It's so hard to start writing

I've noticed lately that I'm having a hard time writing. Specifically, I have a hard time starting to write.

There are a number of writing projects that I'd like to start. The short and feature-length screenplays, of course, plus the compilation of advice columns, even the daily desire to write about relatively unimportant things in my blog, and I just can't get started. Naturally, I'm searching for answers.

My suspicion is that I'm worried that what I will write isn't very good. As a published author of technical non-fiction (seven years later, that still seems too bizarre to say out loud), you'd think I would at least have some level of confidence that I can put together words to form a sentence. I think there are different concerns for different kinds of writing. For blogging stuff, I just think that no one wants to read about the mundane bullshit I want to write about. That's counter to my assertion that I don't write for an audience. For the compilation project, I worry that I can't make it cohesive.

The screenplay issues are more complex. The first one I wrote, eight years ago, was rooted in a gimmick and populated with aspects of my own life. When I look back at it, I'm not proud of it because those aspects were among those that I disliked the most, some bordering on pathetic. I got a lot of good feedback about structure and what not, having submitted it to a contest, but it just feels gross. Where this eventually leads me is to a desire to write something that is truly fiction, and wow is that hard.

In any case, I've been bitching about stuff like this for years. I need to write and just go with it. If it sucks, it sucks. I can always iterate on it, the way I do when writing software. It's never perfect up front, and perfection isn't something you can reach anyway.