Are you ever afraid to write?

There are times that I am afraid to write. I think this is because I may be unsure of what I'm setting out to do; usually for a class assignment. The insecurity of not completely understanding what I'm supposed to be proving or how I can effectively persuade readers can be frightening. I feel most vulnerable when I write because I'm sharing my thoughts and the reader is criticizing how I write and quite possibly basing their view of my intelligence on that particular piece of writing. One written work can hold so much power and I don't ever want to write something meaningless that is just a waste of time for the reader and I. I always to teach myself and the reader with my writing and the thought that I might fail to do that could be really overwhelming.

Also, there are times when I may be talking about something uncomfortable or new to me and I find this intimidating. Last week for my oral communications class I wrote a motivational speech about being gay and my experience with revealing that truth to my family. I have never written freely about my sexuality for a class assignment nonetheless stood up and read those feelings to a whole classroom. When I stood up to present, that moment of fear finally sank in and I was nervous to share this writing. It was mainly because I have never been in that situation and I was sharing things that are really important to me. Opening myself up for the class to critique was really terrifying yet gratifying in the end.