Regardless of your story's genre, format or length, every story has the same basic structure.  So before you write a word, create a character, consider your setting, or outline your plot, you must under the structure.

I didn't understand it when I wrote my first novel right out of college, and that first draft was a disaster.  The second and third drafts were pretty bad as well, and the fourth draft was halfway decent.  Then I learned how to build a story the right way, and the three fantasy novels I've written since are much better than that first novel as a result of understanding story structure.

Most teachers and writers explain this structure using story examples from popular novels or movies.  That's helpful and fun and interesting, but I like to be different.  I also like to run.  And a few weeks ago while running a seven mile race around a lake, I realized how much a race is similar to the three step story structure.  So in today's episode, I'm going to use the example of a seven mile race to explain the simple three act structure every story needs.  

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