Turning Miles Into Meaning

Travel shapes adventure. It can add scale to your world and provides an opportunity for your characters to grow. When your characters leave home, they’re not just moving through geography—they’re gaining experience. Every step provides the potential for challenge and change. Maybe your characters cross a burning desert that drains their strength, or a bustling city that overwhelms them with its sights and sounds. The more detailed and imaginative the journey, the more real your world will feel to your readers.

Want to explore your world in an interesting way? Does your character need to visit an ancient, all-knowing wizard to get exposition that will help them on their quest? Can you imagine how boring Lord of The Rings would’ve been if Mordor was just next door? The same goes for your story. So, where does this wizard live? In a cave? In a tower that reaches the heavens? In a swampy marshland? Well, then your character has to travel!

Planes, Trains, and Teleportation

Just like in the real world, an important step in travel is determining what transportation you’re going to take. Say, you’re planning to go on a trip.  How are you getting there—are you going by plane, train, bus, etc.—and what you can use to travel around once you get to your destination? You should be the same amount of thought into travel in your story.

If your setting is historical, I recommend researching the period. For example, in 1800s England, the upper-class would’ve used carriages, while the lower class relied on walking or bicycles. But in Latin America in that same era, mule trains were common for long distances, and riverboats were used on the water. Remember that accuracy helps immerse the reader in the time and place of the story.

For fantasy or sci-fi, consistency is key. If your characters have access to teleportation, don’t suddenly make them trek through mountains for weeks without a reason. Readers will notice, and it will break the believability of your world. Use your world’s logic to shape how people move within it.

Growth on the Go

In my opinion, the journey itself is even more important than the destination. After all, having a grand, epic quest for the hero to go on is a staple of storytelling for a reason. The journey is where relationships deepen, secrets unfold, and growth happens.

When your characters travel across vast lands, they’re exposed to new cultures, unexpected dangers, and surprising allies. Maybe they meet a desert nomad who teaches them humility, or a mischievous spirit who forces them to question what they believe. Each encounter should either challenge or reveal something about them.

Letting the Road Lead the Way

Travel isn’t just about getting your characters from point A to point B—it’s about everything that happens in between. The road, the obstacles, the unexpected detours, and the quiet moments along the way all breathe life into your story. When you treat travel as more than a backdrop, it becomes a powerful storytelling tool that reveals character, builds your world, and keeps readers invested.

So, the next time your hero sets off on an adventure, don’t rush them to the destination. Let them wander. Let them struggle. Let them discover. Because in the end, the best adventures are the ones that take the audience with them.

Casey Simpson

Casey Simpson is a college student and writer living in Ottawa, Ontario. Initially, Casey wanted to be an animator, earning a diploma in Drawing Foundations - Animation & Illustration at Algonquin College in 2022, before deciding to pursue their life-long love of writing in higher education, returning to the same institution to take the Professional Writing course, which they are graduating from in 2026. They started out writing short stories, then later shifted to writing for newspapers, journals, and websites. They have a variety of works—from dark tales plagued with tragedy, to fun, punchy blog posts.