I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.
There is no left and right in writing. There is only good and bad writing.
Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.
Imagination? It is the one thing beside honesty that a good writer must have. The more he learns from experience the more he can imagine.
Not the why but the what.
If every one said orders were impossible to carry out when they were received where would you be? Where would we all be if you just said, "Impossible," when orders came?