Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why? These are, of course, the basic foundations of traditional journalism, but this isn’t about the news. Anytime you want to tell a story, you need to know the answers to these six questions. More importantly, at least two — better three — of them need to be interesting and engaging.

Consider: Who? A British Lord raised by apes. Where? Darkest Africa. Boom. Instantly engaging. The other questions may have fascinating answers, but we don’t need them. Those first two are all it takes.

Consider: Why? Because they can’t live openly and without fear in a hostile world. And how? Painfully, over the course of many years, culminating in tragedy. Angst. Conflict. Drama! Who and What are strictly secondary, and Where and When don’t really matter at all. The story works just as well with interracial construction workers in Boston as it does with gay cowboys in Wyoming. The four questions that aren’t Why and How are important, but they aren’t central.

Consider: Where and When? The future, inside a massive computer network that computers use to simulate reality to dupe all of humankind. Why? To throw off the machines’ oppressive yoke. In this case, the characters don’t really matter. Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and the Agents were all ciphers and stock characters. You might as well have called them Arthur Pendragon, Obi-Wan, Batgirl and The Ringwraiths. The kung-fu and metaphysical mumbo-jumbo are all just window-dressing that only function as a result of Where and When and Why.

Who and What? Characters. When and Where? Setting. Why and How? Conflict and resolution. Answer at least two of those questions — and make the answers good — and you can build the rest of your story around them.

PS: Tarzan, Brokeback Mountain and The Matrix, respectively. In case you were wondering.