Most writers are familiar with the six journalistic questions. The first four are who, what, when, and where. Every writer, whether they write fiction or nonfiction, needs to answer these questions in every story or book.

As a practical matter, writers almost always do answer them without even thinking about it. If you’re writing fiction about a young woman who dreams of becoming a professional golfer you’ve answered who (young woman) does what (dreams of playing pro golf) where (on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour) and when (in the future, obviously.)

(It’s also important to ask why, and one of my other articles for Readers’ Favorite addresses that point.)

But there’s one more question that needs to be asked and answered, and that’s how. Asking how will give your story, whether fiction or nonfiction, additional depth, and interest.

As an example in fiction, let’s use the scenario above about the young woman who wants to become a professional golfer. Asking how will give your readers more insight into her plans. How does she plan to achieve her dream? How many years does she think it will take? How does she plan to make a living while working at reaching her goal? In fiction, your imagination can run wild. Maybe she’s a talented baker who will sell custom-made cakes to support herself until she succeeds at pro golf.

For nonfiction, let’s take a typical news story— a pedestrian is struck by a car. Of course, the writer will ask who, what, when, and where. Good writers will also ask why this incident occurred. Did the pedestrian step in front of the vehicle? Or did the driver run a stop sign? Was the driver texting while driving? All those details may help avoid similar tragedies.

But we must also ask several how questions. Some of those are: How badly was the victim hurt? How long will it take him to recover? How much damage did the car receive? How do police and city planners propose to reduce similar incidents? How did family members of the injured person react to the event? Do they blame the driver? Or maybe they admit it was the injured man’s fault, which adds a new dimension to the story.

These are the kinds of details that interest readers. But even if you’re not a journalist, try adding how questions to your stories, whether fiction or nonfiction. Let’s say you’re writing a story about a cruise you took, or you’re including a passage about a cruise in a novel. Of course, you’ll tell your readers who you went with, what ship you sailed, when you went, and where the itinerary took you. But tell your readers why you took the cruise and, to our point in this article, some how questions. How well did you sleep on the ship? How was the food? How were you affected by the different cultures you experienced?

You’ll add a level of insight we can’t get if we merely address who, what, when, and where, or even why. How questions add details, and it’s details that will make readers interested in your story.