The Big Why

The essentials of a good story are who, what, where, when and why. The who is your character(s), the what is the plot, the where / when your setting, and the why is by some distance the most important aspect. This is because the why is not only your character’s guiding motive (wanting to escape a marriage / planet, say, or commit / investigate a murder) and their psychology (the unique thinking that has brought them to this crucial juncture), but the reason you’re telling the story.
 As a species in general, but especially as readers, we are obsessed with why. That’s probably because, as a species, we’ve successfully answered the questions of who we are, and what we are, our where and when. The why, however, will likely remain unanswerable.
 But even if the implicit promise of some ultimate revelation is the most important element of storytelling, a good story is the Buddhist principle of pratītyasamutpāda in action. Pratītyasamutpāda is the principle of dependent arising, or dependent co-arising, where all phenomena – physical, mental, psychological – arise in dependence on multiple causes and conditions. Nothing, the principle tells us, exists on its own or forever; everything is related and interlinked with everything else.
 Most stories foreground character; good writers understand that character and plot are essentially a Möbius strip; the setting goes a long way to defining a character, either because she belongs there or because she finds herself in opposition to the world around her (or both); and the why – the character’s motivation, and that of the author – will shape the character, the plot and the setting.
 That sounds like a lot to juggle all at once. The good news is that you don’t need to know the why starting out. As often as not, the whole point of your writing the story is to discover the why.