Time Unaccounted For

[Wordweaver]

I have reached a point in my WIP where I want to skip a few weeks ahead to avoid following a pair of travelers as they travel by foot, mostly uneventfully, to their distant destination. But I'm torn...by not portraying their travels, I feel like I'm losing the opportunity to develop the characters' relationship to each other, but I also don't want to describe the long, mostly boring journey in painstaking detail at the expense of the reader's interest just so that they can see that the travelers are growing closer.

I thought about going the simple route and just making their destination closer, but scrapped that idea because I want my MC to have a distinct feeling of being out on his own, far from home, kind of learning the ways of the world outside of his small hometown.

So if I do skip ahead a few weeks, and maybe refer to some of the character-building moments in passing, do you think it will take away from the effectiveness and the "flow" of the narrative? How long is too long to skip, and how much description of the skipped events should be alluded to later (if any)?

Any suggestions or alternatives?

 

[Devor]

I suggest you write about a page or two and describe the journey and how difficult it was. Then give it to someone, in context, and ask if they find it necessary. I think it probably is, but there's a chance it isn't depending on your style.

 

[CharlieDay]

Going along with Devor, I do about the same thing. I am currently writing an adventure story that involves a lot of travelling to different places. I usually spend a few paragraphs giving a synopsis of the journey (weather, group morale, towns they visit). I also switch back to real time for say a night of conversation by the campfire, or an encounter, so readers don't completely miss out on character building moments.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Those character-building moments can (and, generally, should) be woven in among the plot elements. Long stretches of character-building with no story movement are just as bad as long sequences of plot developments with no character development.

As Devor said, you can summarize the journey in a short passage. If the passage is from the POV of one of the two characters, then that character can think about how their relationship has been changing. A character reflecting on the journey they just took, just as they're about to arrive somewhere, is a common device as well.

 

[Kelise]

You could also think up a small mini plot to make the journey interesting and worthwhile, perhaps.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

It took two weeks to get to the city. The days were hot, and their feet were sore.

Something like this is all you really need. Time passed, and it was dull and boring, but it's now gone, and we now resume something interesting. Character development happens with event more than just talking. Yes, you can add some scenes along the way to have them talk, and that's fine too. But they could just as easily have the same thing after they reach a place that will have something going on.

I'm a firm believer in showing over telling...until you have something boring, and then you can quickly tell me so we can get on with the things that are worth being shown.

 

[lawrence]

I think that a degree of detail is fine when it comes to travel narrative. It can give you opportunities to immerse your characters in the world. Your story plays out in the imagination of your reader, and as a reader its good to be a fellow journeyer with the characters through strange and perhaps dangerous lands. It can be a part, though not mandatory, of the immersive power of your story. But of course, boredom is the worst thing you can inflict on your readers, so care is needed to get the travel passages right. I would personally use more than a single sentence usually. But yes I agree that you should avoid cluttering the progress of the story. The travel sections need to contribute to the forward flow in your story.

 

[Wordweaver]

Thanks for everybody's suggestions and thoughts...as it turned out I combined a few of the above suggestions, and broke the journey up into two legs:

The first boring half I let pass with a few brief sentences about how easy going, uneventful and even pleasant the trip was (inspired by Darkstorm's suggestion). Without saying "the first two weeks of travel were boring."

Then for the second (more eventful) leg I wrote a letter from the MC (who is traveling) to his childhood companion back in his home town. The letter is written about a month after leaving home and describes a few of the goings on of the second couple of weeks afield. Devised a "mini-plot" (thanks starconstant) so that I don't have to describe anything drawn out and blah, or skip any needed character dev.