The Joy of Creativity
I love bringing my fictional Fairy Kingdom to life by filling in details of what life is like here - how the villages are organized, system of government, nicking of ideas from Earth including fairyvision (which has its Fairy News Network programmes). I like bringing my characters to life and successfully getting into their heads and knowing how and why they'd react to situations. I like seeing when I've got conflicts successfully sorted out - the type of conflict that means I really do have a story on my hands. Story is all about conflict after all. Who gets their way in the story you write?
Paying Back
I owe a huge debt to my mother for teaching me to read early and to my father for getting me The Reader's Digest of Fairy Tales (both volumes). I still have these books though the spines are well taped up. As a result, I've had a life long love of fairytales and part of the reason I write (other than because I just must) is to give back in some way to the great canon of stories out there something that is unique to me and adds to that canon, a kind of literary legacy for future readers and writers. By adding to the canon, you ensure it can't die out.
Meeting a Challenge Head On
I feel at the end of a piece of work that I've got the challenge of getting the raw story down. The next challenge, of course, is to edit that piece so it is "worthy" to go out there. Getting work out there and accepted in print or online is another huge challenge to have a go at head on though I do bear in mind the slogan "you've got to be in in to win it". It's a good spur to keep going when all you do seem to get are yet more rejection slips.