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Voyage and Return

Voyage and Return

What is the Voyage & Return story tactic?

Put adventure and the ties of home at the heart of your story. This will keep us hooked til the end.

From Homer's Odyssey to Alice in Wonderland, we love a voyage into the unknown. Our hero stumbles or leaps into a strange new world. They will learn a lot before they see home again. Their voyage changes everything. The hero is different when they return-and so too is home.

Try Order & Chaos.

How to use the Voyage & Return story tactic

You can try two versions of Voyage and Return. In the first, you are the hero and this is your innovation journey. Or in the second, your customer is the hero and you help them on a journey to solve a problem.

Home: safe, but dull.

  • How is Home less than it could be?
  • Why is your Hero anxious for adventure? What do they want?
  • What kind of new world is out there? (This could be a strange world in physical, social or psychological terms)

Voyage: into the strange new world.

  • How does the journey begin: a deliberate choice, forced or accidental?
  • What are the dangers here? What are the opportunities?
  • How does your Hero feel the pull of Home?
  • What lesson does your Hero learn here?

Return: to the old world, but different.

  • How has the Hero changed on the voyage?
  • How does Home look different on the Herds return?
  • How will the Hero make Home better?

Voyage and Return chart

Credit: C.Booker, Seven Basic Plots.

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Voyage and Return is one of 54 storytelling recipe cards inside the Storyteller Tactics card deck.

Ditch dull presentations and tell great stories that influence and inspire your team, stakeholders and customers.