This recently came up as a question on my GoodReads author page and it’s something that’s worth addressing.
There are days when you sit down to write and the words just won’t come. No matter how hard you try you can’t squeeze even a sentence onto the page. Some days may be so awful that you don’t even bother to sit down and try to write.
Many people call this writer’s block, others call it procrastination, some say it’s resistance. Whatever name you want to call it, there are three key reasons why this happens and how you can tackle it:
1 What you’re writing isn’t interesting
What you’re writing should always be interesting to you; if it isn’t, then change it. If you’re bored while writing it, your reader is likely to nod off, or cast the book or short story aside never to be read again. And that’s the last thing you want. Look back at the scene or story or blog post you’re writing and ask yourself ‘Why is this interesting? Why must it be read?’. Once you have that answer you can begin to bring life to your work.
2 The task seems too big
We’ve all been there at the start of a new project and it seems like an impassable mountain. There seems to be so much to do and you have no idea where to start. The key here is to break it down into smaller tasks – remember the old saying ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time’. So if you’re starting a novel, take it one scene at a time, or one chapter at a time. Plan the novel in as much detail as you need so that you always know where you’re going next. If it’s a shorter piece, set yourself a word count (just 500 words in that session) or a time limit (you’re going to write for 10 minutes). That way 
you know when the task will start and finish and that puts it into perspective.
3 You’re not sure what you want to say.
This one can be tough. I found recently that I was holding back from writing a scene while editing my second book. I’d decided that one of my characters was going to find out some dirt about one of the other characters. The problem was that I didn’t know what the dirt was, and the more I tried to think about it, the more stuck I got. So, the simplest way round it was to go and do something else. I know this isn’t always practical, but I went and made a cake. Then I lay on the sofa and almost nodded off. Then the idea came to me. Normally I would do this before the writing session starts, almost like warm up stretches before going for a run. Then, once you sit down, the words will begin to flow.
We all know that life, and writing time, is too short to waste and every session must count. So think about the personal blocks you tend to come up against and prepare a way around them.
That way, every time you sit down at your laptop or notebook you’ll always be ready to go.