Worldbuilding and character development can be two of the most difficult parts of writing any compelling story. Each takes a long time and careful consideration to come across as believable. One of the most common ways to tell a story is through the concept of the hero’s journey, where the protagonist is forced to go out of their normal life into an adventure of sorts, sometimes for good or for ill. Often this involves the character(s) travelling from one place to another and/or several places in between. Having characters travel from one place to another not only shows how large the world the story takes place in really is (this could be a village, a city, a country or even across continents), it also gives time for the characters to talk to each other and reflect on what’s happened or will happen. While not always necessary, travelling can help writers tackle both worldbuilding and character development.
One of the most famous and possibly the grandest example of this concept is The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien. Middle Earth is a massive and fully realized world as Frodo and the others are tasked with traversing across the continent to destroy the One Ring. The journey is long and perilous with lots of moments of action and side adventures that are all still in line with the main goal. But what really made the story feel more impactful were the moments where the characters were just walking and talking. They talked about their dreams, their goals, the world around them, their homes, and everything else that was at stake. It really helped to show the character dynamics and relationships rather than simply telling the reader. What also really helped establish the world of Middle Earth was how they had visited several places along the way, stopping and talking to those living there or, in some cases, facing new dangers they hadn’t expected. Tolkien is probably the most excessive one can be with using travel and distance as a writing tool as he often went a bit overboard in some areas of description, but it still helped to really develop the characters and the world.
While showing the time it takes to travel from one place to another helps to show how big the world is and let the characters talk and reflect, it’s not always necessary to every story. Sometimes there isn’t enough length in a story to explore everything and there’s more focus on the characters and worldbuilding through dialogue. Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a good example of this as Xingyin’s character development was quite well done and fully explored during her time in each location. She was still given a lot of time to talk to other characters and reflect on the story’s events without it being during a travelling segment. That being said, the world in which the story took place, the immortal realm, felt very small. It’s understandable that the travelling segments were cut as that would’ve made the story, that’s already 500 pages long, much longer and potentially ruining the pacing as the story was fairly slow and carefully told. There was more care and focus on the character development and relationships than the world and it worked best for the story being told.
When travelling is used as a writing tool to further build the world and the characters, it can often take a rather Odyssey-like structure. The story format is named after The Odyssey written by Homer that consists of the long journey Odysseus took to return home to his wife Penelope after the Trojan war. The return trip was a long series of misadventures that Odysseus and his crew faced as they sailed back to Greece. A lot of stories follow this format for a series of character building and world building developments that also help to further the plot. But there’s a risk of a tangent adventure that feels out of place and ruins the flow of the story. The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan tends to follow the Odyssey story format quite closely and, for the most part, each of the places they visit along their route have side stories that strengthen the overall plot, build up the world, or further develop the characters. But there are a few times where the tangential side plots don’t really serve any purpose and break the flow of the story. It’s a risk that comes when adding different locations and side plots to a story.
There’s no harm in adding a lot of small side stories within the grand overarching plotline as long as they add to the overall story. In fact, often times these side stories serve to develop the character relationships, the characters themselves, the world they inhabit, and the plot line at the same time. Sometimes not all of these, but usually most of these. My favorite example of a story that does this extremely well is The Shadow of the Fox series by Julie Kagawa. Yumeko is forced into a journey to save the world and travels through Iwagoto to do so. She encounters many interesting and unique characters, some who join her on her quest while others oppose her but more importantly, the side stories she gets involved in do such an amazing job of really showing her growth throughout the story and strengthening her bonds with her friends.
Having characters travel across great distances isn’t a requirement to write a great story. There are plenty of stories that don’t need to show how large or spread out the world is and are focused on a smaller condensed area while focusing on a set cast of characters. But for a writer wanting to tell a grand hero’s journey style story, having them go on an Odyssey style story helps to make the worldbuilding and character development easier as well as constructing a plotline with a good flow and progression.
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