The Hurrieder I go, the Behinder I get

Bill, I have a very hard time starting new scenes/chapters. I'll usually mope around endlessly trying to figure out how to write something, which is depressing and makes things worse. What works best for me is just to start writing notes in my Word document of the parts I think will be in the scene, then turn those into sentences, and eventually paragraphs. When my notes/sentences/paragraphs get too long to keep onscreen and in my head, I print them for easy reference. Scrolling up and down in Word doesn't work for me during the sausage-making period. I also move stuff around and delete garbage. What remains eventually turns into a scene. For my WIP, I got burned by not taking enough time to write chapter outlines, which is really just organized notes & sentences in a separate file. I've almost finished a detailed outline for my next scene, which I'll then use as the basis for the process I described above. It's a good thing my father was a sausage maker.

Pick a point in the story you want to write (any point) and start making notes or writing sentences & paragraphs. If you get stuck, go to another part of the story and do it again. I once wrote half a memoir's worth of material just by the seat of my pants before trying to organize it (because I had no clue what I was doing). However, it gave me enough material to do an actual outline of a story, which I turned into a sometimes funny but irreverent space opera. I decided it needs a major rewrite to rip out the irreverent parts, but it's salvageable. It's collecting dust while I try to write a Catholic-friendly story based on my Connor short story that you read some time ago. I just entered the latter in a Writer's Digest contest (my first). I thank you and others here for encouraging me to turn it into book form.

All hail the bratwurst!
Dirk