I’m sure you do, it was recently? I don’t know, I thought it was. Anywho, knowing your why and knowing your characters why is incredibly helpful and important to the writing process.
It’s all about staying curious.
When you stop asking questions the story will die.
Why isn’t the only question but it is the most important.

I hear from a lot of people who get to around about chapter five of their story and it flounders, motivation vanishes, they are lost.
Often I get asked why that happens.
My answer is, “Ask yourself that question.” (Helpful.)
It could be a few reasons.
1. You overestimated the story and it’s not actually a novel length work. (Is the plot not big enough to sustain a novel?)
2. You stopped asking why. (Curiosity is necessary to the process.)
3. Your story and characters aren’t meshing. (Might be time to switch the characters.)
4. The POV you’ve chosen isn’t the correct one for the story. (Try a different POV.)
5. The main character isn’t the person who should be front and centre of the story. (You might like your MC but they may not be the right person for the job.)
6. Weak plot. (Be honest with yourself and take a hard look at the plot.)
7. Weak characters. (Beef them up. Make sure they’re well-rounded.)
8. Are you really a pantser? (An outline might fix everything!)

Okay, so there are a few reasons why people falter when writing and lose interest. (I know this because I’ve asked adult students why and come up with ways to fix the problem.)
The thing is, it’s all fixable. Curiosity can ignite again.
One of things that will help a writer see the problem and fix it is doing a backwards outline of the story so far. Bullet points are usually enough to highlight where it started to turn to custard.
Try writing a quick bio of the characters, then tweak them to spice them up. If you don’t want to hang out with them no one else will.
Get over the thought that re-writing is failure. It isn’t. It’s part of the process. This is especially true for new writers the only time you can fail is if you give up.

Stay curious.

FYI: I’m scheduled to teach crime writing in term 1 and 3 of 2025. So if you would benefit from an in person class keep an eye out for the CEC program for 2025. (It helps if you’re in the Wellington Region, NZ.)