Like most writers who are yet to finish a first draft (pause for heavy, disappointed sigh) I am constantly flirting with different ideas, totally unable to commit to one, and forever procrastinating on all of them.

I spent a lot of time saying that I didn't know why this was - maybe I just had too many good ideas? Maybe it's just the way my brain works? Maybe I'm secretly a genius and, like my fellow genius (heavy sarcasm) Leonardo Da Vinci, simply need several outlets to keep my genius contained?

Well. I sincerely doubt that.

And, I know exactly why I've managed to start and tinker with several manuscripts without ever finishing one:

Fear. 

Fear is what's holding me back. It may sound silly - what am I afraid of, after all? A blank page?
Well, actually, yes.
Writing is so very close to my heart, and, like all writers, I desperately want to succeed. In a weird backwards twisty way though, it's this desire to succeed that is preventing me from doing just that. I am too scared to get something wrong.
I am too scared of the hard work necessary to make a novel work.
I am too scared of choosing the wrong idea.

In short, I am scared of failure.

This surprised me at first because I have never been someone afraid to make a fool of myself. I eagerly get into sports despite having no hand-eye coordination whatsoever, and have no problem getting on the dancefloor with a 0% blood-alcohol level despite having the rythmn and grace of a hippopotamus with a leg missing.