The other day I was browsing at Coding Horror, and read this post about ‘Fear of Writing’. I had never thought of writing as something I was afraid of. I write all the time, mostly email and memos and documents at work. But those are for (mostly) private consumption. Writing for a public audience always felt like it was something that took an enormous amount of effort to do well.

So I don’t do it. I don’t post here (much). I don’t write articles. I haven’t written a book. It’s not because I don’t think (operative word here: think) that I have something to say, but because I just don’t have the time/energy/whatever to do it. But afraid? Nah, not me.

But I think Jeff’s right: writing is hard, and I am afraid of that. I’m afraid of the work, and the commitment, and most of all, I’m afraid that in the end, if I work really hard and take a lot of time and struggle with it, and pour my heart into it, it won’t be very good after all. And what is that but fear?

Well, fear sucks. But what sucks even more is letting fear keep me from doing stuff that I want to do. I like to write; I just find contexts to do it where I have ready-made excuses if it’s not very good (email, IM, forum posts using some nebulous “screen name”, etc.). It doesn’t have to be me that drooled out that random dollop of illiterate trolling. It was just, you know, a quick note, or a post that wasn’t under my name or something. No commitment, no worries. Well, that’s a bunch of crap.

Some people are really good at ferreting out their personal fears and smashing them into bits, one by one. Others of us occasionally peek in the anxiety closet where we try to keep them hidden and see if maybe today they look a little less scary.

This is one fear, however, that I can’t tolerate any more. In the past week, I’ve serendipitously read several smart people who’ve all said the same thing about it: if you want to get more comfortable (and better at) writing, you have to do it regularly. Yeah. No shortcuts there.

So herewith, a warning: my goal for the next (mumble mumble) is going to be to write something frequently. That means that you, dear (and probably only) reader had better have a high tolerance for drivel or just move along now and find someone more interesting to read.

So don’t come whining to me if you find what I write about trivial, obscure, bizarre or downright alarming. I’ll just say you were warned. In writing.