In reply to Removed User:
I thought it might be helpful to tell you my exact working methods. It may not work for you, but hopefully it'll give you encouragement. For me, there is no such thing as 'writer's block'. If you have a good enough idea the creative side will not be so difficult - though always very hard work. You will only have problems if the basic story idea/premise is not really good enough. That is by far the most difficult thing about writing: getting the premise. The whole thing should be expressible in about 20-25 words i.e. what you would say to a publisher when you say you've had this great idea ... you have to be able to express the whole thing in a nutshell like that, or it's pretty much a non-starter. Never start the really hard graft on a story if the basic idea is really not good enough. I say this from experience, because on at least three occasions I've done just that.
So, to carry on from my last post: you have your idea and your characters, and then you block out the plot. This is just a guideline - it doesn't matter if the initial synopsis is very different from the final story, but you have to have compartments in which to hang your ideas. These compartments are 'scenes' (not necessarily chapters - a chapter can consist of one or many scenes). You then build up notes for each scene. What each character does, and why. Alternative things they could do. Things they might say. In the months you'll be doing this you'll be having ideas from all over the story, which you'll scribble down and then park in the appropriate box. There will be lots of ideas that don't fit into any particular scene. I call those STPs ('still to place') - not all them them will necessarily end up in the book by any means. All the time the story will be developing and changing.
You've got to be very confident that it's in a very advanced stage in your head and in your notes before you start the first draft. Because the key to writing well is all about flow. You don't want to be doing ANY ground work while you're writing a scene. I print out all my notes for a scene, now arranged in rough chronological order, before I write each scene. I then try to write it exactly as if I were telling someone the story out loud, with no interruptions. Tip: if you have trouble expressing exactly what you want to say in the best possible way do what I do: just write it crudely and put it in wobbly brackets to be expressed better later. But you must keep going, must keep up that flow and rhythm.
When you've written the draft of each scene, print it out and take it right away from your computer and office. Read it in a chair or lying on your bed or whatever. Scribble alterations and corrections all over it. Go back to computer, and correct it. Now print it out again. This time read it out loud, making a note of anywhere you stumble (means more work has to be done). Correct it again on the computer. Print out again and repeat. Make a few final corrections. And then move on to the next scene. First doing an hour or two of preparatory work, then writing it, as described above. Typically it's about a scene a day. A big scene will take several, even many days.
If the book/ screenplay falls into 3 or 4 main acts, I find I will go back to the beginning of each act when I've finished it and read it through and revise it. This then makes it a less rough draft.
When you get to the final full stop of the last chapter it's a great moment, the greatest moment in the book. But it's still only a first draft. Ideally you will then leave the project for weeks or even months, so that you can then come back to it with fresh eyes. This is the stage you will also give it to one or two close friends and professionals who are not close friends (e.g an agent, if you have one) to read and criticise.
Based on their comments and your re-evaluations you will then do a very drastic edit of the rough draft. It now becomes a First Draft.
Now you will be reading it again and again, polishing and tightening it. Until you have a Second Draft. Now at last it's ready for copy-editing, correcting typos, grammatical errors etc etc.
When that's done the Second Draft becomes the First Manuscript.
You may still be getting feedback in which case, very typically, you will have a First Revised Manuscript. Now it's ready for typesetting ...