skips appear in:

• Progression fantasy (training periods)
• Cultivation (breakthrough retreats)
• Kingdom building (construction phases)
• Long-running serials (avoiding burnout)

The episodic nature of web fiction makes time skips natural.

The "What If We Saw It" Problem

Often readers specifically want to see what was skipped:

• The training that made them strong
• The relationship that fell apart
• The event that changed everything

Skipping satisfies some readers, frustrates others. Know your audience. Progression fantasy readers often specifically want to see the training. Skipping it feels like cheating them of the core appeal. Other genres can skip freely because the journey isn't the point.

Famous Time Skips

One Piece: 2-year training skip. The Straw Hats emerge transformed. Works because we'd already seen them struggle.

Naruto: Shippuden time skip. 2.5 years of training, new designs, power upgrade. Iconic genre example.

Attack on Titan: Multiple significant skips. Each fundamentally changes the conflict's nature.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Comic/sequel generation gap. New characters inherit the world.

Mistborn: Era shifts spanning centuries. Same world, different technology.

Each handled differently with different success. The common thread: what came after justified what was skipped.

Time Skips in Series vs. Standalones

Series: Can use time skips between books naturally Standalones: Time skips happen within the narrative, need more care

Web fiction exists between these—chapter breaks can absorb time skips gracefully.

Generating Your Own

narrator can handle time skips well:

• "Story with significant time skip between acts"
• "Post-training timeskip to show powered-up protagonist"
• "Generational fantasy spanning decades"
• "Reunion story after years apart"

Specify the length of the skip and what should change during it.

The Gap Between

Time skips are promises: something important happened, and revealing it will be worth it.

Keep that promise. Make the gap meaningful. Show the changes.

"Five years later..."

They're not the same person anymore. And neither is the story.