I'm going to go against my better judgement and offer you some advice, on a post that's probably more about venting or maybe fishing for action, than actually looking for guidance.
If you're not a 100 ball runner, most runs are strung together, rather than put together. What I mean by that is that runs in the 30s-40-s or will become more frequent if you just shoot series of simple shots, rather than making big, elaborate plans on how to run out. Shoot the shots that are there, and take advantage when you unexpectedly get perfect position on problem balls. Planning the whole rack ahead of time is just a pipe dream for 99% of all pool players. Planning should be reduced to the simplest possible things, like maybe leaving a breakball on the side of the rack. Even that may be too difficult for some players, who will find themselves shooting non ideal breakshots most of time. It's ok though. Getting the balls down is the important part. The other things will come gradually.
Just make sure you pocket the simple shots. Clear up an area at a time and keep your cueball from moving too much. If you have a problem cluster, don't do what is commonly offered as advice: "try to go into them as early as possible". That will usually lead to getting stuck and/or missing the shot, because the player is desperate to make it happen. That sort of thing should be saved for later, when you're more proficient.
Instead, shoot simple shots and see if you get an opportunity through luck or maybe planning to make a simple shot and break them up at the same time. If it's too difficult, just pocket all the open shots, play a safe and let your opponent deal with the problem. This is competition advice, in practise you should try the fancy shots. It's always a balancing act, when you should try to break up a cluster, just err on the side of caution. Still, just focusing on shooting easy shots will let you beat people you have no business beating, especially in shorter distances. It can be very frustrating to play players like this, and it can sometimes throw good players off their games. Even a run of 20-30 balls can put a lot of pressure on someone in a race to 50 or 75, especially when the guy doesn't leave anything to shoot at. If the guy your'e playing is a pro, then forget it, but against more reasonably (un)skilled players, it can be a recipe for success.