Ahhhh. You know, I think there are kinda two different parts to that question -- one is "why do I write whump?" (or h/c, my preferred term) and the other is "why do I prefer whump?", and the answers are not necessarily the same. In giving my own answers, I've usually tended to take part 1 as the easy part -- "I write it because I enjoy it, duh" -- and then spend all my time analyzing the second part: what do I get out of h/c that I don't get out of something like romance?

I think some of my confusion with your answer is because the reasons why you'd given for writing it are my reasons for writing almost anything -- to explore the character and peek under their hood, as it were. "I write h/c because it lets me explore the character's emotions" doesn't quite seem like the same thing as "H/c is my preferred way of exploring a character's emotions" to me -- at least, it was getting me confused.

But I'm much less confused now. *g*

(And we're watching NCIS now, and WOW, is Gibbs totally the "Sheppard" of that show, or what. Talking about stoic, unflappable characters... He's definitely got the whole "stoic team leader, really cares deep down" thing ... he makes Sheppard look downright in touch with his emotions! I haven't started poking around for fic yet because we're only in the middle of the second season and I fear spoilers, but I definitely suspect that this will be a show I'll be seeking out h/c for.)