Haha! Luckily I just have to do a 1,000 word first chapter of a distopian fiction story.Generally it does mean a complete change in time or setting, so not just moving on to the next event perhaps. I don't think it's used all that much really, but if you are going to use it it's sometimes useful for moving in/out of dream sequences, or as you say to go back in a character's memory. The very best use of it that I've ever read is in a Roger Zelazny novel in the first-person narrative where the teller uses it very consciously to skip out a sex scene, but also to make the reader really feel connected to the character as though the book were really him telling it to you -
but Zelazny was an absolute genius with everything he did so don't feel bad if you can't quite create that feeling in your school work
"There are only two important days in your life: the day you are born, and the day you find out why."
Mark Twain
I believe it's a change in time.
I always think that it's a good place to stop off though. Like, if it's a massive chapter and I see one of those, I stop reading as it's a good place to stop, if you see what I mean.
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