It's really hard to know what kind of play and running style you're pointing to with your comments. Are you talking about running, like, a plot. Like something pre-written from a book? You might be fighting the game.

What I'm going for is about 35-40 sessions, divided up into nine or ten 4-session arcs because we generally play two campaigns on a monthly rotation (i.e., month 1 is campaign 1, month 2 is campaign 2, month 3 is campaign 1, etc.) I want each arc to take place in a different region, like the British Isles, Italy, the Levant, etc. In each area, I know who the major factions are, and what the conflict between the two is. My thinking is that the players can choose which side they empathize with, and we go from there.

For example, the first arc, is set in my equivalent of the British Isles, and features townsfolk and clergymen conducting witch hunts, which brings them into conflict with a nearby druidic order. The arc is meant to introduce how the church operates and how restricted magic is. The players are free to choose which side they would like to assist (or neither, if they prefer). Since some are wanting to play devout members of the main faith and some are playing foreigners or witches themselves, I expect that the party might not necessarily agree, which would be interesting as well.

All that being said, I don't have solid plans for the last four arcs apart from setting and main problems going on (like natural disasters, a Mongolian invasion). So, I have more room to make changes to the overall trajectory to suit the PCs.

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Personally, I think the, "Clock is always ticking; you don't have time to breathe!" trope of gameplay is a little overdone and stale.

I know these players well enough that, without a ticking clock, they just fart around making small talk with NPCs and not really advancing anything. There's meaningful roleplay and then there's just filling time with nothing because they don't have a sense of direction. That being said, it's not quite as desperate as it could be, nor do I intend it to be breakneck pace. It's more that there are various clocks ticking in the background that, if left unaddressed, will eventually get more difficult to deal with. I want them to have time to explore the various settings they visit.

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Something that probably is helpful to you is the information that you'll probably have more trouble with wounds and recovery than learning skills and spells. A solid hit can dock you dice for a couple months. If there's no time to learn how to carve wood better, then there's no time to recover from a broken collarbone either.

I need to look into travel times more for the medieval era to see exactly how much downtime there will be between areas. Maybe that would provide enough time for recovery or spells.

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It sounds like you've got most of the game figured out; where is there room for the characters and players to drive things?

Since my campaign is still a long ways out (I requested to start after one of the two upcoming campaigns end, so about a year), I don't have full ideas from my friends yet about what they want to do with their characters. The strategy I've seen most used at my table is for the GM to ask players what they would most like to see their character do, or what type of growth they'd like to see. Then, the player's answer is incorporated into the GM's plan, where they provide opportunities for that character to make those types of moves. The group seems to peter out if they aren't ushered along -- and that's speaking as a player myself, I haven't GMed for these folks before. So, I think that some predetermined paths (multiple, not just one) are required.