Good morning, squiders! This week we’re looking at our fourth master plot, that of Voyage and Return.
7 Plots: Voyage and Return
20 Plots: Adventure, Metamorphosis
36 Plots: n/a
Again, no related 36 plots this week. Iiiiiinteresting.
Voyage and Return at first glance seems like it might be pretty similar to The Quest archetype we looked at last week, though there are differences. The Quest is mostly focused on the goal (save the princess, rescue your love, find the treasure) whereas Voyage and Return focuses more on your setting. Basically, the Voyage and Return archetype involves a character who finds themselves in a strange, new world, and who eventually returns home.
Examples of Voyage and Return: Alice in Wonderland, Cast Away, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Magicians, The Hobbit, Gulliver’s Travels, Neverwhere, The Wizard of Oz
(Side note: I apparently read a lot of this type of story.)
The idea is that the character learns new lessons that they can only learn by encountering this new world (which, to be completely clear, does not have to be a fantasy world, though it is a common fantasy trope), which they can then apply to their normal life once they return.
In our 20 Plots list we have Adventure and Metamorphosis (though, arguably, Voyage and Return requires both of these, but I digress). Adventure is very similar to Quest (20 plot version), except, like I mentioned before, the focus is not on the end goal of the journey. However, in this case, adventure is often just for adventure’s sake. The character doesn’t actually need to change or grow in any way. Think of the sword and sorcery books of the mid-1900s.
Metamorphosis, like the name implies, involves the character going through a major change of some sort–physically, emotionally, spiritually, or a combination of the aforementioned. This archetype does often include a fantasy element of some sort. In many stories in this archetype, the character is changed, and then is changed back at the end to their original self, having learned lessons while in their other form or having accomplished something that could only be done while they were changed.
Well, that’s this week’s archetype! We’re about halfway done! How are you guys feeling about the series? What’s your favorite Voyage and Return story?
