: Re: How do I cover many years with little activity without it feeling rushed? In a story that I am writing, due to some time travel issues, the protagonists will have to wait a number of years

@Dunderdale623

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If there's very little going on, just skip - and perform introduction of the changes as a reminiscence, observation, discussion, at the new point of the story.
Say, a day before the ship arrives, Bob takes a stroll through his "fort", making routine repairs of the fence, bringing a few more branches for the huge stack of wood on the hill top, to be lit in case he sees a ship, milks the goat, waters the carrots, checks traps, finding a rabbit, cooks the rabbit in a clay oven... stands for a minute over the grave of his faithful dog on the shore where three years ago they were both washed out with debris of his ship.
Generally show the past as its effects on the "now".
If there's too little to fill the period normally, but too much to just skip, as above, a good method is a change of the format: A journal, a log, a memoir, a set of newspaper clippings. You can skip between events, show tiny slices of life and write longer stories on major events.

Day 342. The bend of the stream is a motherlode of clay, just under a thin layer of sand! Meet Bob the Builder! First project: a furnace, which will be used for firing clay items and double as an oven and stove. Finally end of burning my hands when trying to cook pieces of rabbit stuck on a stick over the fireplace!
Day 348. I'm awesome. My furnace is awesome. And my brick house will be awesome! This morning I was planting tree saplings on the slope of Fort Bob. And the side effect is that I pushed the jungle back another twenty yards.

In this format you can take great liberties both on time skips and on size of slices of time you show.

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