: Re: Is it true that "Any story can be great in the hands of the right storyteller"? Presumably, like all trite sayings, it's a bit of an exaggeration since a story has to be at least interesting.

To (once again) quote Delany (supposedly) paraphrasing Emily Dickinson, "nothing survives but fine execution." Good ideas are plentiful, but fine execution is rare, and thus prized.

With that said, you arguably need both --fine execution of a worthless idea can be an impressive waste of time --but the point is that it's less definitive to find the first than is typically thought. It's often pointed out that Shakespeare's plots were rarely if ever original, what made them shine was how he wrote them.

However, I think you've erred in your interpretation of this concept. It still takes more than finding "fairly interesting story ideas and making them as enjoyable to read as possible." There needs to be a marriage between you and the idea. You need to make it wholly your own, and to reinterpret it through your own lens. It's not just a case of taking something okay and polishing it up. It's true, however, that the idea that eventually becomes "your* great idea may not be one that initially appeals to you, or that is quick to display its strengths.

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: The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction The modern world has few true mysteries, among them the fate of the Roanoke colonists and the crew of the Mary Celeste but do such happenings

@Kevin153

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: I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details

: Re: Is it true that "Any story can be great in the hands of the right storyteller"? Presumably, like all trite sayings, it's a bit of an exaggeration since a story has to be at least interesting.

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: The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction The modern world has few true mysteries, among them the fate of the Roanoke colonists and the crew of the Mary Celeste but do such happenings

: When is a lack of long, sophisticated words to describe an otherwise simple concept bad? Reading books of Dan Brown and that sort (pardon my inability to produce any other relevant examples

: How alien can my aliens be if I want them to demonstrate how alien a human character is? Using non-humans to show human failings is a mainstay of Science Fiction but is there a limit to

: I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details

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