What helped me get started was drawing designs on a white board and on an oversized paper art tablet (cheap newsprint, or any fairly large scrap paper . If you try to confine yourself to 8.5 X11, you aren't going to have much freedom to spread out.
Next thing i did was make about 3 practice sandwich mats about 20x20, solid on top so I could see my stitches.
Ugly fabric on the back. Open toe foot, barely resting on the fabric do you can move fabric easily around. Long stitch length . Write your name in cursive over and over . Try meandering. Feathers. Bubbles. The alphabet. Simple shapes. Just don't worry about anything. Let yourself go and know that this is just practice. Let yourself be a kindergartener . Muscle memory takes time, like playing the piano or a sport or anything new. I practice on those ugly sandwiches before every quilt I attempt to FMQ. I'm still far from good at it, but I'm no longer afraid. It's truly fun . Oh, yes, wear garden gloves (rubber palms) to grip the fabric. I was frustrated by all the slipping until I did that.