It is not uncommon to read a book on writing that will preface itself with the idea that writing — and more specifically great writing — cannot be taught. It’s an attitude that I think stems from the misplaced idea that writing is a mysterious gift, one that bubbles up from some unknown place within the writer, which cannot be replicated or taught. You simply have that gift or you don’t. But it’s a strange attitude. Why is writing unlike any other skill, so mysterious up on its pedestal? The fac...