Young Writers Society

How do I skip time in first person present tense without making it sound awkward? The book sounds odd and wouldn't work if the narrator knew what happened already, like inpast tense. At the same time, I feel obliged to narrate every. single. piece. of action, even when it is utterly boring and no one cares (not even me!). How do I skip hours-days of time without it seeming odd?

evilly,
Aura

Have you tried summarising?

It requires a little poetic technique, but personally I *love* authors who can do this in their novels. You quite simply sum up a large series of events into a small section. I don't know how to better explain it so I'm just going to throw out some examples.

You could timeskip a 'how I was born' monologue by saying;

'Twenty seven casual dates, forty three fancy dinners, five anniversaries and a wedding later, they had me.'

For getting dressed in the morning;

'After three hours of fighting with the mirror over what to wear and how to style my make-up, I had managed to get that skilfully crafted 'totes just got out of bed' look that nobody actually has when they've just got out of bed.'

For everyday stuff, instead of going through the motion of 'I went home and left my stuff by the door and had chips and peas for dinner and then went to my room' you could sum it up with;

'when I retired to my room that night I could still feel the mushy peas squelching around in my stomach.'

For the scene that's important but you can't be bothered writing, you could just write the key part;

''That's it! I'm sending you to live with that witch you call a mother!' was the last thing Dad yelled at me before I slammed the bedroom door shut. I couldn't even remember what we had started arguing about.'

If you really want to, you can write out all the little bits just to get it out of your head, and then edit it out later.

I hope this helps some, feel free to give me a buzz if you have more questions =D

I agree with Ten on summarizing. There's also the option of doing some formatting, that some authors chose to do. I wouldn't suggest it, but it's another option.

For example

Chapter 1-
ya da ya da ya da

*two days later*
ya da ya da ya da

etc, etc.

Unless it's done well, it doesn't read very well, and you miss a lot of stuff doing it that way, but it's always an option for you to try! Even if it's in the first draft, to get your thoughts straight.

It's even a good outlining tool.

Hey there, Aura~

When writing in present tense, especially in first person, it's often hard to determine what's really important for the reader. You don't, however, need to know that right away. You can freely write every meaningless boring little detail, and then cut all the unnecessary ones as you read through it the second/third/fourth time It's mostly true that if you get bored and don't care about those actions, neither will your reader. So if they make you feel that way, and aren't crucial for the plot, cut them out. If they make you feel that way and they are crucial for the plot, consider rewriting those parts to make them more interesting.

Now, about skipping time. I personally rarely write in present tense, but I do quite often write in first person, so I know how difficult it can be. The method Spark suggested indeed works just fine for first drafts or in case you're writing your book as diary entry, but I wouldn't suggest using it instead of actually writing the passing of time. What Ten described is much better for that, though it tends to work better when writing in past tense.

What can help you a lot with this issue are the character's thoughts. Sometimes, you can let the internal world of your character get clearer than the world around them, and not really describe the passing of time and all the unnecessary little things while giving the readers same impression. Along the same lines, writing what the character is planning to do (especially if they won't do anything incredibly unexpected) can also serve well for skipping time.
For example.

[/quote]As I finally get to my street, I feel like a strayed dog who just survived the apocalypse. I don't ever want to listen to that idiot MC2 and his 'one last time' crap again. There isn't a person to be seen around, it's one of those peaceful moments right before morning, yet I can't wait to just skip across the porch, ignore my sister and bury myself in the bed until the weekend. Where did I leave my crossbow again? It's not in my hands, but I barely care, closing the door to my room and sighing.
"Morning, Wednesday, the 21st", I scribble in my diary. "I've decided - if they don't make the meeting on Saturday worth my time, I will cut MC2's head off the next time he knocks at my door."
I put the pillow over my head as I hear my sister yelling something about breakfast, more than ready to spend all day in bed.

By the time Saturday comes, announced by thunderstorm that keeps me up for hours the night before, I'm regretting my decision to ignore both Sis and the crossbow for days, knowing well enough that the former will cost me mental and the latter physical health as I go diving through the mud to find it again.[/quote]

...and so on. It's clearly not the best example, seeing as I made it up on the spot, but I do hope you see the point of what I said.

So basically, my advice is to write all you see as important now. Go with all the details and descriptions if it makes it easier at first, and then return to it critically. If it has a proper purpose, leave it there. If you can cover it in one thought, short diary entry or just a sentence or two, it means it's less important or less interesting, and it will definitely flow better if you change it. You can still leave the most important details in, if they matter for the plot (say, the crossbow still not being retrieved), without making it glaringly obvious or spending too much time on talking about everything else.

Do feel free to let me know if you need anything else c: