Story Types: The Voyage

A Voyage story type is one in which the heroes travel through exotic, fantastical, and often dangerous lands.  Along the way, they will have a number of specific adventures each of which will strengthen the heroes, reveal unexpected capabilities, or grant information or understanding.

The hero could be a solitary individual like Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels, or he could be the leader of a band of men, such as Ulysses in the Oddessey, or it could be a small group of heroes such as the crew of the Enterprise, or the residents of the Raza in Dark Matter.

What sets a Voyage story-type apart from others is that the focus of the story is on the journey rather than the destination.  There is no great task that needs to be accomplished at the end of the journey, and often the heroes have no set destination in mind.  What provides the conflict is the unknown of the environment they are journeying through. There is always an undercurrent of wondering whether the heroes will even survive, and the conflict is developed as the heroes grow more competent and confident of facing the next challenge.  From another perspective, the conflict is to discover if the hero or the team can work together and be confident enough in their own strength to prevail.  Eventually, the heroes arrive at their destination having been transformed into something greater than when they started.

Consider Han, Chewbacca and Leia from The Empire Strikes Back.   While Luke is off training to become a Jedi, Han and Leia are on a voyage to regroup with the Rebels that were scattered after Hoth.  Again, they have no specific task or quest that drives them onward, it is the journey together that is important.  While traveling, Leia and the audience learn of the resourcefulness and audacity of Han through many individual events.

As a result of their shared experiences, Leia begins to understand and trust Han and ultimately falls in love with him.  For her part, Leia demonstrates her own determination and courage and shows that she can become part of the team that Chewie and Han have created.  When this relationship is ripped apart at Cloud City, Han discovers that he has fallen in love with Leia as well, even as he is being frozen in carbonite.  Again, trials are faced and endured and the group of heroes becomes stronger.

It is this unbreakable bond that they forge here, which drives the team to rescue Han and forms the core of the strike force on Endor.  Even though this voyage never reaches its destination the conflict is resolved because Han has moved from being an aloof loner to being part of a team.  Characters like Lando and Chewbacca are integrated into it as well, and the audience can see through these examples how the Rebel Alliance as a whole is being strengthened into a force that could face the second Death Star.

A similar process happens to the Fellowship of the Ring, particularly after Frodo and Sam leave to carry on the quest alone.  After the ringbearer leaves, the quest structure goes with him, and a new story type is adopted for the other parties as we follow their journey through Middle Earth.

After the death of Boromir at Amon Hen, Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn set out on a Journey, traveling south to Minas Tirith.  While on the way, they experience a series of adventures that will later be pivotal in assembling a fighting force to repel the invaders from Morder.  Ostensibly, their goal is to rescue the hobbits, which would make this a quest, but they never actually do.  Their story quickly moves off in another direction, one which takes them through many different lands (Rohan, the Paths of the Dead,etc) all the while strengthening the bond between these three different races, and gaining allies along the way.

• The Horse and His Boy shows us how escape and pursuit can both be forms of the Voyage.  
• The Odyssey is a classic example. 
• While Voyage of the Dawn Treader was a redemption story for Eustace, for Caspian, Edmund and Lucy it was a Voyage as the name suggests.  
• Alice in Wonderland.   
• The Hobbit - while LotR was definitely about the ring quest, the Hobbit actually has no specific or definable task that Bilbo must complete once he arrives at the Lonely Mtn.  The book is really about his journey with the dwarves and the way he gains their trust along the road.
• The Biblical story of Noah, can be viewed as a voyage, as can the wilderness portions of The Exodus. 
• I used Empire Strikes Back in the analysis above.
• The first half of Star Wars: the Force Awakens uses exactly the same story type to tell of the travels of Finn and Rey from their beginnings on Jakku, through their introduction to Han Solo, until they are united with Leia and the Rebels.  Each scene is about building the team, developing trust, expanding capabilities.  In the second story of the movie, the quest to rescue Rey, it is this same team of Chewbacca, Han, and Finn that is prepared to complete it.  

Voyage and Return

There is a particular subset of this story type that places emphasis on the way that some stories have a circular nature - heading outward from a familiar setting into the unknown, and returning back to comfortable surroundings at the end.  And while that is a powerful device, there are so many stories that involve linear journeys without the return, that I think this restriction is unnecessarily limiting.

In truth, I see this as a different mechanism altogether.  An element of storytelling that is present in many story types, including being a fundamental part of the hero's journey.  The quest story often involves journeying out and returning back once the quest is complete.  So might Overcoming the Monster, or Redemption stories. Leaving home to face conflict, and returning back to it when the conflict is resolved is really a more universal technique than a story type.