Beating Writer's Block · 9:49pm Feb 1st, 2014
Originally from this thread. The version you'll find here will be edited. Repeatedly. Until I die. 
Writer's block is when you're trying to work out how something's supposed to happen, but you're unable to. The reason you get writer's block (you are unsure about what to do next) is because you're not only failing to focus on things of vital presence (things that absolutely must be there), you're failing to realize that you aren't doing just that.
There's no way around it. You have to focus on the details.
Ex. Let's say that in your story, Twilight caught her boyfriend cheating on her. You're trying to think of how to write that scene out, but you're drawing a blank.
You have to be able to think about it as if you actually saw it. So plan all of that out in your head.
Imagine you have a board that represents an overview of what's taking place, or actually go and make one if that's easier for you. The characters are pieces on that board and the board is marked with a series of grid spaces. So, using a chess board for example, let's say that the bed occupies the spaces of D7, D6, E7, and E6. The boyfriend and the lover are on the bed, so they occupy at least two of those spaces (unless they're, for some reason, standing on the bed and are relatively close to each other). C2 is the door to the room. Twilight has to cross C2 in order to enter the room. That means she has to open the door. That means there's a chance that they could hear her open the door and be capable of momentarily throwing off her suspicion (assuming the other lover cares to help him hide it). So she opens the door, let's say that they're too into whatever it is they're doing to pay any attention. Twilight will see them. She has a direct line of sight. Whatever it is they're doing, she's walked in on it.
Now, she has to react. First comes taking in what she's seeing. When you look at something, you don't instantly decide what it is; you take in data first.
For the sake of not going ultra abstract on you, I'll try to keep this short.
She sees the inside of a room.
Inside that room, she notices an object; she recognizes this object as a bed.
She sees two objects on top of that bed, one brown one red; she recognizes both objects as animals; she recognizes both animals as ponies; she recognizes the brown one as her boyfriend. She does not recognize the red one. She recognizes the red pony as a female.
Using that data, she interprets the situation.
"My boyfriend is in this room, on the bed, with a red mare I know nothing about."
When there are questions surrounding things you're interested in (and we have to assume that she's interested in this guy and faithfulness), you want answers to them. If you can't find immediate answers, you speculate.
"Why is my boyfriend in this room, on the bed, with this red mare I know nothing about?"
To answer that question, generate all sorts of possibilities, but give priorities to the ones that cause fear or pleasure. Fear is an easy jump in this case.
Imagine a character's motivation is a game. It has a goal. It has rules they must abide by in order to achieve the goal, whether that means adhering to the constructs of the game or making sure their actions are completely in line with the conditions of the goal. Now also imagine that a person is always working towards all of their motivations and are alerted when they sense that any of them are threatened. This causes fear.
That being the case, it's no surprise that taking in this information inspires fear and causes her to speculate based on that fear.
"Is he cheating on me?!"
Walking into this scene touches Twilight's motivation of living a good, happy life with her boyfriend because Twilight has the understanding that a boy who is with one girl and goes to be with another in secret is either truly interested in the second or is using both. If she didn't have that understanding (ex. let's say she wasn't socialized, therefore extremely socially ignorant), her speculation wouldn't have taken her to that point and she wouldn't be experiencing fear (unless, of course, ANOTHER motivation was threatened). But because she possesses that understanding, she CAN reach that point and she WILL make that leap towards that outcome.
She'd react based upon that. I'm not saying this automatically means she'll start crying and freak out and talk about how they've spent 5 years living their lives together and they were gonna start a family and everything. I'm only saying that it means she will have to react, mentally and biologically, if something she cares about is being touched upon. Twilight could feign strength in this situation. Like "Hi, <boyfriend>." and set her bags down or whatever. "Who's your friend there?" "Was she worth it?" "Now get out. 
" However way she reacts, she'll react solely on the basis that this looks like cheating. For all she know, it might not be. Unless...... yanno, she saw parts going into places.. and.... 
