Part of my issue with continuing to work with my writing group was a simple case of writer's block. I kept thinking about how I needed to amp up the action, make my middle-grade fiction more and more challenging. I could not figure out how to get my characters out of their latest fix by having them climb a taller mountain because I'd built the mountain so high.
Then I started talking to my kids, who both fall into the target audience, about what to do next. They didn't know exactly how to get my characters out of their fix, but they had a different perspective. Maybe I didn't have to have the characters climb the mountain so much as to tickle it. What if they didn't have to climb the mountain but to make it laugh? What I needed to do was to think like my audience to get my characters past the latest problem. I didn't need to make the characters harder, faster, meaner than they already are but remember that the story needs to remain fun for my audiences. I don't have to break the rules I already set to have fun with the story.
I haven't quite gotten the characters out of their latest fix, but I'm getting closer. And once I do, I can see momentum will start to build again. If I have fun again with my writing, so will my audience.
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