Working definition. Fiction is an acknowledged making-up through which realities that are absent, impossible, hidden, or not yet formed can be encountered.
Inherited meaning
Stories have long carried memory, moral ambiguity, social criticism, and speculative possibility. Fiction is not the opposite of truth; it is distinct from deception because its invention is part of the agreement with its audience.
Meaning in the imagination economy
Generative media can fabricate convincing evidence and blur the boundary between invention and record. This makes honest fiction more important, not less. Fiction can create experimental worlds where values and consequences become felt—provided it remains legible as imagination rather than disguised fact.
What changes in practice
Mark the frame of invention. Build characters with agency beyond the thesis. Use fictional futures to expose assumptions and rehearse choices, then return to reality with questions rather than claims of proof.