We knew this was coming

In an awkward position now where I've come up with kind of a cool paper topic, but am not expert enough in it to get writing. What the most serious problem is that I'm having organizational issues, which are deadly. I've got a few pieces that are somehow related, but how do I relate them in the context of the paper? Which flows into which? There's still some holes in my research that I need to fill before I write certain sections, but the thing is that I'm hypothesizing that certain things will turn out to be true... like that one scientist who predicted the existence of those elements... Mendeleev? Or did he just tell the elements where to go? In columns and in rows? So there's stuff that I'm expecting to share as information, I just have no proof just yet that it's true.

As always, I'm having difficulty finding a place to has this all out. My notebook is great for brainstorming, but I'm past the time where that's efficient. I can write short sections like intros and conclusions in there, but otherwise it's easy to lose form and write things that I then have to re-imagine before actually using them in a paper. Word engenders formality, because then I'm thinking that I need to be writing things that can be easily cut and pasted into a paper. So I think I'll try to start here with my thoughts. And see where they go. At least I want to solidify a course before midnight. That is when crunch time will truly begin.