I run into this problem a lot. I have a basic story in my head, and I'm working on the first draft. I have written about three quarters of the story, but I'm stuck on a part where I just don't know what happens next, or how to segway into the next portion of the story.

Once I'm past the next couple scenes I have a really good idea how the story is going to finish, but this small part is becoming a real problem.

I do however try to get something in there, regardless of how vague.
For example, "*bob* has an epiphany!" which later I can work from the point of view, what caused it, and then a cause and effect is created and scenes develop.

I just put place markers in - @@@@@ - and they may signifiy anything from a couple of missing sentences, to a missing scene, to multiple chapters. Write the bits that excite and interest you as you feel in the mood for them (there are times when dialogue just pours out of me but I can't write a line of description worth a damn, and vice versa). Then shove them together and work out what the gaps are and how to fill them in. It means a lot of work on revising to make sure you're not repeating yourself (I've lost count of the number of times I've been rewriting a scene, and thought of a wonderful phrase to enhance the mood, only to discover it's already there, just a bit further on), and that the plot still makes sense and the beats f the story are right and so forth. But I honestly find it liberating, and the sense of achievement when you're whittling down those @@@@@ markers from dozens to twenty to single figures... it's a real buzz.

When I face these spots, I try to focus on the goal, first. What do I need to happen. Then I try to brainstorm as many ideas as I can. After that, I rework them for plausibility and creativity.

See Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card.

And this from Uncle Orson's Writing Class:

quote:

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Story ideas [Dakota inserts: including scene/chapter idea] are happening around you all the time. But the storyteller has to look at events and scenes with a questioning mind. Why did this happen? Why else might it happen? What could be the result of this? What else? Things are this way now; how else might they be? What if this changed? What if that?

Without those questions (all of them about causation, by the way), there would be no stories; the scientist and historian and journalist generally try to come up with stories that fit the fact; the fiction writer alters the facts to fit the story that "feels right."

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This same kind of causal questioning can help figure out what to do with those jammed up spots. You just keep asking yourself questions until you come up with a plausible solution--one that works for you.

Just like many other professions, writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. In my mind, the story is there waiting for you to find it, rather than invent it. And causal questioning gets you to look in all the dark little cobbwebby corners for it. The stuff that comes easy is the stuff that's sitting around on the sofa with the lights on. But many times it's the stuff in the dark recesses that's the best.