A good friend won't lie to you. They'll give you an honest answer. Nicely, of course. You can depend on them to let you know when you have a spot of dinner on your face, or if your dress doesn't look that good on you, or whatever else you need an honest opinion for. They give you a chance to fix what is wrong with you, so you can put your best foot forward.
Writer's block can be like that friend. Maybe you've been writing along and the story has been unfolding nicely, and then suddenly you just don't know what to write next. The story dries up, and you find yourself stuck. Then maybe you try a few writing exercises, or a few other tricks to get the juices flowing again, but nothing seems to help. You're stuck, and you can't make any further progress on your story.
When this happens to me, I take it as a sign that the story has taken a wrong turn somewhere. Every time you have your character say or do something, you make a decision. Everything that happens in the story after that is a consequence of that action. Sort of like life. But unlike life, you can back up and have the character do or say something else. And then that changes the story.
So maybe your story has reached a dead end. The action isn't interesting anymore, or maybe it doesn't make sense. Or maybe if you keep going in that direction, you won't be able to reach that nice resolution you were hoping for by the time you got to the end of your story. So, like a good friend, writer's block pops up, letting you know it's time to turn around and re-find your direction.
What I usually do when that happens is back up to where the trouble seems to have begun. Usually for me it's a few pages back. A couple of days work. Oh well. Then I think of what else the character could have said or done. The possibilities are endless. I pick one and see if that gets the story going again. Usually it does, but if not, I can always try something else.
And that is why, even though it's kind of hard, because it isn't always easy when our friend has had to share a hard truth with us, but that is why I kind of thank my friend, writer's block. For helping me find a more interesting story.
I think we tend to run into blocks no matter what creative endeavors we participate in. I would love to hear what sort of creative things you like to do, and what you do when you run into a block.