Making readers wonder is a good thing—unless they have no clue why your characters are acting as they do, or your world makes no sense.
It’s easy to think plotting is all about the what—after all, the plot is what happens to your characters. But while the what is important to how the story unfolds, the why is what’s driving that story to unfold in the first place. What without why is just action with any motivation.
A strong plot will combine both the what and the why.
A weak novel often has characters who are acting only because plot says they need to—there’s no plausible reason for them to behave that way. And worse, none of their actions have consequences that force them to act again so the whole GMC plot cycle can continue. Your scenes get stuck and you aren’t sure why, they feel flat and it’s hard not to skim, and you probably have a nagging feeling the scene isn’t doing enough. You know what happens, but not why.
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