It is often argued that there are only seven types of plot, which occur again and again, albeit in a variety of different forms.
The seven plot types were summed up by the author, Christopher Brooker, like this:
- Overcoming the monster
- Rags to riches
- The quest
- Voyage and return
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Rebirth
Brooker went on to refine his argument further, to state that the seven plots were all simply different perspectives on the same basic drama.
He described this as involving the hero or heroine "being in some way constricted" at the start of the story, and ending up with "a final opening-out into life, with everything at last resolved".
