The scariest moment is always just before you start.

Stephen King offers this line as practical encouragement about beginning creative work, especially writing. It is commonly attributed to his memoir-craft book on the writing life, where King reflects on habits, discipline, and the psychological resistance that precedes sitting down to work. In that setting, the remark functions less as a dramatic aphorism than as a piece of working advice from a prolific professional: anxiety and dread peak at the threshold, before the first sentence or first step, and diminish once the task is underway. The quote has since circulated widely as a general motivational maxim beyond writing.

The quote identifies anticipatory fear—what happens in imagination before action—as the most intense part of many challenges. “Just before you start” is the moment when uncertainty is maximal: you have not yet gathered evidence that you can do the thing, and the mind fills the gap with worst-case scenarios. King’s point is pragmatic rather than heroic: starting is a psychological lever. Once you begin, the problem becomes concrete and manageable, and momentum replaces rumination. The line also implies a discipline ethic: courage is not the absence of fear but the decision to move through the threshold anyway.