Common plothole: time passing #1.

DO: Allow for time to pass. Events take time in real life; keep that in mind when you write a story and aim to make it believable. I once read a story where the girl woke up at let’s say 7:30, took a shower, got dressed, did her hair, didn’t like it so she re-did it, ate breakfast, talked with her mother, walked to school, talked with her friends in the school yard and then walking into class at 7:45. Okay, I don’t remember the exact time but she really did all that in the space of fifteen-twenty minutes. What is she? A superhero who moves at the speed of light? Even if she is, how did she spend so much time talking to people who move at normal speed? Or do they have superpowers too?

Yeah, a tad unrealistic, don’t you think?

And speaking of superheroes: have you noticed how most bad boys in wattpad stories tend to have Wolverine’s awesome healing powers? This leads us to a don’t.

DON’T: Chapter one: the characters get into a bad-ass fight and get bad-ass wounds; chapter two and a day later – not a single scratch on them? Girls and boys, unless you are the Wolverine, some other mutant or a magical healer (or have a healer at your disposal), you would not heal overnight. You will have scars, you will have bruises and you will be in pain.

But you wanted to elaborate on the fight and your main character winning and not on the consequences?

Well, at least mention those consequences!

If your character goes to school, you can have him thinking “my classmates were all staring at my black eye” or “my leg hurt so bad, I was barely dragging myself through the hallways”. Example:

From Here We Go Again, Chapter 11 (Alex’s POV), Saturday – the day Ty got injured:

Tyson was sitting on the ground, leaning his back on a bench and clutching his stomach. What had happened to him after the Ring? Instead of having just a few not too troublesome injuries, he was now covered in fresh bruises and cuts and was gasping for air.

From Here We Go Again, Chapter 12 (Alex’s POV), Sunday – the day after:

Tyson sat himself down on a stool and placed the towel on another. He slowly took his singlet off, wincing slightly due to the pain. The majority of wounds were on his torso, but he had one on the left of his jaw, a split lip and a black eye. I noticed the bruises had gotten a bluish hue during the night…

From Here We Go Again, Chapter 13 (Alex’s POV), Monday:

We entered and I instinctively started searching for Tyson. I expected him to ditch today, but to my surprise, he was in his usual seat, gazing out the window. I briefly wondered why none of our classmates were staring at him; his black eye and split lip were hard to miss. But then I realized that they were probably used to seeing the boy in that state…

See? Now I don’t claim to be an expert on wounds – because I am not – but I did some research and I included the injuries in the chapters after they were inflicted and yeah, it sounds more believable that way.

Tip: It’s hard to keep track of injuries but you know what might help? Throughout Here We Go Again, the two main characters (Alex and Tyson) got into several fights, sometimes with each other, sometimes with other people. Whenever a fight occurred, I’d make a new document entitled “include in the next chapter” (or something similar) in which I’ll write where they got hurt (as in “stomach”, “face”, not “in the park”, “at school”) and how badly. That way, I would remind myself to mention those injuries in the following chapter(s).

Time passing #2 (not the same tip as before, obviously)

So you’ve realized that an action has consequences and that you should not forget to show them to us. But how to display that time has passed?

DO: Write things like:

1. “It’s been two weeks since *event from the previous chapter (or before a separator)*…”

2. “When I first heard about *event* two weeks ago, I…”

3. “I could not believe how much she had changed in the six months I’d been away.”

I’m sure you can think of many other examples. Displaying that time has passed could be used in the Bad Boy Wolverine situation: chapter one – he gets into a fight and chapter two begins with “Five weeks later, I was as good as new; no scars, no bruises, no pain.” This way you don’t have to write about his wounds.

Note #1: Five weeks won’t be enough for him to recover from two broken arms and a leg so if his injuries are serious, you’ll have to let more time pass.

Note #2: A separator is something many authors use to show that time has passed or that a POV has changed in the same chapter. It could be **** or ~~~~ or ~‘*’~ or anything like that.

Tip #1: It’s best that you have spacing between the separator and the rest of the chapter content. Example:

I’d set my mind on it: it was time for a change.

*****

Breaking up with him and moving away turned out to be exactly the change I needed.

Tip #2: You can also have the separator in Italic and/or Bold.

Displaying passage of time is good for building slow-paced relationships. For example: chapter one – girl meets boy for the first time, chapter two – she thinks “It’s been a month since I first laid my eyes on him. We’ve made small talk every now and then; enough for me to get a general idea about his character but not enough to call him a friend just yet.” Then you describe a lively conversation between these characters and hint that at least one of them is interested in getting to know the other one better.

DON’T #1: Chapter one – they meet for the first time, chapter two and the same day – they plan a wedding, chapter three (and still the same day) – they are married and the girl is three months pregnant. The Dharma and Greg TV series pulled the meeting you and getting married on the same day gig off nicely but that went with the plot and the character’s personality. Plus, getting impregnated and then becoming three months pregnant in the same day… Is this a story about time-controlling mages or something?

DON’T #2: This is a smaller don’t than the previous one. It has to do with the layout of your story so some people might disagree. Don’t show passage of time like this:

I’d set my mind on it: it was time for a change.

*Ten days later*

I was so pleased with the new color of my hair.

Now, the *Ten days later* is okay in rant books and in guidebooks, but in a story? Not so much. Go for one of the examples I gave you in DO.

And of course *Ten days later* will be completely pointless in this situation:

I’d set my mind on it: it was time for a change.

*Ten days later*

I was really pleased with the new color of my hair which I’ve had for the past ten days.

Ermm… You are mentioning that time has passed (and how much) in the “I was pleased” sentence; why would you need to put *Ten days later* then?

Okay, that was it for this chapter. I hope it was useful for you - please vote if it was - and if you have questions – comment. Have a great time wattpading, everyone!