I hung onto this ask for like a week because I was living it lol, having been stuck on a scene myself and ashamed of it. I think I see a way out though, so I’m better able to talk about it now.

When I get stuck on a scene it’s generally because there’s some resistance or difficulty. If the scene is truly pointless and uninteresting it should be cut, but I can get stuck on even an interesting and crucial scene–sometimes because it is so interesting and crucial and I don’t want to get it wrong. Sometimes the nature of the block is emotional; I stalled on a fic for months because a major character was going to die in the upcoming chapter. When I finally did write it I was a crying mess and frequently got up from the keyboard to pace furiously around the house, comforting myself. (This was a character I had partly modeled on my husband, too. I have a bad habit of painfully and graphically killing characters I base on him.)

Sometimes a block is mental, as in I’m not clear what should happen in a scene and that makes me resistant to writing it. This happens to me a lot with battles involving a large number of people, I’ve found, and it contributed to my block in the above example too. I am currently blocked for over a week in one such scene where there are three factions and at least five different agendas involved. While I haven’t made progress in writing it, I did write out in my notes how some of the characters might respond and how the story might go. The scene feels less daunting now as a result.

From my experience, in sum, it’s helpful to work out what exactly the block is and then find a way to break it down. Making it more specific is the first step.