A lot of writers have issues with this thing called plot. It really isn't hard to see why as popular writing advice tends to skip the subject entirely.

To make one thing clear, I think master plots are often overrated. As you will soon see below, many popular stories don't follow them at all.

However, many writers find them useful, so, I'll give you seven example plots from Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots.

I didn't read the book at all, but I read TVTropes' take on it (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheSevenBasicPlots ). To be honest, the way he describes these plots is really hard to understand and probably not very helpful. Therefore, I'll explain these plots as I see them.

He defines seven basic plots.

1.Overcoming the Monsters

2.From Rags to Riches

3.The Quest

4.Voyage and Return

5.Comedy

6.Tragedy

7.Rebirth

The titles are not always super indicative, but I'll try to explain these plots as good as I can.

Let's start with the first.

Overcoming the Monster

This is a really simple plot. A monster or a villain shows up and is very dangerous. Where is the hero to stop it?

This is literally the plot of every action, thriller, horror, or mystery story either. It can be a murderer, it can be a monster, it can be a supervillain, it doesn't matter; there is an antagonist who is really bad and the protagonist must stop it.

Here are the steps of this story:

Anticipation Stage and Call

This is the part of the story where the monster makes it presence known. Usually, this happens while the protagonist is still far away. Here, it is necessary to establish that the villain is evil and hard to defeat to cultivate tension early on.

Star Wars: A New Hope has a prologue where the Rebellion is being utterly crushed by the Empire and Princess Leia is being captured. Luke Skywalker is still on his farm and only learns about it because C3PO and R2D2 give him a message.

Likewise, many murder mysteries start with the detective finding a corpse even if the murderer is still unknown.

This step works best if we know what the antagonist wants. Booker gives three examples: The antagonist might be predatory, they might have something the protagonist wants, or they might be driven by revenge.

Dream Stage

This is where the bulk of the story happens. The hero is normally not ready to defeat the monster at the start. They might be too weak or the monster might be far away.

In a mystery, the majority of the novel will be about the detective searching for clues.

In Star Wars, Luke spends a lot of the movie trying to master his Jedi powers and getting into the Death Star to save Leia.

Frustration Stage

Here, the hero first confronts the villain and has no chance of defeating him.

In a mystery, the detective might run out of time and suspects or become a suspect themselves.

In Star Wars: A New Hope, this is when Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Nightmare Stage

After the previous stage, the hero would like to give up, but the final battle arrives now.

The Thrilling Escape from Death, and Death of the Monster

Basically the final battle and victory. To make the victory more satisfying, the hero will get rewarded. A treasure, a kingdom, and a princess are standard, but any increase in status will do.

Conclusion:

I think this is a useful structure and definitely my favorite type of plot.

My only issue is that it's very vague and very broad. I'm not even sure if it's always necessary for the hero to lose against the villain first, although that's certainly something I like doing. I think it's a good outline if you're planning underdog stories. For a straight-up power fantasy, it's probably enough to introduce the villain first and then deliver the smackdown.

Rags to Riches

This is another classic. Normally, it's about the hero gaining money, but it can be about gaining anything. Love, power, status. It's the quintessential "from zero to hero" plot. VERY in fiction for teenagers or kids and plots about growing up. It's probably the most common plot on Wattpad and in web fiction in general.

Initial Wretchedness at Home and the Call

"Overcoming the Monster" is a very plot-driven story type. This type of story, however, is character-driven. What does the character want? Is it love? Fame? Money? Power? Normally, the character will be bullied by others for their poor status.

In the first Harry Potter book, Harry is an orphan who is being abused by his adoptive family. This changes once he gets a Hogwarts letter.

In most Wattpad stories, there is a chapter where we meet our "I'm so ugly" heroine before she sees the super handsome bad boy.

In Aladdin, Aladdin is a street urchin before he finds his Genie.

Onto the World, Initial Success

The hero gets whatever they want, money, fame, love and it's awesome. In Hogwarts, Harry learns that he defeated Voldemort while he was still a baby, and literally everyone loves him for it. Likewise, Aladdin gets to woo the Sultan's daughter Jasmin and fly around on his carpet.

Central Crisis

But then, something goes wrong. The hero is still too immature to deal with the newfound power. Harry accidentally breaks the school rules and lets himself get caught. His house loses points and everyone hates him for that. A love story might have drama between the couple now where they break up. In Wattpad and in YA, there is usually a second cute boy to add drama.

Independence and the Final Ordeal

The hero must now cope with their loss and learn that with great power comes great responsibility.

