For me, Aristotle and seanachaidh (because I am a Gael) say it best: No story? No sale!

As a convicted novelist (a three-peat genre offender, with two mainstream novels currently in the publishing pipeline), and a one-time professional, technical and business writer, this is how I approach the teaching of writing, whether the writing is a novel, a novella, a short story, poetry, a screenplay, stageplay, creative non-fiction, or a professional or technical report.

My recipe? Dissolve 1 1/4 teaspoons active dry creativity in 1/4 cup passion, let stand. In a separate bowl, combine 2 rounded cups critical reading, 1 cup sifted thinking, 1 cup experience, and 2 tsps salt. Work the creativity and passion into the dry ingredients, then add 1 1/4 cups cool patience. Using your fingers, mix the dough into a sticky mass. Transfer to a floured work surface, and knead until it feels right. Place the dough into a lightly floured bowl, cover, and let stand for the first rise, or autolyse. Return the dough to the lightly floured surface, and knead until it changes from a sticky to a smooth, supple, but not too firm mass. Place dough in a fresh, lightly floured bowl, cover, and let stand until it doubles in size. Transfer to the freshly floured work surface, deflate, and gently work the dough into the desired shape, folding the edges into the middle. Place the loaf, seam side down, into a lightly olive-oiled loaf pan, cover, and let rise once more, until the dough has doubled in size. Place into a preheated oven and bake for desired crust and crumb. Substitute different flours, play with the leavening, vary ingredient ratios, add seasoning, spices, herbs, grains, nuts, fruits, oils, increase or decrease the oven temperature, extend or shorten the baking time, and we can create a cornucopia of textures, tastes, smells, and above all, memories.

Though a basic recipe - dating back thousands of years and found in many cultures - it does not always proof when it comes to teaching writing. Why? The secret is knowing how to help the aspiring writer develop - to learn the "feel" - of that all-important gluten: the story.

As the result of what I have learned on my journey to become a published novelist, and most recently a screenwriter with a pending sale, there is one aspect of teaching writing I have become passionate about, because it appears to be lacking in many writing programs: how to write a narrative treatment. A comprehensive narrative treatment - not to be confused with an outline - serves as sextant, compass, chronograph, telltale, depth finder, even sea anchor, an all- in-one navigation aid, allowing a writer to constantly correct his/her heading, adjusting for wind, current, drift, shallow water, unseen hazards - including the occasional descent into a maelstrom! - and plot a safe course through the uncharted waters of their storied voyage. With practice, a/k/a endless rewriting - what often seems to many new writers like punishment - a writer can also learn how to convert their narrative treatment to a synopsis, a quick, catchy, convincing read for that critical first impression in the business of selling their precious cargo: No story? No sale!.

There is, however, one area I believe only the muse should tread: genesis. After conception, we academics should step back and simply provide a healthy prenatal environment. Following birth - and this thought may fly in the face of popular pedagogy - I believe that we should resist the temptation to "help" this precious infant - to poke it, to analyze it, to critique it - or we may inadvertently traumatize it, even kill it! before it is strong enough to stand up to our self-important pedagogical zeal. And what do we do while we wait? We love it, we cherish it, and we love it's anxious birth parent, in spite of what we - all-knowing, all-seeing Olympian Gods - may think it looks like, or needs to look "better": remember Hans Christian Anderson's story, The Ugly Duckling?

-- Donald K. Beman, New Appointment Pending (posted 3/12, 9:38 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)

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