Writing a novel that includes travel, where do you put the travel parts.
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40193)
Canada
August 25, 2009 7:19pm CST
All right, maybe I am being a little wishy washy, but I do not want to put a long explanation for a question title page, but here is where I am at.
I am writing a novel that includes a lot of travel. The hero goes from one place to another and the travels last a few months at the most. So he does not exactly teleport, he meets people on the way, etc. maybe has an adventure or so, but the main adventure happens when he gets to the town or the location he was going. Once he has done there, something happens and he goes to the next place. Oh and he may return to where he has been. Do you see where I am getting at.
So lets say he is fighting a bad guy in Town A, then he falls in love with a girl who lives in town B that is about 1200 miles away, so he has to court her. Now 1200 miles is a long way and if one is on horseback takes months, so obviously there is a chapter for town A, chapter for the journey, and chapter for town b.
But what happens when he leaves twon b to go to town that is 30 miles away and he just spends the night at the hotel and nothing else is going on.
So when the travel distance is very short, is that included in the town the hero left or the town the hero is going to?
4 responses
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
26 Aug 09
so he just like goes to town C to conduct a bit of business and, maybe miss the girl? Then maybe a few paragraphs about how he sits thinking of the gal, missing her and wanting to get back - and a paragraph about the business he conducted.
Mercedes Lackey just wrote a book with a long, but uneventful journey near the beginning - so she had that in just a few paragraphs
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
7 Sep 09
That does sound like a great idea since most of the travel time, the hero does not meet any bad guys, or enter into intrigue . I have not written him thinking of the girl, but he has a son who he misses. I did not want to do any retrospective so I made him too busy that he did not have time to think. Meanie aren't I?
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
8 Sep 09
Most of the excitement is when the hero arrives at the town or at the castle, and it is only when going through dangerous territory or he is trying to get a handle of the situation, that there are travel chapters, and if the travel is not much, I put it at the end after he leaves the town or country. But I sometimes have difficulty deciding how long is he going to be in that particular town. You see, the hero has to return to his home and I want to make it hard, but I do not want it to take 10 or 20 years.
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@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
7 Sep 09
I'm glad to hear that - I personally have grown bored with the "travel log" story, where the story is propelled by the journey they make.
You know the kind - they are traveling from point A to point B and they have adventures along the way, and the WHOLE story is the adventures... I've seen myself putting those down and not picking them up again.
I've just re-read some of the stories of the Arabian Nights and rather like that many stories she just brushed off the trip, even having a genie transport the hero from point A to point B, no boring travel in there for her!
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@mipen2006 (5528)
• Australia
30 Aug 09
Hey suspensful, I finished my novel, albeit unpublished, about two years ago, and my main character travelled a lot. I described some scenes from my travels, and others, like describing hotes, restaurants, etc. I would research on the Internet. However, I'd read about an hotel, restaurant, or maybe a park, and note the features I needed, then use those to fit the situation in my story. This way there is no plagerism. Good luck with your book. It's very satisifying to write 'THE END.'
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
8 Sep 09
The hero lived in the states before he went on the trip and it was some time ago, so I had to go on the internet to find out what was the most popular song at the time, who was the mayor of a certain city, and since he was in the military, the names of the military colleges, etc. Making up an inn in a fantasy world is a piece of cake. But figuring out how their ships float in the air without it being a fairy land is harder then. So far, they are using oars and sails on water, and riding horses on land when they do not take the nearest wagon to their place of business. It is easier that way. But I do remember from reading, that often the new chapter starts when the hero arrives in a town.
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@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
5 Jan 10
My novel starts in the 1970s, and not only had I to check what songs were in, I had to find out what the song was at that particular year because it may have been written in 1972 and yet played in 1975. And I had to find out what the styles were then.
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@mipen2006 (5528)
• Australia
8 Sep 09
I know exactly what you mean about writing about the past, and getting it factually right. In my story, I had to check when cell phones, and DVD plateys were on the market, as in my first draft, I'd had characters using these things before they were available. It's not easy. Thank you for the best response, suspensful, and good luck with your novel.
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@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
26 Aug 09
I have an idea, maybe the hero reflects on the previous town and what he learned while on the travel from place to place. He doesn't have to expand too much, a little mystery can be revealed each time there is a correlation between two similar points of interest. Hope that helps.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
7 Sep 09
So it sounds like it would be included in the next chapter. I mean nothing happened to him then, so there is no need to write that much. I do not know how the other writers do it. I have been too busy writing that I have not much time for reading and most of the time it was the story or how they crafted their sentences rather then what is in one chapter and when do you start a new chapter. Maybe I should do that.
@jazzsue58 (2666)
•
26 Aug 09
Writers are told to only ever include content that will move the story on, and omit anything not connected to the story - or limit it to a cursory few lines, at least. It's okay to introduce extra characters, but they have to have a part to play in the main plot.
My jazz novel is on the back burner for now, but in my story the "hero," naturally, plays a lot of jazz gigs. A few of those gigs are important to the plot, or involve major characters. The rest are dismissed with a sentence. "That night, Richard drove to a gig in the next town, deep in thought" kind of thing.
That's how I work it - my hero is, maybe thinking or chatting about things in his life (i.e. things that happen in the plot of the book) but the rest is fleshed out in the reader's mind. A few throw-in sentences are enough to tell your readers how hectic your hero's life is, without sending their minds a-wandering.
You must, at all times, keep your reader focussed on thinking about where the plot is going next. You don't need to dot every i and cross every t of your central character's life. It breaks up the plot and causes your reader to lose interest.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
7 Sep 09
The point is when there is nothing exciting going on in the travel part, like when there are no bandits to fight, and he spends a pleasant night at the inn, is that included at the next or the previous chapter. I know all about making the story move along, that was not my question. If the character had to fight monsters, bandits attacked him, the bad guys are after him while he is moving from town A to town B, of course, that will be a separate character, but if nothing happens, well the chapter before or the one previous?
@jazzsue58 (2666)
•
7 Sep 09
Like the posts below - put it in, but keep the phrasing to an absolute minimum. Think of it as a bullet pointed paragraph - and like I say, omit ANYTHING not directly connected to the story line.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
8 Sep 09
That sounds like a good idea. I am going to put the travel at the end of the chapter unless the hero does something exciting like has a sword fight with the major bad guy, gets poisoned by his worse enemy at the inn, meets some more of his compatriots there, etc. I will have to put in what he eats though, in case someone tries to poison in. But if nothing happens the next chapter starts in the next town.
Maybe it was the undercooked wild boar that did it. 
