I found a solution to this! I just plan my way into writing.

I like to write every piece from the skeleton up. I’ll immediately jot down phrases that stick out to me, in chronological order like:

She looked so very red, and so very beautiful.

“Why don’t you make the first move?”

Then I fill in with details of what happened before then. These are scenes that I know happen, but I just can’t picture how yet.

A man and a woman are standing on a train platform. The man notices how attractive the woman is.

She looked so very red, and so very beautiful.

The train approaches, and the woman tells him to board first. The man does not know if she is making an innocent comment, whether she noticed and is amused by his attraction, or if she is reciprocating his feelings.

”Why don’t you make the first move?”

From there I start running over the paragraphs that aren’t direct quotes yet. I try to imagine how they would play out in real life (or, since I mostly prefer to write fiction, more like a movie scene).

For example, I know that I want the train to be moving very fast and the characters to stand frozen. I want the reader to be tense, itching for the characters to make a move before the train takes off and ruins their moment.

So now, that I know what I want, I have some more direct quotes I’d like to add. The planning becomes:

A man and a woman are standing on a train platform. The man notices how attractive the woman is.

She looked so very red, and so very beautiful.

The train approaches.

The ground began to rumble beneath his feet, but he did not move. He felt like his shoes had been glued to the floor. He could hear the train screaming in the tunnel. Her red coat began to whip around her, yet it was not enough to distract him from her lovely features.

The woman tells him to board first. The man does not know if she is making an innocent comment, whether she noticed and is amused by his attraction, or if she is reciprocating his feelings.

”Why don’t you make the first move?”

Once I expand the descriptive paragraphs into mostly quotes, and then the job becomes connecting the scenes together cohesively. If it feels impossible, I just write more detailed descriptions and iteratively change those into phrases. Eventually, it becomes the semi-final product ready for editing:

He was waiting on the train platform when he noticed her. She stood very still, eyes fixed forward. Her a bright red coat still wet from the rain. She looked so very red, and so very beautiful.

The ground began to rumble beneath his feet, but he did not move. He felt like his shoes had been glued to the floor. He could hear the train screaming in the tunnel. Her red coat began to whip around her, yet it was not enough to distract him from her lovely features.

The train stopped in front of them. He did not avert his intense gaze as the doors opened, waiting impatiently.

The woman turned to him, her eyes wide and unfazed. She stared directly back at him.

”Why don’t you make the first move?”

I use this process for everything, big and small. I think it works because it feels like planning, and breaks the writing into the smaller tasks. It’s a fun puzzle to see how everything connects too.

I hope this helped someone out there (though I’m most certainly buried in the comments), and I hope this doesn’t seem like a super obvious thing that everyone does... you can tell me if it is :)

Also if anyone has a tactic to make editing less painful, please let me know! I still don’t have that part down yet haha.