"Less is more"
Great advice, however how much less is more, and when does that less become too little?
Key points.
The novel is a science fiction story, set within the back drop of a hundred year war against another alien race. There exist two caste of people, which both characters are from one of these caste systems. My characters are introduced as 14 year old teenagers. Society has no desire or will to change the social systems.
Because the first third of my story follows two teenagers, I skip time between the chapters. I do not see the need to have redundent chapters follow their day to day life, dates, or challenges to society that are covered in the chapters which I wrote. Neither character seeks to change society, only survive it, hand in hand with each other. At the beginning of the novels second third, I introduce a curve ball that challenges my characters and the time between chapters lessens to weeks.
How common is it for novels with young characters, to skip years like this? I mean, there is only so much teenagers can do to change society, much less if they wanted to change it. Should I add in more dates between the characters? Despite the fact that their relationship is well established. After they have won the right to love one another, despite their social caste, they have no other challenge with which to fight. Their story doesn't pick up again until the war turns bad and a draft is necessary.
From that point forward, you follow the characters much more closely. I just want to know how common is it to skip years, and does it make sense for me to skip years like this?
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