Time Skips — Tag Meaning
A structural tag warning that the narrative jumps across time — months or years passing between scenes or chapters rather than continuous chronology. Authors use it for relationship studies told in snapshots, five-year-gap reunions, and epics that compress decades; it's a courtesy flag so readers aren't disoriented by the leaps.
What to Expect From "Time Skips" Fics
Non-continuous storytelling; the spaces between scenes carry as much story as the scenes themselves.
How to find Time Skips fics on AO3
On AO3, click any tag to see every work that uses it, then refine with the "Filters" sidebar — combine it with your fandom or ship, set a rating, or exclude tags you don't want. See our AO3 filtering guide for the full walkthrough.
Browse "Time Skips" works on AO3Popular Fics Tagged "Time Skips"
Real examples from AO3's most-kudosed works:
Still In Deep Water
by gwendee
Starting Over
by MargretLazer
Dipper Pines, Paranormal Detective
by mdizzle
Trick-or-Treat
by Anonymous
20 Sinsmas's later
by PrettyBadWriter
The Coffin Years
by WalkingThePlank
Related Tags
Future Fic
Projects the characters years or decades past canon's endpoint: established careers, marriages, kids, gray hair, and the question of who these people become when their story is long over. Unlike post-canon fics that handle immediate aftermath, future fic takes the long view — sometimes wistful, sometimes triumphant, often both.
Tag guide →
5+1 Things
A canonical tag for the beloved 'five times X happened, and one time Y' structure, where five variations on a pattern set up a sixth that breaks it. Descended from LiveJournal's 'Five Things' meme, it remains one of fanfic's signature native forms.
Tag guide →
Slow Burn
The tag that warns — or promises — that the central relationship will take a very long time to arrive. Slow burn is a craft commitment: tension built across tens of thousands of words, feelings denied and deferred, every near-moment interrupted. Its devotees consider the wait the entire point.
Tag guide →
Reunions
Tags the moment of coming back together after long separation — war, estrangement, presumed death, or simply years and distance. The reunion scene is one of fiction's most reliable emotional detonators, and fanfic writes it for every pairing canon ever split apart.
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More Settings & Events Tags
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