Perhaps this will help.

____ approaches may prove fruitful for you.
1) Outlining - if you know the broad outline of what it is you want to say. Jot it down. SOMETIMES the effort of describing where you're going (or at least think you're going) is enough to get things started.
2) Editor - If you have a good editor (Not saying proofer here, but someone that asks you the hard questions so you can write the answers for the readers. Use the editor. Talk to him/her about what you're trying to do/where you're trying to go.
3) Write something else. Believe it or not, sometimes taking a step back, and writing something else is all it takes. The something else can be related - say something that happens 2-3 chapters later - or be totally unrelated.

One thing a lot of these have in common is that they cause you to take a step back from where you're blocked. A common problem - when blocked - is for the sub conscious to get in the way. You get a hic-up. The FCD (Sorry - I'll describe him in a minute) decides it's too hard, and won't let you get any further that, or he's decided your story should go a different direction.

FCD = File Clerk Dude... Basically he's a way to think about your sub conscious that is effective to some folks. Think of him as a teen boy (even for us girls - this works) and he's got a stack of playboy magazines sitting there and he's basically lazy and... Well, you get the picture. You're NOT going to get his attention short of a big chunk of wood up side the head. You may be able to figure out an analogous female FCD, but I've not been able to, nor has the girl that explained him to me (and before you ask, she was born female, and still is).

So, using the FCD concept to represent your sub conscious. When you're blocked, he's decided that the story's too hard or wrong they way you want to go. In order to get back to writing, you'll have to get him interested in your story again (instead of that stack of magazines). Thus, write something else. He may go "hey, you forgot about this." or write something further down the story line, you could get "Oh, that's interesting, how'd the story get there?" and poof the block's gone.

Of course, you could try meditating, and see if that lets you get in better contact.

Good Luck,
Anne

I ran into this idea, years ago when I was playing around with drawing cartoons and hit writers block, I knew what I wanted to show but I wasnt sure how to explain it. Then I began to realize that everything in life is not seen from a side view of two characters talking. So I changed my perspectives, I started with different angles. Like in movies I did top down shots, isometric angles, lower than eye level stuff, started wondering about how lighting would look, etc. My comics were different and I found new ways to show what I was trying to say.

Movies do this all the time. It might be the slow click of a wall clock, overempahsising the drag of time, adding the over the top boom of the hand moving, then cut away to kids running out of school or whatever scene the director wants to focus on. the point is to get the audience from knowing nothing to your scene without having to explain any background. Just draw them in with something simple and then switch them over to what you want to focus on.

You could do something similar with writing, by describing something that has nothing really to do with the scene but is in the background. Like the sound of an automatic pencils annoying clicking sound or the abundant number of non color-blind friendly posters, or an overly sexual car add on t.v. Something that maybe people see everyday, but never think about. Then roll it right into your scene and run from there.

This might also give you a different perspective on how you want to describe your scene or maybe on a more satisfactory way for you to describe something that is happening. If nothing else it will get you writing and thinking about how you are writing. This helps me to get started sometimes, usually its focused on a heel strapp cutting into my foot, or the sheer look of a sleeve or the way my wig keeps finding its way back into my eye. Any little thing that the main character might think about, that will draw the reader in, and hopefully my inner writer out.

Hope that helps,

Bridget