Writing Travel Scenes: Get Your Characters from Point A to Point B

So you’re writing a fantasy story, and the characters must travel across the plains to defeat the evil dragon.

Or your character is travelling to a new city, and nothing happens until she gets there.

As a writer, sometimes it’s hard to tell when you should write a travel scene, or when you should leave it out. I struggled with this all the time when I was younger.

If you’re having a hard time getting your characters from point A to point B, here are some tips and tricks that have helped me improve my travel scenes.

Let’s start by examining how you can use travel scenes to their full potential.

How You Can Use Travel Scenes in Your Novel

Scenes where the characters are travelling can sometimes feel like a pain. But don’t forget, every scene can be used to advance the plot. You just have to get a little creative with it.

For example, the travel scene in your novel might serve a double duty.

• Does your story have a subplot? Figure out some ways to incorporate it into your travel scene. (Example: the characters find an ancient artifact underneath some bushes by the road.)
• How could this scene show the character’s relationships changing? (Example: two “friends” slowly discover that they hate each other’s guts. Or two characters slowly start to fall in love.)

Also, travelling could give the characters some time to unpack whatever tensions are building up between them.

You don’t want your travel scenes to be just talking about the past. (‘Wasn’t it great, Bob, when you killed that dragon yesterday?”)

But if one character brought up something that absolutely shocks/upsets everyone else, the travel scene gives them some time to hash it out.

For example, if the ally got caught in the act of giving information to the enemy in chapter five, chapter six should give the other characters some time to be angry. Give them a scene to argue and fight it out.

Should I Write Out Travel Scenes, Or Skip Them?

Here’s the big ticket question.

Should you skip all scenes where your characters are just travelling to the next place?

The answer depends on your story’s context.

If Your Story is About a Quest

If you’re writing about a Tolkien-style quest, where the characters spend most of their time trying to reach a certain place, here’s how you know if you should leave a travel scene in the story.

• Will this scenery be important later on?
• Is the story about the journey or the destination? (If it’s about the journey, you might need to raise the stakes so your story has more tension. If it’s about the destination, try to shorten the travel scenes so your reader doesn’t have to wait for the action to start.)

Generally, a good rule of thumb with travel-heavy stories is to focus on the characters’ relationships while they travel.

In the Lord of the Rings, a lot of the travel scenes show us Frodo’s internal conflict and his struggle with the ring. We also get to see tension between different characters, like Boromir and Frodo, or Sam and Gollum.

Also, don’t show the reader a bunch of places that have no importance to the plot. Most of the places we see should serve at least some purpose.

• Will we see this place again? If so, include a scene about it.
• Does something happen in this scene that brings the characters closer to the final showdown? (i. e. The Fellowship breaking apart and Frodo leaving for Mordor on his own.)

Remember to keep advancing your story towards the end, not just adding random side quests along the way.

If You Just Need the Character to Get from Point A to Point B

Let’s say your story is anything but Tolkien style. The characters only have to travel a couple of times, and they need to get to the next location before the story can keep going.

Assuming your character can’t just teleport, how are you supposed to get them to the next location?

Here are some questions to consider before you get started:

• Do all the earlier scenes take place in similar locations? (i.e. Most of the scenes are indoors.)
• Is your character scared about where they’re travelling to? Should we be scared as well?
• Does your character have to solve a puzzle, wrestle with internal conflict, or think through something?

If you answer yes to any of the above, this travel bit should be included as a scene.

Why?

If you have too many similar locations (all indoors or all outdoors), use the travel scene to mix things up. Show us something new.

If the character is scared, use travel to increase the suspense. Show us how nervous the character is, and we’ll start feeling nervous too.

And if your character needs to think about things, a short travel scene can give them time to do that.

If you’re still not sure, go ahead and read this post by Jami Gold (jamigold.com/2014/05/when-should-we-skip-a-scene/). She talks about whether or not to skip certain scenes, and how to tell if a scene needs to stay in your story.

When to Skip Ahead

• If your story doesn’t need it, skip it.
• While you’re writing, if it feels too boring, skip it.
• If you feel like you have to include a travel scene, but you don’t want to, skip it.

Here are some ways that you can skip a roadtrip scene:

~ Cut to a different POV, and don’t return until the other character has finished travelling.

~Sum it up in one sentence. (“The next day, she took a red-eye flight to New York City.”)

~ End the chapter and start the next chapter at the new location.

Writing the Scene: Ideas, Tips, and Tricks

So let’s say you’ve decided. You want to include a scene where the character is travelling, so you can build tension and suspense. How would you write it?

Here are some ideas that I’ve used in the past to help move my story along smoothly. You’re free to use any of these, or use them to brainstorm your own ideas.

~ Include one short scene from the journey. This might be something going wrong, such as one of the horses running away, or it could be the character staring out the car window as it starts raining.

~ Show the characters packing or unpacking.

~ The character has trouble falling asleep at night. This could be due to the strange noises, uncomfortable bed, or a fear of something else.

~ Skip the part where they check in at the inn. (If you just show the character in their room at the inn, we’ll assume they checked in.)

~ The characters are travelling when they meet a terrifying creature. It could be a dragon, or it could be an angry moose, depending on the location and genre. (Remember, this is fine if you do it once. Just don’t add twenty monsters in one road trip.)

~ The transportation malfunctions. (A flat tire, an injured horse, a sprained ankle.)

~ Instead of showing the actual trip, show the end of the day, when the character’s sore and tired and hungry.

~ Play around with different scene lengths. Is a chapter too long? Try to sum up the scene in a paragraph. Or vice versa.

~ Use all of the senses, not just sight and sound, to explore the new surroundings. What does the food taste like? Can your character smell anything? How about touch?

Your story should be enjoyable, especially while you’re writing it.

So the bottom line is, have fun writing about your character’s journey. If you enjoy writing it, there’s a good chance that someone else will enjoy reading it.

And remember, you can always edit it later!

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Do you like writing travel scenes? How to you get your characters from one place to another? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll be back soon with a new post!

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