I finished the first draft of the sequel to Driftless Spirits just as the recent blog tour kicked off. I asked a couple beta readers to give the raw draft a go for some early feedback. “Don’t worry about edits,” I said. “Just tell me what you think of the story.”

One reader said the new book starts exceptionally well, “a great read, better than Book 1,” but then it was clear I petered out at the end. The climax has a lot of potential for drama but I rushed it and it fell flat. There were also a few “would this character really act this way or say this” type of comments. All of this was extremely helpful and can be addressed chapter by chapter as I edit.

However, the other reader was lost entirely. Lost. The story felt so disjointed to this person that some basic plot points were missed in their readthrough. I don’t think there was a single compliment in the email, that’s how lost they were.

This feedback really knocked me off my game for a couple days. I sent a follow-up email to ask if they were okay with this or that aspect of the story, trying to pinpoint the issue. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about where the problems were for Reader 2 and how to tighten everything up. One thing I love about Driftless Spirits is how tight the story is. It’s a glorious feeling when everything fits. How do I get there in the new book?

I finally figured out that a few of the chapters tell the right story but from the wrong character’s perspective. Specifically, I threw Reader 2 a new character in Chapter 3 with an air of mystery and very few links to anything else and failed to connect. That early failure cascaded to collapse.

Every reader is different. Multiple perspectives are key. Sometimes editing means starting chapters over.

With new insights, I started my first editing pass. When I reached Chapter 3, I crumpled up the old one and wrote a fresh version with the right perspective. The flow of the book already feels immensely better. In my mind, the new version of Chapter 3 makes all the difference. Rather than a disjointed leap, it has some clever callbacks to Book 1 to remind readers of some threads they may have forgotten by the time Book 2 comes out. It eases the reader into a new character’s storyline from an established character’s perspective.

I’m now about halfway through my first editing pass. Another chapter has received a perspective overhaul that made perfect sense after redoing Chapter 3. I still have some editing mountains to climb, but I’m confident Draft 2 will be a big improvement.