Many of us are comfortable singing in the shower, humming a song at the office, or doing karaoke with friends. Singing comes naturally—you want to sing—because the conditions make it so.

When you consider performing a song on stage, in front of an audience, the conditions change. It wouldn’t feel so natural to do that for most of us. Even if we did, we would want to practice and prepare before we performed.

Scribbling on scrap paper is easy because you were planning on throwing it out anyway. Scribbling on a new piece of blank paper can feel more intimidating.

One shortcut is to turn a new piece of paper into scrap, by putting a mark on it. 

The friendlier a surface is, the easier it is for you to express yourself.