I have many ideas in my story that readers do not see . . . at least not the first time they read the books. Have I been too subtle? Wouldn’t it save pages leaving those out if no one sees them anyway? How subtle istoo subtle?

First, I had a couple subtle themes in my first book that I had to make more obvious. It was important for readers to pick up on why Symon was acting this way and what he wanted. Readers said the book meandered and didn’t have a point until halfway through. Part of that...