A chore
You know I've thought about why I stopped writing. At least in some of my fandoms, I had to contribute a certain amount of fiction or artwork to maintain my persona. The fun started to wear off when I started thinking about deadlines. It didn't help that the groups went "real time", limiting stories to current stories, rather than the backdated "how it all started" type stories that I loved writing. To me, my character's past histories were always far more interesting than their current adventures. My characters always had a background, preferably a plausible one. Suddenly the stories that were flowing out of me like water were taking longer to come out. Writing became a chore, something to complete an assignment or a duty.
So that explains it for some fandoms. But what about others where I have no such pressures? I don't have anyone telling me "Write it down, darn you" or a certain editor/enabler's infamous "I have this image". Those four words would send me shrieking into the night, because they usually followed with bunnies... lots of backdated bunnies. Online I don't have that encouragement quite honestly. If I do, it's one person and one fandom. Online reaction is swift and immediate, yes, but it's usually limited to "I liked it" or "Cute story".
As I explained once, I don't need ideas. I have plenty of bunnies and wabbits and mopsies to go around, thank you very much. What I'd like to know isn't what starts the idea but what forces me to come back to that idea until it's finished? What is that impetus, that adrenaline surge, that makes me sit in front of computer or pad of paper until the thing is actually posted on a mailing list or published in a zine?
If I could find that Holy Grail, I'll bottle it as "Eau d' Auteur" and sell it in the dealer's room at Media West Con. And give it as gifts to my fannish friends who grumble about not being able to write.