After Harry has lost his status in Hogwarts, he nonetheless takes it upon himself to stop Voldemort. In Aladdin, there is a scene where Aladdin breaks up with Jasmin, is sentenced to death, and loses his genie. He now needs to rely on his wits and intelligence to survive.

Final Union, Completion, and Fulfillment

After having lost their status, the hero does something great that proves themselves as worthy of power and admiration. Harry defeats Voldemort and wins the Hogwarts House Cup. Aladdin beats Jafar and wins Jasmin's heart. Happy End.

Conclusion:

This is a good plot type for many stories aimed at young audiences, I think. It's not that often used on Wattpad or in YA, however. In many Wattpad/YA romances, you have the first three steps (heroine is lonely, meets bad boy, the second boy comes), but steps four and five are missing. She rarely proactively does anything to resolve all the relationship drama. Instead, you get these ultra passive female leads which are a huge reason why I detest so many love stories. But well, they work for their intended audiences, so, I won't complain.

The Quest

Another classic. It's the backbone of many fantasy plots. These are plots where the characters need to travel somewhere in order to achieve an objective. As the characters must stick together, the focus will be on a fairly small group of travelers. It can be a duo, a whole party of heroes, or just a hero and a bunch of nobodies who only exist to be killed by the bad guys (as in Odyssey).

The Call

As with Rags to Riches, we see the hero's ordinary life before the adventure starts. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo is having a party with Gandalf and the other Hobbits before we learn that he must carry the Ring to Mount Doom in order to defeat Sauron. Usually, the hero will be forced to leave home and there will be a supernatural mentor telling them "this is where you need to go".

The Journey

This is where the bulk of the story takes place. A quest story is a bit like a video game. In a video game, there is usually an overarching goal (Mario has to defeat Bowser and save Princess Peach), but each of the levels has its own challenges.

Your hero might travel from town to town and in each town, there's a monster to defeat, a temptation to be resisted, a dilemma to be solved, or a dangerous cave to get in and out from. It's the journey that matters more than the destination in a Quest story. Usually, the hero completes multiple challenges and has time to rest before they go to the next town.

Arrival and Frustration

This is the part where the Quest is about to end. The part where Mario reaches Bowser's castle, so to speak. We already talked about this in the Overcoming the Monster part, as it's the same here.

The Final Ordeal

This is where the hero has the final challenge. Where Frodo needs to throw the Ring into Mount Doom or where Mario must fight Bowser.

The Goal

Where the hero wins and is rewarded with a treasure, a princess, a kingdom, or whatever. It's the same as in the Overcoming the Monster plot.

Conclusion:

Superficially, this plot is similar to Overcoming the Monster. However, while an Overcoming the Monster plot is extremely fast-paced, a Quest can be spaced out.

In my opinion, this is a good plot for Internet fiction. One of the challenges of Internet fiction is that it's serialized. The chapters are not released at once. Readers might forget what happened in chapter 10 as chapter 10 might have been released months ago! With the Quest, you have a more laid-back plot that's divided into several smaller slices. Plus, even if you can't finish the story, the reader will at least get some satisfaction out of the last time the hero completed a task.

Voyage and Return

This plot is where the hero goes into a strange new land and returns home as a new person. It sounds similar to the Quest, but it's different. The Quest is more about the external conflict whereas the Voyage and Return is about character development. But the structure is similar. It's a common plot in children's books like Alice in Wonderland.

Anticipation Stage and 'Fall into the Other World'

Much like in the Quest, we establish the hero's ordinary life before the plot begins. While the Quest normally emphasizes how boring the ordinary life is, the Voyage and Return focuses on the hero's naivete and how much they have to learn. Normally, they stumble into the plot based on their immaturity. Alice follows a rabbit into a rabbit hole, for example.

Initial Fascination or Dream Stage

Here, the hero explores the new world and how cool it is, but they can never feel truly at home.

Frustration Stage

Here, the hero learns that the new world isn't all sunshine and roses.

Nightmare Stage

This is where the hero is at their lowest. It's the equivalent to the final boss fight in the Quest or in Overcoming the Monster.

Thrilling Escape and Return

Here, the hero solves the final challenge in the new world and returns back home. We will see how much they changed as a person. Sometimes, we'll even wonder if the whole story even happened or if it was all just a dream (like in Alice in Wonderland).

