Today's NaBloPoMo question is, "How do you feel about starting new projects?"

I always feel excited and optimistic about starting new projects.  If they involve going out into the world in some way, then there is always a strong element of nervousness that goes along with it.  I have conflicting elements within my personality - anxiety beforehand, seemingly comfortable socialising during, wondering what people thought of me afterwards.  It's very tiresome :)

It's also a little stronger given my greater hermitlike habits in recent years.  But I think I'm actually okay with that.  I like being a crab.

But the beginning of a new project is always fresh, and I'm excited about what I'm going to learn (unless it's starting something I'm very unconfident about, like clay classes, where I feel people are looking at me, and then I fall into a highly-sensitive heap.  But then I start a writing subject at uni this year, in comparison, and while I'm like a duck with its legs scrabbling underwater, it all looks pretty serene on top, and I participate well in class discussions.  In fact, you would probably never know that there was any scrabbling going on underneath the surface.  And that, I suppose, is a good thing.  Even though I feel like I'm cheating in some way.

Sheesh, if there's not a problem, I'll just make one up :)

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That's all for me today.  I have a book from the library that I've been waiting on for a while called Spaces in Her Day: Australian Women's Diaries from the 1920s and 30s that I'm definitely looking forward to getting my teeth into.  I have an idea for a short story that I may or may not end up writing, but the main character lives in 1920s Australia.  And what the hell do I know about that?  I'm hoping that maybe I will discover her "voice" through reading those of others.  So the book and the fireside calleth.  See ya later, blogosphere.