My story has begun in June and it's a hot summer. I've completed chapter one and am about half way through chapter two, still in June. I want to move it along gradually through the year, but I'm not sure how. I don't want the story to end up written diary-like, day after day and I don't want to jump from the hot summer to the cooler autumn in on leap. All and any ideas welcome.
Thank you Victoria for your good ideas. You've given me plenty to go ahead and try, I'll take some of my story line, try a couple of your ideas and see what occurs. The examples you've shown me do move the story without an obvious jump ahead. Thanks again.
I use a few different devices for this, but I may not remember them all as I had an exam today and I think I fried a few circuits!
Sometimes I do break in the text and move on a few weeks. It's ok to do that now and then as it's hard to just keep going and the reader often wants that break too.
Other times when I want to jump weeks but have no break in text I pick a subject that needs time and stay with it. For instance:
'Gemma clicked the mouse against her better judgement, but when the dress arrived three weeks later it was exactly what she'd wanted.'
I have to admit, that's a device I use a lot as you can skip time with minimal fuss. I do the same with thought processes, such as...
'Gemma spent the whole night distractedly organising draws with complete inefficiency as she worried what could happen. There was little improvement in her attention-span the next day and by the day of the interview the following week she had to cover her bitten nails with varnish.'
You can lessen the jolt of a jump in time by linking the new image to the previous one. Sometime I have used similar weather conditions or sunsets to jump.
'Gemma opened the invitation and looked at the rain, hoping her sister had better weather.
The big day arrived with seemingly the same rain cloud that had been hanging around all month.'
That's a bad example, but I'm sure you see what I mean.
I'm a fan of dialogue, so this is another favourite. I like to finish mid-conversation regarding a future event and jump to that event.
' "Gem, you can't honestly be thinking of going with Jack."
"I didn't say I was going with Jack."
"Who, then?"
"You'll have to wait and see."
Gemma wore a satisfied grin as her sister's jaw dropped halfway down the aisle. Few saw it under the veil, but Gemma had a nasty feeling the man next to her was one of them.'
That also takes you nicely into the heart of an event without wasting the readers time with scene-setting. Some scenes need setting with imagery, but if it's an easily imaginable event, cut to the quick. You can always add some imagery as you go, but you can't reclaim a reader who didn't care what the church looked like.
That's all I can think of for now. Good luck.
Thank you Steven for your comments and advice. I suppose I need to do what I've been told several times, write it and go back to the headaches later. I know what you mean about finishing the dialogue, I'm terrible for that. I keep going back checking and re-checking-changing and re-changing. I think I need to concentrate on a gradual moving through the story. I'll work on it. Thanks again