: Re: How to better imply time and place changes? For instance we are speaking of one time and then when we finish we speak of a moment that preceded, i.e.Ten hours before that. Or we are speaking

@Caterina108

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There are countless ways to announce a flashback (ten hours before) and denote time passing (later that day), it all depends on the genre and your personal stylistic preferences and none of them are either correct or wrong.

Basically, what you are managing is a scene change, and the time can go in any direction, depending on how you are telling the story.

It is common in many action TV series to start an episode with an action scene, and then display a clear subtitle (ten hours before) and return to the events which led to what was shown first, and I have seen that technique applied to writing, where the scenes are time-stamped to enforce the sense of urgency and convey the importance of time, being an element of the plot.

If you are writing a more relaxed-paced piece, your character can just reflect on what s/he saw or was thinking some time ago, maybe even without an explicit scene break, just say something like "her thoughts returned to the events of this morning" and keep going.

The passing of time is even easier: every scene break implies a change of some sort, whether scenery, point of view, or time, so start a new scene and work in the time reference in a natural and unobtrusive way, say "I can't believe it's six already, I have to go..." etc.

It is all up to you. If you are looking for actual words to use in any particular case, this is not a right place to ask your question, you would be better off consulting with your writing group.

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