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I remember that for at least a year after I learned to drive, I was always at least a little bit scared when I got on a freeway. But after a couple years of driving, I would merge and zip along with no more worries than I felt lounging on my sofa, as long as nothing went wrong.
(Like yesterday, when a simple non-freeway drive home included one driver anticipating the light turning green and nearly colliding perpendicularly to me as I proceeded through the yellow light, and then another driver doing the exact same thing when I had the right of way and they attempted to drive across the road despite not having any light at all. What the hell, people?)
And yet, though I have been writing seriously for many more years than I have been driving, every time I start something new or move into a new phase of something already started, like going from outline to script, or the first rewrite, or even just at random, I stare at the blank screen with the exact same amount of absolute terror that I presumably felt the first time I ever got the idea of writing professionally, and then sat down to write. (I don't recall that first time, but I'm sure I was just as neurotic then as I am now.)
(Like yesterday, when a simple non-freeway drive home included one driver anticipating the light turning green and nearly colliding perpendicularly to me as I proceeded through the yellow light, and then another driver doing the exact same thing when I had the right of way and they attempted to drive across the road despite not having any light at all. What the hell, people?)
And yet, though I have been writing seriously for many more years than I have been driving, every time I start something new or move into a new phase of something already started, like going from outline to script, or the first rewrite, or even just at random, I stare at the blank screen with the exact same amount of absolute terror that I presumably felt the first time I ever got the idea of writing professionally, and then sat down to write. (I don't recall that first time, but I'm sure I was just as neurotic then as I am now.)