Laini and Megg have started a new weekly challenge called Sunday Scribblings with the intention of providing “inspiration and motivation for anyone who enjoys writing and would like a weekly challenge.” Although the site is worth looking at for Laini’s art alone, I do like the idea of a weekly prompt. So here goes …

I have a whole list of things that I’d like to accomplish, and I made the list with the intention of actually attempting them one day. Someday I will bake and decorate a wedding cake, for example, but it won’t be for anyone’s wedding because of the very real possibility that it would be a failure. Or ugly, at the very least.

So what would I attempt if I knew I would not fail?

I’d like to try to write a novel. Not a serious attempt at getting published. Just a lark to say “I’ve written a novel. It’s sitting there in my desk. Would you like to see it?” I had every intention of participating in NaNoWriMo last year, but then we had a vacation in mid-November and my plans slipped away. I don’t know why the spectre of failing to finish it should stop me from starting. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe I just feel a little bit silly entertaining the thought that I could have enough original material in my head to fill a whole book.

I would like to fly a plane. Failing on that front would have dire consequences, though, so chances are I will never be brave enough to try it. But if I knew I would not fail (and if I had the time and the money), I would sign up for flying lessons.

If I knew I would not fail, I would open a bakery. But first I would go to cooking school and learn the secrets of the pastry chef. This dream, too, falls victim to time and money even before fear of failure.

Had I time and money, though, I wonder whether fear of failure would stop me from attempting these things. I know that I have Rockford’s full support in whatever I do, and there’s always a lot of comfort found in that. But I have a whopping self-doubt that might overrule that. It would be nice to find out one day.