Thankfully you aren't doing broadcast, so your readers can't tell that you stammer. Years ago, I did a story for Valentine's Day in which I assigned myself the challenge of asking for the phone number of 100 women in one week. It was a humiliating experience of course, but once you have been rejected enough times, you get a little numb to it, and after a while, realizing that death does not befall you simply because you have been embarrassed can be liberating. If you think this is a real problem - challenge yourself to talk to a ton of strangers in a short amount of time. Make up a fake survey to go out to the mall with - and tell yourself you have to talk to a certain amount of strangers before going home. By person 68, you should give zero fucks about whether the person is friendly or not. It might help. I had a guitarist friend who was intensely shy, but he had written these great songs and he wanted to perform them for people. As a way of combating this shyness, he would introduce himself by a fake name and speak with a slightly different voice. He explained to me, that he felt like he could make a fool of himself, if he told himself that he wasn't making a fool out of Monty, but rather making a fool out of a fictional character he was playing named Jimmy. You could try using another name for your byline - and offering a name that is not your own to people you do phone interviews with, might in fact, put you more at ease... Because if you ask a dumb question, then the person you interviewed will be thinking about what a crap reporter this John Smith guy is - not thinking about you yourself as being a bad reporter. I hope this helped.