Vox Felicitas III — The Why Rule
On last week’s episode of Vox Felicitas, I talked about one method I was given by my dear old man about coping with depression, known as the Good I.E.D (I will reiterate once more that nobody was exploded during the writing of that blog post). For those of you who recall, I made a mention of how I came to realise what the Good I.E.D meant while I was writing my first proper novel. In case it wasn’t apparent by now, I enjoy creative writing. A lot. Possibly a bit too much for my own good, but that’s a story for another time.
For now, I want to share with you one of the other tactics I use when writing down a story. I call it The Why Rule, and it should serve as a useful detour from the past two topics of depression.
Every creative writer worth his and/or her salt has heard of Chekhov’s Gun. That being said though, there has been at least one instance where someone has walked up to an author and asked, “What does Chekov (i.e. the character from Star Trek) have to do with writing?”. That author promptly explained through gritted teeth that (Anton) Chekhov’s Gun originates from the axiom, “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired”. Every element of a story must hold a wider significance — from Carlson’s Luger pistol in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to the guest appearance of Captain America’s signature shield in Iron Man 2.
This can be refined further into a Why Rule, a mechanic designed to solidify one’s worldbuilding. Going back to the examples of Chekhov’s Gun already given in paragraph number one, you’ve got the Luger that Carlson owns. Well, why does he own a Luger specifically? Because gun ownership is a core aspect of American culture, but more importantly because the Luger is a German-made weapon, with Nazi Germany being a contemporary demon-figure for Americans. Add to the character Carlson being the one who puts down Candy’s old dog and whose gun eventually does the same to Lennie, and one of the book’s most important themes is revealed to the reader: the question of freedom. Simply by querying why the Luger, you establish the importance of firearms to Steinbeck’s world, confirm its brutal ruthlessness toward the weak and incapable, and you have the framework for a minor antagonist to boot.
Hence the Why Rule can be summarised in a single seven-word sentence. Literally everything has a why backing it. Nothing ever exists for no reason; just look at the real world. Why did the French overthrow the king? Why did Hannibal cross the Alps? Why did Brexit cause such chaos in British politics before it was overtaken by the coronavirus as the hot topic of the year? To say nothing of the myriad events, characters and backstories thereof in fictional universes. Why did the Empire build the Death Star? Why is Joffrey Baratheon such a nasty piece of work? And so on and so forth ad nauseam.
If as a creative writer you ever find yourself stuck on a worldbuilding matter, simply take a step back and ask yourself: Why? Why does this happen? That is to say, take a moment to consider the wider importance of each element of your story and what it’s there for. How you do this is completely up to you. You can write it down on a piece of paper if you have to. You can draw a spider diagram with your concept at the centre, with all your ideas branching off of each other to formulate new ones.
Before long you’ll have created an entirely unique society, complete with a complex government, long history, detailed culture and a plentiful bounty of characters, just by asking, “Why does my main character work as a bin man?”. Or you’ll go the other way while watching a movie and wonder to yourself, “Why did they build a Death Star when they could have just built thousands of Star Destroyers at a fraction of the cost?!”. (By reading this article you agree to absolve the writer of any responsibility for movie disappointment that may ensue.)
Follow the Why Rule, and there’s no doubt you’ll be able to use it to handcraft excellent worlds for your fiction. Take time to perfect it. Question everything! Yes, even this article. Why was this article written? To help you and anyone else become better writers of entertaining fiction.
Hopefully this week’s edition of Vox Felicitas has proven to be a useful distraction from all the usual unpleasantries of life, as it was, is and always will be intended towards. Thank you for reading, be sure to applaud if you liked the story, and I will see you all again next week.
~ Harry