Worldsmiths | Fantasy World-Building Resource Book

#49: Traveling

This is related to many topics such as... #2: Shape and Landscape, #3: Divided Lands, #5: Climate, #35: Transportation, #38: Territories, #46: Walking Into It, etc.

Many of you probably have characters that go from Point A to Point B.

Usually such traveling is not a straight line, especially if it's the bulk of the story. Even if it's not the bulk of the story, and if you choose to write about it without saying "Ten minutes later, they arrived at Point B", you can still make it interesting.

That being said, don't feel like you HAVE to describe every moment of travel. You CAN just say "Ten minutes later, they arrived at Point B". That's totally fine as well.

Another thing to remember is that traveling is not just talking and dialogue. You can do that, but traveling is the best opportunity for you as a writer to show the world you have created instead of just making characters talk.

There are different things you can do though depending on how familiar your character is with the land, yet some things apply to both unfamiliar and familiar territory/lands.

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Unfamiliar Territory/Lands

There's this interesting chance for reader and character to discover the world together. It also makes for good moments of culture shock, meeting new people either by accident or something was planned outside your character's control, asking for directions, or getting caught up in something terrible due to your character not being familiar with the culture or territory.

Language boundaries, law differences, currency, religion...most of the General Topics of this book can be shown during travel.

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Familiar Territory/Lands

You get to show the world to the reader through the eyes of someone used to it. In one of my stories, protagonist is just walking home from school and looks up to a sky with two moons...and then moves on. No big deal for the character, but in that snippet, I have just shown the reader, "We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto." In other words, "Hey, this is not Earth."

You can also have chance meetings with friends or foe and show the characters' personalities through how they react to those people. Are they glad to see them? Unhappy? Worried? Angry? Will your character attack their enemy or will they wait until later?

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Unfamiliar & Familiar Territory/Land:

Give your character a moment where they need to decide to move on or save someone in trouble. And/Or, get involved in a brawl because of that.

Have your character get robbed or attacked. Kidnapped? Why not? Make things happen to your character that makes them have to stop somewhere or go off the path.

If it's wilderness, maybe they trip and fall down a long hill and get hurt? Do they have supplies? Will they be okay?

Maybe they meet some mean beasts? What if the beats steal all the food? Can your character find wild berries that aren't poisonous? Do they know how to survive in a forest?

Maybe they come upon a strange town, village, or tribe? Are they treated well? Poorly? Maybe the tribal people mistake your character as their god or some higher being to worship?

Maybe someone that joins them in the middle of their traveling is actually trying to kill them? Imagine your character in a forest at night lying by the fire, but the other person has made it clear they want to kill your character?

How do you know no one is out looking for your character? Maybe someone holding a grudge is following your character, waiting for the right moment to attack?

What if your character befriends some kind of creature? The creature may end up following your character around? Will that hinder or help your character?

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Q & A

Most of my stories have traveling characters. I rarely write stories with no travel for the very reason that I can show the characters' personalities in how they deal with various situations, I can show the world, and journeys are exciting! :D

If you have any questions about traveling characters, feel free to ask me in this topic :)