Wrestling with Transitions

Transitions.  How do I hate thee?  Let me count the ways.  The first would be that I’ve just spent a half an hour struggling with a chapter opening and still haven’t found anything that works to my satisfaction.  Ordinarily, this is the point where I would decide to march past this section and attack it another day, but I’m trying to fix issues before sending this project onto another other writers for feedback.  I remember feeling quite relieved to know that I’m not the only author who struggles with moving my characters through time and space.  But I know that one famous English writer (Thomas Hardy?) complained to a friend that he was having the worst time moving a character from the front steps down to the gate.