I'm right in the middle of my fantasy WIP, and I've run into a bit of a roadblock. A character is leading my MC to a dinner that I don't want to write because it's not going to be very exciting and I'm lazy and I don't think it's necessary. How weird would it be for me to do a time skip to something more interesting and plot-relevant? Should I just suck it up and write the dinner scene?
If you think it's boring and unnecessary to write, your readers will find it boring and unnecessary to read. Skip it. There's no harm in skipping things.
You can do so with white space (a paragraph break), or by summarizing the events. Something like "She sat through the dinner with a smile plastered on her face. Later... [important stuff]."
You could always write a filler chapter with some character development, world exposition or something like that, or make it interesting with a weird anecdote. Then when you're further along in the story you can come back and leave some ominous foreshadowing in there somehow.
Personally, I love things that have an episodic flow to them so filler chapters are always fun for me to read, but I think whether you use time skips or filler chapters entirely depends on your style. Either would be good as long as it's consistent.
