time skip
Years pass instantly
A time skip is a narrative device that jumps forward past events the story doesn't show.
Common in novels, films, and television, it allows storytelling to bypass uneventful periods or create dramatic reveals: After a five-year time skip, we find the characters completely changed.
The technique appears frequently in serialized fiction, anime, and video games, where aging characters or advancing plot requires leaping over months or years.
- flashforwardTemporal narrative jump ahead
- flash forwardNarrative leap to future
- montageAssembled sequence of images
- ellipsisMark indicating omitted words
- fast forwardAccelerate playback speed
years later · jump cut · cut to · passage · aging · aged up · transition · meanwhile · afterward · flash · leap · gap · interlude · chapter break · prologue · epilogue · seasons · calendar pages
- sequel tropessequel hook, post-credits scene, cliffhanger, power creep, escalation
- plotplot, storyline, subplot, climax, narrative
- plot devicesMacGuffin, red herring, plot twist, flashback, foreshadowing
- story tropesquest, hero's journey, plot twist, chosen one, red herring
- Asian DramasK-drama, J-drama, Korean drama, Japanese drama, Chinese drama
- narrative techniquesflashback, nonlinear plot, fragmented narrative, flash-forward, point of view