Writing a story's like telling a good lie. You have to know enough about the details to lead the reader to where you want them to be. But at the same time, you have to know the details so you can even begin writing, otherwise.... writer's block.
There's a trick to determine if someone is lying about circumstances. You ask them to tell the story to you backwards. If they can do it quickly, chances are they're not lying. If they can't do it quickly, chances are greater that they are. If they do it very slowly or not at all, they're almost guaranteed to be lying. However, a liar could actually tell the story backwards quickly if they're practiced or have a strong focus on the details.
That's what you need.
Lemme know if this helps.
4/8/2014: Recently, I've found 3 extra things that seem to be able to help.
The first one is this video:
The second one is words of wisdom from FIMFiction user Fervidor:
Have you tried writing the scene you actually want to write first and worry about the transition later? There will always be parts that you just don't feel like writing or parts that don't seem to want to be written. That's tough, but if you get too hung up on them they will stall your progress. Sometimes you have the skip ahead and leave the hard parts for later. The important thing is to avoid getting stuck.
The third one is words of wisdom from FIMFiction user Calm Wind:
i have devised a personal strategy that destroys writers block for me before i even begin writing the story.
It's simpler than you'd think, make an outline.
Not just an outline detailing all the major points of the story, but include squished down transitions and how you think one thing will move into the next (in a sentence or less).
by keeping everything short and bullet point style you can brainstorm with shorter more concise ideas instead of trying to make everything connect as you are writing the big thing.
I'm not saying this method is fail-safe. It may not work for everyone but it sure has worked for me. Ever since i've started using this method i have never had writers block since.
Think of it as writing the entire story squished into two or three pages, so you know EXACTLY everything that is going to happen: events, twists, transitions, etc. Before you actually write the story.
It's done wonders for me
10-29-2014: Became aware of this blog post from the user LegionPothIX:
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/391253/my-cumulative-advice-for-writers
12-3-2014: Became aware of this thread post by the user RickyB.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/140819/regaining-the-desire-to-write#comment/3854670
He doesn't mention it, but I feel it's important to note. One major thing I've learned about lately that blocks people from writing is that they're trying to do way too much all at once. You want to write, so you go and write, but the problem is in addition to your writing, you're trying to make sure the content is perfect, set it in good grammatical order, construct the scenes on the spot, correcting mistakes in story and grammar, etc. That's too much for your brain to handle at one time unless you have a great deal of experience with handling each of those individual processes.
You might not immediately understand what I mean, or you might not have confidence in your ability to write. You might be thinking something like "I can't write". The funny thing is, in your simple expression of "I can't write", you'll probably have typed a huge post about why you can't write, which, ironically, proves that you can. Your problem is that there are things blocking you from putting words down. This is what makes you think you can't write. I'm gonna prove to you that you can.
Write a script for your story. Keep it simplified. Do NOT detail it greatly, this will drain your energy unnecessarily. Focus on capturing the scene.
Your script should look something like this:
Twilight Sparkle is angry with Pinkie Pie.
Twilight: Pinkie Pie, I just don't understand you. I seriously do not get what it is that would possess you to do something so unbelievably STUPID! *a bit of an angry tone*
Pinkie: *scared and apologetically* I'm sorry, Twilight! I just thought if the mare that came out of the cake tasted like the cake, it would've made the party better!
Twilight: I don't even want to look at you right now! You ruined my brother's homecoming event!*Twilight Sparkle storms out of the room*
<blahblahblah keep writing stuff that happens until we reach the end of the chapter, if you don't know what happens, come up with it later. If you have problems coming up with stuff, post here and lemme know>
After you've finished the script for the chapter, expand upon what you've written down. Unsimplify what you've simplified. Add reason. Add the details.
Twilight buried her hoof into her face.
