Hardest Part to overcome

I'm a planner/outliner. I don't generally start writing until I know the main challenges I'm going to put my character through. I know the end before I start. As a software engineer, I tend to design first, write second. That's not to say things don't change -- I don't plan every last utterance or event. Sometimes as I'm writing, characters take off on their own, say things unexpected or I write myself into a corner. Those problems I find more interesting than frustrating though.

The hardest part for me is planning the story and designing enough conflict to keep things interesting.

I would probably do more of that, but I work for a medium-sized company that's pretty fond of process. If implementation is a big departure from the design, we are required to update the designs. QA writes their test plans based on the design docs.

I used to just sit down and type random scenes that seemed to fit. Bad idea. Then I became more selective, but I still refused to outline.
These days I outline my plot roughly, and jot down key scenes, ideas, snatches of dialogue, and perhaps a few sentences that might make good endings. I also try to write down a lot of info on the worlds I build, so that I can insert little points of realism to brighten the story/imagery.

So I've grown and will probably continue to do so. Just yesterday I experimented with cletic knot plotting, as suggested by Uncle Jim. Perhaps one day I will settle on a fixed way of preparing to write.

Whatever works...

For myself, the hardest part of writing a manuscript is actually getting from inspiration to first draft.

I've found that if I write vignettes, just off the top of my head; then proceed to write a first draft based on the vignettes put into a good proper order in an outline; I have a much better time getting a first draft actually done these days.

Everybody's different though, I'm sure.

I'm like azbikergirl but more so: I'm a very detailed planner. The opening poses technical problems only (e.g. how to get just enough information to make the reader care about the media res conflict). The end is dead easy. The middle, however, is hard work, because i'm not an intuative pacer.

I'm envious of all you planners. My tendency is to start a project without enough story to finish it, and get bogged down somewhere in the middle. Then I start to revise, thinking I'll be inspired along the way. But working on my unfinished draft convinces me that I'm not good enough, which leads to much dejection and self-pity, and I abandon the project.

After a few months, I start something new, swearing that this time will be different.

So I can relate to your dilemma, Wormo.

MTF