I'm a quarter of the way through my YA novel in my Shapechanger Tales series, The Once-Dead Girl. This is still a first draft, but I write fairly complete scenes in the first pass. Then I go back and add, subtract, and change where necessary, then give the Ms a final polish.
My lady friend astonished me by offering to read it - or at least skim it! Had lots of good things to say about it, plus some minor corrections and suggestions. But she had one major criticism. It went something like this.
"When I was a girl I was always crushing on this boy or that. That's missing here and it made it hard for me to identify with her." (My main character is a 16-17 year old girl.)
I recall something similar from the male side of things from my teen years.
My lady friend astonished me by offering to read it - or at least skim it! Had lots of good things to say about it, plus some minor corrections and suggestions. But she had one major criticism. It went something like this.
"When I was a girl I was always crushing on this boy or that. That's missing here and it made it hard for me to identify with her." (My main character is a 16-17 year old girl.)
I recall something similar from the male side of things from my teen years.