Writing is Terrifying

There is a saying from my grandfather's little village in Czechoslovakia; "Once begun, half done." This is especially true of writing, at least in my experience, for one simple reason. Writing is scary. Sure, you're thinking 'hey, I've been writing all my life! I'm not scared of it!' True, you wont be afraid of writing like you would be of a bear or the Eye of Sauron, but there is an intensely terrifying feeling about sitting there with an entire book before you. You know there will be edits, but every word is there to be judged and every keystrike or penstroke is a little bit more of yourself spilling onto the page.
I approached my most recent book with a great deal of apprehension for I had not yet finished a project I had embarked upon, but I felt I had an interesting plot and a strong set of characters. I was feeling so excited about my idea that when it came to writing it I was afraid it would not live up to my expectations. I know of many writers who put off writing important scenes because they are afraid of them... but why?

I ask the question 'why?' a lot; it's part of being a mopey, pseudo-intellectual student hell-bent on finding answers for things that have either been answered or are unanswerable, but it is an important question to ask nonetheless. Kids know this intuitively, even though having them constantly posing the same question would be mind-numbingly intolerable, at least you can say that they're being academic... but I digress.
It is important to understand why you are afraid to know if it is worthwhile pursuing this line of action. For example; if you were afraid of swimming in shark infested waters and you asked why? and the answer was that it was likely you would die, fair enough. If you were afraid of going to the aquarium because the look of sharks scare you, then consider why and what you miss through this fear.
I was afraid to start because I knew it would be a heavy time commitment (because I like to do things speedily) when I had a heavy semester before me. I was afraid to start in case it was terrible and I learnt I did not have what it took to be a writer. I was afraid of working so hard and having no-one read it. But most of all I was afraid that I was pouring my soul into something... almost like falling in love. It was only natural that in my first chapters a romance sprung to life in the pages, for it mirrored my experience with writing.
Like any relationship it was exciting at first, with the added tension that we didn't know each other that well or know where it was going. Some of my stories fizzled out, some of them ran into difficulties, but I was ready to commit and I put the time into my relationship with this story and found it responded in kind. Eventually our relationship had moved past the honeymoon and sometimes it felt like a hard slog, but there was always the pleasure of spending time writing. Now I've finished and preparing to send it to editors, like asking her father for permission to marry.

This was a long-winded metaphor but this is the reason starting to write a novel is scary; its like asking a girl out on the first date. She may be crazy but she may just be the love of your life.