Writer's Block

I've been struggling with a certain scene in one of the books I'm currently working on, for quite some time now. It got so bad I had to skip the whole chapter and move on so it wouldn't stop the flow of the rest of the book. So a few nights ago it suddenly came to me, like a light from above, exactly what I had to do to make the chapter work. With some major reworking of the scene, I was soon off and running again. There is nothing like overcoming writer's block to make your whole life seem just a little brighter. I've never been able to understand why ideas can flow so easily one week, and the next, my mind is a veritable creative drought. Thankfully, the rains always seem to come eventually if I just let the scene simmer on the back burner long enough. What makes this miraculous transformation happen? I have no clue. Is it karma? Those vitamin supplements I've been taking? Or does God finally take pity on me and give me a little push in the right direction? Possibly a combination of all of the above.

I recently read an article about writer's block. They asked a bunch of writer's to list the things they do to get over their blocks. Eating hoards of chocolate, dancing around the living room, and taking long naps were all methods listed. For me, when writer's block strikes and I start to feel myself panicking, I skip the whole scene and start writing at some other point in the book that sounds more exciting to me. Or I temporarily jump to another story completely. It is not uncommon for me to be working on two or three stories simultaneously at any given time. My manuscripts in progress often resemble streets ridden with potholes. (Or should I say--plot holes.) Whole chapters can be missing in action for months (or in extreme cases, years) on end. This is one of the reasons I won't let people read my manuscripts until they are completely finished.

So how about you writer's out there in Blogland? When writer's block strikes, what do you do? I'd love to know.