well-imagined

A well-imagined story is not predictable, or at least not wholly predictable.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

As a qualifier, I want to be clear that when I write about the need for extraordinary human behavior in well-imagined fiction, I am not arguing that a successful story must contain elements of the bizarre or the supernatural or the fantastic.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

When I speak about a well-imagined story, I mean a good many things, but let me begin by listing a few things a well-imagined story is not.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

A well-imagined story is not melodramatic; it does not rely on purely villainous villains and purely heroic heroes; it does not use formulas in place of inventiveness; it does not substitute cliché for fresh vision.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

More positively, and maybe more helpfully, I can try to suggest what a well-imagined story does mean to me.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

A well-imagined story does not rev up bland, everyday events with lurid, purply, overwrought language that seeks to elevate such events beyond their due.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

As a qualifier, I want to be clear that when I write about the need for extraordinary human behavior in well-imagined fiction, I am not arguing that a successful story must contain elements of the bizarre or the supernatural or the fantastic.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

Above all, a well-imagined story is organized around extraordinary human behaviors and unexpected and startling events, which help illuminate the commonplace and the ordinary.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

Another element of a well-imagined story, in my view, is a sense of gravitas or thematic weight.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009

A well-imagined story is not predictable, or at least not wholly predictable.

Telling Tails Tim O 2009