My engineering brain kicked in last night and got to thinking about the evolution of Tangled Roots, the book I’m driving towards releasing in September. I looked back at my saved files and thought to make a little chart:

Let’s break it down.

I wrote a few chapters before Driftless Spirits was released in October 2025, but the first saved version that I separated didn’t occur until I “got serious” after the holidays. I tend to save new versions when I want to hold one version and try a direction I’m not sure about yet. I also save new versions when an editing run is completed, either by myself or one of my helpers. Some versions aren’t on my hard drive as I passed them off for editing on thumb drives and updated the version number when they came back. Assuming each whole number was used, Tangled Roots has had at least 14 versions so far. There will be a few more as I continue to polish and then ultimately format the final version for distribution.

I had a good sense of the story in Tangled Roots when I started and the very first completed draft (version #5) was saved at the end of March.

From April to July, the number of chapters fluctuated only slightly (between 40 and 43) but the word count grew 15,000 words over seven more revisions before dropping slightly with the latest one. The chart makes it look like such a smooth process, but in fact several chapters were deleted and replaced with entirely new chapters in that time. The chart also doesn’t reflect how much things changed from the initial draft even within chapters I kept. On reflection, I made a list of the larger shifts:

• At least two chapters were rewritten to change the point of view for better storytelling. In an early chapter, a different character traversed the scene than in the original because it added clarity and was less jarring (see beta reader feedback post). In a subsequent chapter, the participants didn’t change but the POV was shifted to the same eyes that were changed in the earlier chapter.
• In a later chapter, I swapped out a character conversing with the main character for a different one, but the content of the scene didn’t really change. That change was a case of thinking, “Wait a minute. Who should really be in the room? Who would Charlotte really show this object to and talk with about it?”
• The climax of the story was entirely rewritten twice. The first time, it changed location but the chase (spoiler!) progressed mostly the same. The second time, it grew in concept, expanded to several chapters and really (finally) takes the reader for a ride. Of course, after that there was more refining, and it’s still ongoing.
• The aftermath of the new climax shifted as well, a lot! I did a lot of soul-searching on how characters would react to what ultimately happened and, just as important, how to leave the reader satisfied and eager for the next part of the story. Not a cliffhanger, just the next part of the larger tale.
• Along those same lines, the Epilogue has been written three times as well. The location and the content changed as I struggled with reaching the right tone.

I wish I had taken the time to reflect on Driftless Spirits in this same manner. I can go back through my 20 saved versions of the series starter and make a similar chart (I might do that sometime), but I don’t think I can remember the struggles and the changes along the way as vividly. I have a sense that I’m a better writer after wrestling with Tangled Roots, which only makes sense. Writers should grow with each new book.

“Writing is rewriting” has been said a million times. Here are a few versions:

“Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what you are trying to say.” (John Updike)

“I have rewritten–often several times–every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” (Vladimir Nabokov)

“Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten.” (Michael Crichton)

“Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost.” (William Zinsser)

I understood these sentiments from the beginning but I think I experienced the feeling more fully with Tangled Roots. It’s almost done but I’m still trying to make the final version as perfect as I can for the writer I am today.