You have your writer block, which is the 'I want to write but I can't, not anything at all, brain not go' and that's usually not related to writing. That's usually stress. I can't help you there, I'm bad at stress management.
Then you have the writing block, which is the 'I'm stuck on this particular story and can't seem to keep going' and that, that is a writing problem.
And I can help. Kind of. If you're also a discovery writer what doesn't make outlines so much as a series of connected notes you may or may not use.
Because the problem is often with what's already been written. Whether the story had a plan and is deviating, and you're left wondering where it's going, or something happened (or didn't) earlier on in the story that's ruining where it wants to go now.
Read the last line, does it fit? No? Delete it.
Did that help, can you continue?
No?
Okay, now look at the last scene, does it fit? No? Would it fit somewhere else? No? Put it in a separate doc and keep going like it's been deleted(sometimes we write out of sequence without realizing it and scenes that don't work might later).
Sometimes what doesn't fit is a chapter, a character, a plotpoint. You read over the whole thing and you think of what is needed to get where you're at, if all of it is satisfying that plot, if all of it is interesting, if it's speaking to the drive of the characters or story of world. If it matters to where you're stuck. If it doesn't, get rid of it. You can save it somewhere else and maybe fit it in later but right now it is stopping you from continuing so it goes.
Sometimes you need more world-building, or to know your characters a little better. I suggest grabbing your favorite note taking device and asking some questions, they don't need to be used in the manuscript but they'll help you write it.
I've never been able to do the [placeholder text] thing. Not ever. I need to know what it is right now and I will be stuck until I do. If I don't know what's supposed to happen next I go back to the beginning and read it all over to figure it out. If I don't know what an area looks like I start asking questions and looking for art as close to related as I can, or listening to music, or something to help shake up the noggin.
I've removed chapters, characters, entire plotlines because they didn't fit where the story needed to go. It took years to figure out exactly how I wanted to describe the forests of the Weald and Wen and parts of it changed dramatically from its original incarnation and all the outline-adjacent world-building I did for it. I also have way more than will ever be in the books.
You have to be willing to remove things, change things, radically alter your story until it is the one demanding you write it.
If you're blocked it's often because something needs to change. Maybe you know what it is and don't want to do it, but it needs it or the story can't continue.
This yammer brought to you by; I got to the romance too fast and have to go back and stretch the horror and discovery and reconciliation so this bit feels more earned. I cannot continue because I don't feel I've earned these scenes yet.