"Pinkie Pie, I just don't get you," said Twilight, trying to contain her anger. "I know that you didn't mean any harm, but 'harm' is exactly what you've done here. I don't understand what it is that would possess you to do something so unbelievably stupid."
Pinkie Pie cringed, folding her ears back upon hearing Twilight's tone of voice. "I'm sorry, Twilight!" she said, desperately trying to appeal to her friend.
"I don't even want to see you right now," said Twilight, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Twilight, I'm sorry! I didn't mean for any of it to happen! Just lemme help, and I---"
"Get out!" snarled Twilight. "You ruined my brother's homecoming!"
Done writing it? Now you edit it. But first, for logical consistencies. Make sure that the scenes make sense, that you're giving the readers all the information they're going to need to interpret the scene the way(s) you want them to. After that, you can edit it for grammar.
6/12/2015: Saw this thread for writer's block.
Wow.
All these great ideas to help a story flow well.
YES THIS HELPED.
._. I friggin love you... DX BEST ADVICE ALL DAY!!!!
1784912
I should do this sort of thing more often! I had no idea ANYONE would care.
1785156 You don't mind if I add a quote from this to the Quotes section on my page, do you?
Because I kind of already did. And I did give you credit as the source.
But I can take it down if you'd like.
1786048
Use it as you like.
Hmm, this is a great way to look at things. Thanks, this is a push in the right direction for me. I also liked the little part about the reversing of the story, that's very interesting.
1876076
Glad I could help you out.
I think that writers block is simply lacking the motivation to keep writing a chapter.
2166883
I'm not so sure. I've lost motivation for writing literally as I've started up. The story I have out now is the easiest story I've ever written, and I experienced almost no writer's block at all. So there has to be reasons why it happens and a way to avoid triggering it.
2166907
For me, writers block is where you just can't dig that urge to write something up, not really just not knowing what to write next.
2166912
I don't know if this is what you get, but when I get writer's block, I feel like... I'm trying to walk, but there's a giant invisible wall blocking my path. I keep walking the direction of the wall and get nowhere. Knowing that whatever action I take leads me right back to this invisible wall drains away my emotional stamina and eventually kills all of my motivation for the time being and I have to stop. But there are certain things I can do to alter how much of my stamina is being drained.
The interesting thing though? Most of us probably don't realize it, but it takes almost NO energy to construct messages like these and send them to others. We're thinking about how to send a good message to others -- at least I assume we are, that's what I do -- and even though we're editing it constantly right before we send it, it's okay this way because we already knew what we were going to be trying to express.
Just those words up there above this line alone is 172 words. I've struggled hard to get down as few as 300 words in a story within a single day, concentrating most of my energy towards it. And yet, I've created 172+ words out of nowhere. I wouldn't even be sending this to you if you hadn't replied. I'm adding even more words right now.
Why is this so easy to do and yet writing is so hard? If constructing sentences were the problem, then when you get writer's block, you probably wouldn't want to talk to anyone online either. But I argue that it has nothing to do with constructing sentences and everything to do with describing the story and what's going on in it. Similarly, if you saw a series of events take place first hand, describing your view isn't as hard as if you're just making up the story.
2167010
Yeah, I see what you mean. I kinda get the same way sometimes. For me it's kinda like, "I want to, and my fans want me to, but just why should I?" You see what I mean? I'll even sit down at my computer with ideas and preferences in mind, and then I'll just stand up and walk out of the room, just because I don't feel like it's a necessity.
It's much easier thin chats like this though just because it's much more... active, so to speak. As in you have another mind with you, not just your own trying to jot down some stuff...
2167111
And I want to try taking that to writing.
2167567
If only I could.
2167623
It might be possible. Give the old "writing garbage" technique a try.
2167737
That's... A thought. Still not too motivated though...
2167845
Gotta get in a decent enough mood first.
2167866
Heh heh heh, yeah.
The video actually helped... A nice surprise indeed...
Thank you
2659197
Welcome!