I’ve been thinking a bit recently about my reasons for writing stories, and realised it can’t ever be pinned down because each story has its own reason for me writing it.
Some stories are about exploring a mood, some stem from learning something really cool* and wanting to share it with others, and some just need to be written. Like the 12k-ish word story currently residing in my computer’s memory under the name “Kevin” (during drafting I generally name my files after one of more of the main characters). That was a classic woke up with an idea and had to write it out so it would leave me alone. I wrote it in about 36 hours, give or take an hour or so, and haven’t touched it since. Haven’t really wanted or needed to look at it, to be honest. Will I in the future? No idea. I’ve got a few tweaks, additions, and improvements in mind if I ever do but for now? I have no real interest in exploring those characters any more than I did during that initial highly-focused draft, and I don’t really feel any compulsion to share their story with the world either.
Garston and Huw from my WW2 story, on the other hand? I really want the world to meet them, and their families, and share their story. So I’d better get back to it, hadn’t I, even if it is currently at the stage of feeling like amateur dentistry would be less painful…
*Bearing in mind “really cool” usually means “really geekily interesting” like, for example, everything I learned about the Short Sunderland flying boats…