Some of the greatest story tellers have yet to learn how to use a toilet. The passion of a toddler who exhibits an unbridled passion for entertainment, knows instinctively that he must keep his audience engaged. He is not burdened by rules. Letting his imagination soar does not include nouns and verbs and his point of view is not burdened with subjective phrases or idle adverbs.

Our enjoyment dwindles if he never moves beyond Pampers.

We become even less tolerant if at some point, he hasn't learned to flush.

A person who aspires to be a writer is simply using his God-given tools to express himself and catch a few of us, the naive wanderers, in his web. Language allows us to connect, crawl into the pores and feel the thoughts and life of the sorcerer who sprinkles our lives with magic powder.

Why then must a writer re-learn the inspirational message he was gifted with in childhood?

For the most part, it's a result of burying our instincts, serving time in the educational system, a penchant to conform and a distrust of our right to blossom. In many cases, it's an example of how a little knowledge can corrupt a perfectly good story.

There are still rules and the kid in us identifies those touchstones as readily as the infant who demands food and protection. What confuses natural story tellers is the detours. Some English teacher may have emphasized the setting, giving top marks to students who danced with adverbs or marched with adjectives. We latched on to the approval ratio and never looked back.

While I don't feel entitled to navigate your adventure as a writer, I am supremely qualified to remind you of the basic rules of writing a short story. How you get there is absolutely none of my business.

Setting, character, conflict, crises and resolution--that's it. Job done!