But Why?

Motivation.  It’s what good writing contains.  Why are your characters doing what they are doing?  Why do they feel a certain way?  Here’s a look into one of my writing tips…always ask “but why?”

I can’t say I came up with this challenge.  It first appeared to me in my monthly Friday Nighters critique group, though I'm sure it's older than that.  I’m not sure how many times my pages came back with multiple “but why?” in the margins.  I soon came to despise them; however, I later embraced them.  You see, by not taking the easy way out, it forced me to look at the various motivations in my WIP (work in progress) and validate or clarify them, for myself and more importantly, my readers, making my writing richer.

For example, in how many movies, as an audience member, have you watched someone enter a dark and scary basement knowing the character was crazy because he/she was going to die, get captured, tortured, fill-in-the-blank… You think to yourself, the character is a complete idiot, call 911, get backup, turn tail and run, anything but enter the basement.  As the audience member, you just asked yourself the first “but why?”.

The easiest explanation (in a horror movie) is the audience needs the scare/suspense so we’re gonna send the character into implausible danger to make it happen.  It doesn't matter why, just so long as we have the big scare.  Well a movie may get away with this, but your story won’t.

Have enough unanswered “but whys?” in your WIP and it will make the reader shut down in disgust thinking your hero/heroine is stupid.

The good news?  It doesn’t take much to fix this unanswered “but why?”  It could be a simple thought in your character’s head (if he/she is alone):  I really don’t want to go into this dark and scary basement, but the circuit breaker is in there and I really want lights on about now.  Motivation now revealed, your character's IQ has jumped by leaps & bounds.

If you have two characters eyeing the dark and scary basement, you could have them arguing:

Bob: “Are you crazy?  The killer is probably down there!”

Jane:  “But we need the lights on, besides there are two of us and one of him.”

Bob:  “Screw that, let’s get out of here.”

Jane:  “Be brave, we can do this.”

Bob:  “Fine, we’ll go down into the dark and scary basement, but if we die, I’m blaming you!”

Not the best of examples, but I’m sure you get my drift.  It’s a great question to work into your internal editor.  And if you can't figure out your "but why"?  Well, you could "cover it up" and hope no one notices.  Not the best of choices.  Or you could "hold it up", have a character point out the problem and shine a glaring flashlight at it...
Oh, and there’s one “but why?” fix  you could get away with (probably) just once:  “I have no idea why….” the "gloss it over" trick.  After all, remember Casablanca?  

Signor Ferrari: "...why,  do not know.  Because it cannot possibly profit me, but..." 

Actor, Sydney Greenstreet's line is a classic example of a Plot Hole/ Motivation cover up.

But it’s better and more believable if your motivations are justified.  Do you have a favorite "but why" solution?  Share it below in the comments sections.

Don’t take for granted your readers know the unmentioned motivation or see the gaping hole in your plot, remember to ask yourself “but why?”