I'm insanely shy too and making my locked Twitter was actually what gave me the guts to make my FA account!

A nice thing about locked Twitters is you can really pick and choose who follows it, because each one has to be accepted or declined. I find it a lot less stressful cuz I can custom tailor the best environment for me. Don't be afraid of the block button if you do make one!

No need to even keep using it if it ends up not for you, it's really easy to delete a Twitter!

The locked twitters I follow mainly seem to use it to personally curate their following experiences. Who can see and interact with their posts, rather than using it to talk bad behind someone else's back!
It does kind of defeat the purpose of having an account to interact with people - since the only people who can even *see* your interactions are those who are already following you, or your likes/retweets appear to be "ghost" ones, ie the poster can't see them!
Totally good if you want to keep it just for you, but not quite the best if you wanna reach out ^ v^

So then other users couldn't see your comments or likes you left for them at all when the account is private?

If they are not following you, correct!

So, if we have a locked account - "husky" for ease - and an unlocked account - "goat" - that are NOT following one another, and husky likes goat's post - goat can see that there is a like, but has no way to know the account that liked it - aka a "ghost like". same with comments/replies! goat could see that there was some kind of interaction because the number of likes/replies would go up, but wouldn't be able to see the account or content of the reply.
Now, if husky is following goat, the same thing happens. (I think I might be able to see a locked account that is following me like my posts, but I can't see any of their content or replies.)

If, however, goat is following husky, or both are mutuals, now goat can see all of husky's replies, likes, etc!

This also happens on other accounts - a locked account I follow interacts with several other locked accounts, for example, and I can only see the replies and interactions of the one I follow! Like seeing half a conversation. Hopefully this helps?

Yeah, do it! I've had good luck keeping my Twitter feed pretty drama free. I feel like one of the keys to that is don't follow everyone just because they followed you. Check them out and look through their feed, see if they tend to talk about stuff you want to hear about. If someone's feed is mostly retweets with little original content, I avoid that too. Go for quality not quantity!

Feral art is super common on Twitter, it's rare to see anyone get uppity about it anymore. Feral/Anthro content occasionally attracts a bit of drama. Don't be afraid to block people, no one is owed access to you or your content.

There's way more of a community thing happening on Twitter, it's much more of a social space. Do it. :3

I say yes to this idea!!!!
You should get a Twitter so I can follow there as well.