How to connect?

[Shadow]

Okay, in my novel, I don't know how to show the time span between two events. It's a fair amount of time, ranging from 2-3 months, but I don't know what to use as a filler. The last thing was the protagonist's friend agreeing to help in a plan, and what I want to show is that they carry this plan out a few months later, but I don't want to skip from one to the other. Any ideas? They would be greatly appreciated.

[Lea Zalas]

Start a new chapter and in the first line start with: Three months later...

[Shadow]

Thank you; I will try that and see how it works.

[jayce]

What Lea said. You can also mark time's passage by using events as landmarks, e.g., they finalize their plans in October, then—new chapter—"Christmas dawned cold and blustery, etc., etc." It can also be a personal event—birthday, funeral—whatever works naturally into the narrative (that's why you should read, to see how other writers manage their transitions). For me, coming up with transitions in time and place usually results in hair-pulling frustration, but properly done, they don't jolt the reader out of the story, and that's what you strive for.

[Allison McClish]

If it is two or three months, you could easily use seasons to illustrate the passage of time, which kind of goes with what Jayce said. They could go, for example, from late spring to mid summer.

[simba major]

You can also connect it by referring to something the character did to fill in tge time: For three months, Eli waited impatiently to put the plan into action, doing his best to fill in the time with . . . At last the day arrived . . .

Something like that.

[jayce]

bottoms up, simba.

[Kitty Foyle]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Nah, I guess that wouldn't work here.

*_*