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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47486
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47486
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# TL;DR The magic is not in the place, but in the characters' reaction to it.

The story is told from the POV of the characters. They may find your three main locations interesting, and the places in between a wasteland of boredom. It does not make the in-between places any less interesting in the context of your story. Quite the contrary, you can pack quite a lot of character development in these transitions. You could just show that.

Consider a modern-day commuter. Every morning she walks to the station. Punches the seasonal ticket, waits on the platform, boards the train and spends the next 30 minutes looking at the distant horizon while the countryside just zips by. Every single day.

How well does she know the countryside? Not at all.

Even with such a lack of detail about the countryside, we both can imagine an entire novel centered on the commuter's thoughts and feelings during the daily travel. Such a novel would not even need to mention the destination. The magic is in the character.

In addition, the lack of a fancy background should find a natural counterbalance in a boost to the character development part so that the story remains interesting to the reader. This is not to say that all character development should occur against a grey backdrop, but that the necessity of a grey backdrop transition is an opportunity to focus on the character without any external distraction.

With all that, you should welcome your liminal locations, and by all means, leave them blurry, grey and boring.

Original score: 1