How do you show the passing of time in a novel or short story without being awkward?

I would start a new chapter in a novel. In a short story just leave a big space and say "Later that day, Michael realized ...

This can be a challenging task. The current project I am sharing on Hub Pages covers a fortnight, but so far much of my plot has happened in a few days. I am going to have to be creative moving along toward the end, when the bulk of my plot elements play out.

I find short stories more challenging, because you have so much less room to work. It is a matter of narrowing your plot so that you can easily cover the major events in a flowing manner.

It really depends on just how much time is supposed to have passed. You can mention certain traits about different characters. Mentioning something like a "5 O'Clock shadow" will jump a day, an added beard would signify months, a change in fashion could move you years, a hunched back could move you decades.

I find it better not to use clock references unless you only want hours, minutes or seconds. But saying the clock went round and round give the impression that your character has nothing better to do than stare at a clock.

When we write scripts, we acommodate the word fast forward to, which I think I'm entitled to use in narrative.LORD.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.