"i hate writing, why do i keep doing it"

I wrote to someone in an email, recently. A fellow writer, of course, because fellow writers Get It. Writing is terrible! Plotting is the worst, dialogue is the worst, characterization is the worst, and don't let me get into editing. Editing is The Actual Worst. I'm ignoring two stories that I've finished drafting because I just don't want to edit them. I'd rather write.

There's something fun that about that first draft. I love the discovery. Even when I have something more or less outlined (either on paper or in my head), there's always an element of surprise. I'm not sure non-writers get this. You're the writer; shouldn't you know what's going to happen next? But I frequently don't. I know how it begins, and I have some vague sense of what's going to happen in the middle, and I know how it's going to end. But all that in-between stuff? No clue.

Which is to say, I'm writing this blog entry instead of working on this story because I don't know what's supposed to happen in the story. I should probably figure that out.