The Writing Life – Why?

There are important and dangerous questions that a writer asks every day.
The first is the well-known question that starts every story, no matter who the writer, no matter what the genre. That is: What if…?
But after you’ve formulated the what if, you’re left with the bigger, more complicated question, the one that’s going to dog you throughout the book, haunt every page, crop up in every paragraph: Why?
Why is this happening? Why are these people behaving this way? And if you’re an SF writer, why IS the sky pink?
And you can never, ever answer why not? Because the second you do that, you’ve left a loose thread, and somebody, maybe your editor, maybe your reader, is going to pick at it, and the whole thing is going to unravel, just a little bit. But if you take the time, and endure the slog of constantly answering that question (motherhood is great training for this), your story is stronger for it.
Let me give you an example of how the question of why works in the writing process, and how it can make the story stronger. I’m not going to use one of my own stories, however. Since it’s the season, I’m going to apply it to the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.

Pretty much everybody knows the story; Hard working George Bailey falls into deep despair because of the machinations of the evil banker Mr. Potter and is visited by an angel who shows him how much worse the world would be without him.
During the story, George marries a woman who had a crush on him since childhood; Mary Hatch (later Mary Bailey). Mary Bailey is the epitome of the loyal wife; sticks with him through thick and thin, supports all his efforts, and on the last night, when George is out consorting with angels, Mary rallies the neighbors to raise the money to save the business.
Why? Why would this woman stick with this moody, morose, overworked man? Why was she so in love with that old house, so determined to make things work in a hard-nosed practical fashion (she’s also the one, you’ll remember, who holds up the cash to save the building and loan during the 1929 collapse)?
George makes impassioned speeches and suffers the angst. Mary comes up with the cash.
Why?
How about this: In the movie, we see Mary’s mother, but not her father. Mary’s mother is after her to marry the rich and rapidly climbing Sam Wainright. Okay, what if Mrs. Hatch married an up and comer? A glamorous, promising young man? What if they moved into the Granville House, where they lived high, gave lavish dinners and were generally the toast of the town.
Then came one of the banking collapses of the late 1800s, or perhaps it was a business swindle. Fortunes collapse, the money’s gone, the house must be sold. Mrs. Hatch does not bear up well. She falls into helplessness and vapors. Her father tries one scheme after another to rebuild his fortune, none of which work. In the end, he kills himself, and because it is suicide the life insurance company will not pay up.
Mary, as a result, grows up fast. She is taught by her mother about the utter necessity of keeping up appearances, of the primacy of looks and beauty, because Mrs. Hatch intends Mary to marry well, and thus lift her/them back up to the level of fortune she once enjoyed. But she also nurses her mother through her frequent nervous attacks, helps them keep one step ahead of their creditors, and manages the house because her mother can’t, or won’t. And she watches the grand old house where she just barely remembers being happy fall further and further into disrepair.
To Mary, growing up with instability and secrets, George seems to have an ideal family life with a hard-working father, a steady mother and a cheerful brother. George is a dreamer, but he’s a hard worker, and he’s stable, all the things missing in her own family life. She dreams about that kind of life, and in the end, she rebells against her mother’s insistance that she marry for money and marries for love, and sets out to prove herself above her family history by meeting any and every problem head on, because she has seen nothing can be gained from drama and avoidance.
That’s why.