Conclusion

I think it's needless to say that this is very easy to combine with the Quest. As noted before, the steps of the Quest focus on the external journey while the Voyage and Return focuses on the internal journey. Unfortunately, Booker doesn't go into much detail with the steps here. If you're writing a Quest, you'll probably need to rely on mini-challenges to fill in the middle, you know, the part between the fascination and the frustration (which will be the meat of the book).

Comedy

No, "comedy" in this context isn't just funny stories. By "comedy", Booker means stories about misunderstandings where two or more characters must learn to understand each other.

Under the Shadow

Here, we get to know the main characters and their relationships with each other. For this plot to work, it is important that they don't understand each other. Maybe they have worldviews or personalities that are just incompatible. This is a common plot in romantic comedies where you have two very unlikely personalities who nonetheless must learn to work together. Make sure that they have a good reason to stay together during the story, but also good reasons why the characters don't like each other yet.

Tightening the Knot

After the characters get to know each other, something happens that makes them fall apart. Maybe one learns that the other has been lying all the time or one of the characters accidentally hurts the other.

Resolution

Here, the characters apologize to each other or a big event happens that brings them closer together.

Conclusion:

This is a very good plot for hate-to-love romances, which are extremely common in Wattpad stories. I'd suggest maybe adding a more external conflict (like a Quest or an Overcoming the Monster plot) as then, the characters might stay together even as they don't like each other yet.

Tragedy

The line between comedy and tragedy can be thin. This is about stories where a character starts with everything, only to lose it all.

Anticipation Stage

Here, we get to learn about our hero. Normally, they have a pretty good life, but also a desire that hasn't been fulfilled yet. They are willing to do terrible things to get there. In the anime Death Note, for example, the main character is bored and thinks the world would be a much better place if all the evil people just died.

Dream Stage

Here, the hero does immoral to fulfill their desire and it changes their world forever. Faust makes a deal with the devil, Light Yagami kills his first criminal with the Death Note, that sort of stuff.

Frustration Stage

At first, it seems like all the hero's problems are being solved, but then, the "hero" feels the consequences for their bad choices and must do further evil things to survive. In Death Note, the police investigate Light Yagami for his murder of criminals. If he wants to stay out of jail, Light must now kill the authorities, too.

Nightmare Stage

The protagonist is now trapped in a self-destructive spiral that reaches its peak. They are at their lowest point and have no-one but themselves to blame.

Destruction or Death Wish Stage

Normally, the protagonist is offered a final chance to repent and become a better person. But they refuse and stick to their evil methods. Therefore, they die or suffer a bad end. Normally, there will be other people we are supposed to sympathize with who are now much better off now that the protagonist is dead.

Conclusion

This type of plot is good for cautionary tales, but it's hard to sell, as most people like happy endings. Many stories are tragedies from the villain's perspective, as many villains used to be decent people before they turned evil.

Rebirth

This is essentially a tragedy where, in the end, the hero realizes their faults and becomes a better person, thus earning a happy end. It's essentially about a villain who becomes a hero.

Booker didn't give any explicit steps, but the story goes exactly like a tragedy. There is only one difference: Unlike in a tragedy, there is a positive influence that drags the protagonist out of the deep pit they have fallen into. It could be a love interest or a child or whatever. The important thing is that the protagonist does not succumb to the darkness in the end, but repents.

So, how useful are those?

If you want to boil it down, all these seven plots are the same.

1. The hero has a problem.

2. Something is done to solve the problem.

3. There's a twist.

4. Everything seems lost.

5. The hero pulls everything around and there is a happy ending.

There is a caveat though. Normally, step one lasts short. Steps three to five only happen at the very end of a book. The vast, vast, vast majority of each book will be step two. Booker's examples help with starting and ending a story, but not with the middle. For the middle, progress is the most important. How that progress looks like might depend on your genre (in an Overcoming the Monster plot, the hero comes closer to the monster; in Rags to Riches, the hero gains riches; in a Quest, the hero solves tasks, etc.).

However, it can sometimes help a lot if you know how to start and end your story.

I'd like to add that these are not necessary steps. Many popular stories don't follow these steps at all. Especially in web serial fiction, the journey is more important than the destination. Many web novels never end and when they do, there isn't always an "everything seems lost" moment. Sometimes, the story just ends. Wish-fulfillment stories don't always need dark moments.

Likewise, some stories (like The Martian) open without establishing the hero's ordinary life first. The plot just starts.

These example plots should be more seen as inspiration than as "how-to" guides. If you don't know how to start or end your story, it can help to think if it fits in one of those "genres" and then you can see how other such stories start or end.