I just published my second horror novel, BLOCKS OF COLOR. :)
From the Amazon page:
n a small town of Farr's Field, everything is in question, and no one is above suspicion. Mayor Craig Goodhue knows something about what's going on behind the scenes, and slowly the pieces are unraveled to reveal the bizarre, horrifying truth. This bloody, stark, yet empathetic novel will transport readers to the troubled town in Southern Idaho, a town that is not so unlike their own...
Hearkening back to the heyday of horror fiction in the 80's and 90's, Allred's book is an homage to the greats: John Farris, Steven King, Ramsey Campbell, and Peter Straub. This daring book has no qualms with taking you to the strange places in life, the unseen, the twisted. Any fan of excellent, descriptive, mind-bending horror fiction will find themselves snugly at home in BLOCKS OF COLOR.
Related Article: "Shitty First Drafts", excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anna Lamott.
TLDR; You should read it since it's pretty short, but it's just saying all writers have a shitty first draft. First drafts aren't made to be perfect, they're made to be messes of ideas, disorganized and riddled with errors. You just vomit your ideas onto paper. Then with the following drafts, you polish things up, add and subtract, organize your ideas. You need to start somewhere or you'll never start at all.
You can definitely start anywhere. If I might make a suggestion for reading, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, here's the excerpt I think you'll like (it's short don't worry). It's about just writing the shitty first draft. Don't overthink things, just write. If you don't have any ideas for the intro or, at least, well formed ideas, just write [insert intro here] or a complete stream of consciousness nonsense. Then, once you everything you want to down, revisit it. Start draft 2.
A couple of websites I've seen linked to before on this topic:
Simply Noise. Plays white noise/static to help drown out other distractions.
Rainy Mood. Plays the sound of rain with the same goal. Can be quite relaxing too. Also available as an app.
I mainly just use Libre Office for years and it's just in general a solid word processor.
Other thing I suggest to people is Hemingway. It's an editor that points out adverb use, passive voice, sentence complexity, etc. Even if writing that way isn't your style, (it's not mine, if I'm honest) I find it useful to have it all pointed out to you. Helps you see how you like to go about things.
1 Year To A Writing Life is full of 10-15 minute exercises and is really well-written and to-the-point. :)