It does take courage to start stitching! It helped me to take my finger and trace the path I was planning on for each pass -especially the first one! - gets you in the rhythm and gets the stitching path firmed up in my head.
The other thing that helped was to have some vinyl (tablecloth-type) - just a little narrower than your quilting area - wrap the edge in painter's tape so you know where the edges are, and then practice / audition your pattern on the vinyl. I had hoped that washable markers would mark on the vinyl, but that didn't work very well - dry-erase markers worked better. That painter's tape is to keep you on the vinyl and not on your quilt
Have fun!