What Does Time Skip Mean?
Writing & CraftA jump forward in a story's timeline — 'three years later' — skipping over the interval entirely. Both a craft tool in fic and a canon event fandoms reorganize around.
Time Skip in Practice
As technique, the time skip lets writers cut dead time and reframe a story: jump past the war, the separation, the awkward years, and land where the interesting consequences live. As canon phenomenon, the time skip is a fandom landmark — long-running series that leap their casts forward effectively split their fandoms into eras, with ships, character designs, and fic continuities sorted into pre- and post-skip. The gap itself becomes prime fic real estate, since everything canon skipped is unclaimed territory for missing-scene and slow-development writers; entire sub-fandoms live inside a canon's multi-year ellipsis. The craft hazard is earning the jump — readers forgive skipped time only when the landing makes the gap feel real.
Example usage
"Canon's five-year time skip is doing all the work here — half the fandom's best fic lives inside that gap."
Related Terms
Missing Scene
A fic that writes out a moment canon skipped — the conversation that must have happened off-screen, the aftermath the camera cut away from. It adds to canon without changing it.
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Mid-Canon
A story set during the events of the source material, slotted between canon scenes rather than before or after them. It fills gaps without contradicting what's on screen or on the page.
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Post-Canon
Fic set after the source material ends — the wedding after the finale, the rebuilding after the war, the quiet years canon never showed. The story continues where the credits rolled.
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WIP (Work in Progress)
An unfinished work being posted as it's written — the serialized heartbeat of fic culture, complete with update hopes, hiatus fears, and the eternal gamble of starting one.
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More Writing & Craft Terms
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