Sometimes I struggle to get it out of head and onto page.

amen sister.. Preach.. ... Me too, sometimes me acting out the scenes helps. I try to just do it, you know, get the words on the page and then polish it. If you get stuck on how you want it to be your mind will stick too. In other words to much time thinking about it will leave it in your mind forever and it will never get on the page.
Try starting out with a scene you know you want to happen in the story and fill-in/build from that seen

Andy out

I start writing - many times the first sentence gets rewritten a dozen or more times; sometimes it's the beginning paragraph. But at some point, it sticks. It's right. And then the rest just comes. So I think that's the key - it doesn't have to come out right with the first try. But not writing means it won't come out at all.

I have a very clear imagination. I can see what is happening in almost cinematic detail.

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Wow! What a gift for a writer!

Perhaps it is the sheer richness of the image, you not knowing where to start putting it into words. Images being non-verbal perhaps using another non-verbal aspect could point the way - emotions.

If you examined the image and noticed what part/aspect invokes the most emotional reaction. That could be the place to start.

Anninyn said:

I have a very clear imagination. I can see what is happening in almost cinematic detail. But sometimes I struggle to get that image onto the page. Not just in the most effective manner, but at all. It's like I don't know where to start with it.

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That is my problem too. I want it exactly as I see it. But I can't and I guess that is what really frustrates me.

So I force myself to get it out (turning off that OCD voice in my head that screams at me) and then hope to perfect it in numerous drafts later on.

And some people wish to have a good imagination...

Try talking it out. No voice recorder. Just you, your brain and a nice back yard or lovely (safe) walk in a park or woods. (Take a big ugly dog on a leash, the kind that eats people.)

Seriously, I used to do this at a beach near my summer house. I'd take no pad of paper, nothing. Just me, the sand, the water, and my stalled brain. What do I want to say, I'd ask myself. How can I say it. Where are the words. Why am I stuck.

It would eventually come and I'd get unstuck, rush home and write.

I have the same problem. Never with beginnings. Beginnings are full of promise, mystery, excitement- everything I love. But the middle. Man, is the middle hard to put on paper.
I feel like I know exactly how I want everything to play out, I just don't know how to put pen to paper.
So I really don't have any advice. I'm not even sure how I got where I am in my novel when I have this problem so much xD

I have the same problem. I can picture scenes so clearly and then get stuck when it comes to transferring them into words. Movements are the hardest. I can 'see' facial expressions and the way a character moves, but I'm at a loss as to how to write it. I just force it out and try to fix it up later with edits.

Anninyn said:

This is more a whine than anything, though advice is always welcome.

I have a very clear imagination. I can see what is happening in almost cinematic detail. But sometimes I struggle to get that image onto the page. Not just in the most effective manner, but at all. It's like I don't know where to start with it.

I have this Haunted House short I'm trying to write, and while I have a crystal clear image of the house and I know exactly what happens inside it, it's just not getting on the page.

It's frustrating.

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What is the first thing that happens inside it? Maybe start with what the character is doing or experiencing and go from there.

Either that or being with the roof outside, work your way down, then describe the inside starting with the front door. Then copy paste into your story in a way that fits with the characters' actions?

I can visualize things like that as well but I'm still working on boosting the 'literary' quality of descriptors.

Anninyn said:

Yeah, that's what I'm ending up doing. With the Haunted hosue story I'm just shoving it onto the page even if it doesn;t necessarily work or fit with how I see it, and fixing it up later.

It's so frustrating that what I end up with never matches up with what's in my mind. The gap between my skill as a writer and the rich and fertile worlds of my imagination is a chasm.

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I'm working on that as well and what I'm trying is to read authors who are really good at writing that way, so I get into that 'mode' as it were.

Oddly enough, I find screenplays good to read for that, since concision is crucial. Point Break and The Crow were both very good. http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Point-Break.html

Yeah, it sucks sometimes, and I think that's exactly what makes writing so hard. I think it's really cool that you can imagine things really clearly, but can see how that can make it difficult to describe. Maybe try focusing on some other sense?

I have a fuzzier sense of story. It's almost like I live through the story through emotions. My challenge is that I know what effect I want the words to have, what emotion I want them to evoke, but can't get the right words in the right order. Feels like playing around with mushy clay or something.

The greatest challenge of writing is getting those images in your head onto the page in a way that allows other people to vision those things in their own heads. I applaud the courage on your part of admitting that you have difficulty with it (that in itself is a hard thing to do!).

Like others have said, my advice is to just keep writing. Write what you can, write what comes first to you. Put it away for a little while, think further about the scene. Go back to your work and add more, fix what doesn't feel right. Keep doing this until you get something you like. Good writing rarely happens on the first try. Editing and revising are just as important.