Henry that sounds pretty similiar to my approach from about a year ago. i still quite often start with a texture or pad for atmosphere and work from there. iāve got something for you to try and feel free to ignore me lol, i barely know what iām doing, but this helped me finish more tracks.
i start gathering sounds that fit in session view (kick/bass, basic open hat, pad, a few chords, and a couple of floating percussion sounds) until iāve got what would amount to about 75% of what i needm basically everything but fills and random perc hits, all of the colour stuff. then i switch to arrangement view and start recording chronologically. that gives me the skeleton arrangement, then i can add more sounds based off the arrangement, add variety to the midi patterns and fx, and i mix as i go. once iām done that, group tracks, eq, sidechain and iām done. iām also pretty ruthless about deleting stuff that doesnāt work. even if i like a sound, if it doesnāt fit the atmosphere and feel of the track i want, i just cut it and hit save immediately so i canāt rethink it.
i find it way faster to get the idea down, so iām not sick of it before itās arranged. i donāt know if thatāll help get you over the finishing hump, but give it a shot on two or three tracks and see if it clicks for you, it did for me. once you get used to finishing everything, it just becomes part of your process and itās almost strange not to finish an idea.
