Terrifying. ( source ) Apparently it needs to be said: if you're going to write about teenagers and from the teenaged point of view, you should like them. And I'm not just talking about the ones who are like you were, or like the conception of yourself at that age you've carried all these years. You should like them as a group . You should enjoy their conversation and their ways of relating to the world. You should be interested in their points of view. You should allow them to enjoy the things they enjoy without mocking them for enjoying them. (You should also not approach them from the perspective of a peer. You're not.) I'm not speaking as a writer, because I feel that as an unpublished one I don't have much credibility in terms of marketing. But I am going to speak as a reader, and as a librarian who's been working her way through a whole lot of Young Adult series and standalone books over the past semester, so that I can do reader advisory.
Jacqueline Krane's Blog. For a sample chapter of my Fantasy novel Subversion, click here.