Yeah, working off of a laptop can be difficult sometimes. As far as the beginning stages go, the first thing you should do, after getting an idea for your story, is plan things out. Figure out what kind of people are going to be your main characters, the time era and place that the story will take place in, and what kind of conflict your story will have in it.

After figuring all of that out, I like to draw up a timeline of sorts, where I go through each of the important bullet points I want to hit in my story. (Example; Chapter #1; so and so meets whatshis face after his car breaks down and offers him a ride. Chapter #2; After driving around for a while, so and so realizes that they are being followed and tries to call the police, but can't get through. ect,). This will give you a skeleton of sorts to work with, so you can stay organized and keep your ideas close at hand. Plus, it's easier to go back and tweak the smaller things if you have a solid beginning, middle and end.

Only after all of this do I actually start writing my story up (And yes, I do suggest you get Microsoft Word, or some kind of writing program with a spell check included with it. They're lifesavers like you wouldn't believe...). One you have everything planned and the characters well formed, writing itself is actually the easy part, since basically all you have to do is add detail to your skeleton.

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"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves." -Albert Einstein