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Travel: 101

TBraswell

Acolyte
I have a minor hiccup in my story at the moment. After spending a lot of time walking, hiking, sneaking... to the climax of the story, I am needed to return to what is essentially the starting point of my story. Horses are the only means of transportation in this world and the area of land they must cross is roughly equivalent to the distance from Key West, FL to New York, NY. While one character has the capability of tapping into magic, it is not on so grand a scale as to allow for teleportation. I do not want to write another book just to allow for their travel back to the aforementioned point, but I also want to avoid the cliche "And many moons rose and set..." thing.

That is my quandry. And so, perhaps, here it is that we may discuss differing ways to travel great distances quickly by clever uses of plot devices and narrations.
 
Time jump. I have seen this used successfully in many story's. End the chapter with the characters leaving from point A, and start the next one with them arriving at point B. Then you could just say something along the lines of, "The journey had been a pleasant and uneventful one." Long chapters of travel after the main objective has been accomplished are boring. We know the story, and now are ready for the end. I finished a book a few weeks ago that took the time to tell how every one of the characters journeyed safely home. That left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. So yeah, try the time jump.
 

TBraswell

Acolyte
I suppose a time jump would work, but the premise of the return trip is fleeing from a newly crowned king which wants the group dead for the witnes of his poisoning the late king. So, I'm not sure if I should do snippits, scenes at various points and connect them via time jump or just go with them leaving the scene and jumping to when they finally reach their destination. Perhaps, with the latter, I could do a recap of events, highlighting major points between the two townships.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Hmmm...

Group must travel from Point A (presumably the city of the murderous King) to Point C (a place of relative safety?). Said trip is long. At least initially, they have to contend in some way with the murderous King's agents.

Ok...this King murdered his way to the throne. He's going to have a LOT of problems; the party in question being just one of them. Nervous Nobles to be soothed or killed, bills to deal with somehow, that sort of thing. Likewise, his most trustable agents are going to have their hands full.

So...the Kings agents follow the characters to Point B. There, the characters stage a diversion: something that either makes the Kings agents think they are dead, or took another route to another destination. Now...the Kings Agents might have doubts: BUT they have a long, long list of other things to worry about.
 
I'd use time jump in combination with some of the key locations along the road. For instance: remember the city your characters visited when they left for point A? Write a short chapter where they return and see what their presence has changed. For instance, last time, they killed a despot and left the city in the hands of the council. Now let the reader see what resulted out of that. At the same time, you can use that location (that's already developed) for a couple of scenes where the king's men almost catch up with them (or do and a fight ensues). Then, simply end with the climax (slaying an agent or disappearing through the sewers or whatever) and jump to the next location on the road. Rinse and repeat. With a little luck, the travel won't seem bland and uneventful and you'll only have to write a couple of smaller chapters/scenes.
 

TBraswell

Acolyte
I appreciate the suggestions and I have come to the conclusion that I will indeed need to write a time jump. I may recap like has been suggested as that will give some needed fleshing-out to the cliffhanger I intend to leave as a lead-in to the next book in the series.
 

Rob

Dreamer
I recommend writing about an escape from the antagonists to a certain point, then time lapsing.
 

SineNomine

Minstrel
Let me try to take a different tack from where others have gone.

Does your world need to be that massive? 1200 miles is further than Hobbiton to Mount Doom to use an easy example, and Tolkein's world was ridiculously, insanely detailed in a way that most people can't really emulate. In my experience, I think a lot of world building can end up with our eyes much larger our stomachs.

I think the biggest problem with a time skip is there is almost no way to have one and have it be tense. The fact that they are being chased really makes it difficult. How tense can it be if it is drawn out for longer than a month of travel? The ending of LotR only works well because they have an unremarkable and easy journey back with no threats whatsoever.
 
Normally, I fill travel with a mix of minor events (like skirmishes and escapes) or sample dialog, clues discovered (the refugees said WHAT? and what's that dragon-shaped comet in the sky?), training on the way, and other ways to give a sense of time passing and things happening. The trick is letting the tale's pacing decide when to take a paragraph for a day or a week, when to take a chapter for an incident or an important talk, and when to time jump ahead either the whole way or to the next incident.

In the OP, you said this is after the climax, lingering dangers from the new king but the battle they were geared up for is already won. That's a tricky business. If you don't just want to make this the start of the sequel (surviving their victory, leading to what new adventures they discover), I'd say you mostly need a time jump, though you could spend some time hashing remaining personal issues out with dialog on the way. (Some writers would have estranged friends/lovers make peace just in time to get one killed by the one assassin that caught up with them.) The trick is keeping some balls still in the air but not denying that you're winding the tale down, or else skipping ahead to "last step, and this was what happened on the way"-- pacing.
 

TBraswell

Acolyte
I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions. To be clear, the climax of the story is the witnessing of the king being killed and mr. Big bad evil man has assumed the throne. They see this from a distance and decide to sneak away from the castle where they were and try to find a nobleman to help them correct this heinous event. Along the way, they are noticed just outside the castle where they are then pursued for an indefinite amount of time before I have this predicament I mentioned in the OP. SineNomine hit the nail on the head.
 

Rob P

Minstrel
One question begs asking. How insanely important is it to return to your starting point considering the distance and that a sequel is in the offing? Can the cliffhanger not be created from knowledge of the event or danger and have our heroes finish the book in a mad desperate rush to get there.
 
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