Me: Hey, what do you think about my outline and first few chapters?
Editor 1: Cut part X completely.
Editor 2: Leave in part X, but trim out the parts concerning Thing Y.
Editor 3: Vastly expand part X, making sure to include lots about Thing Y.
Me: …
Me: It’s a choose-my-own-adventure!me too, except mine ends
Me: It’s a biophysics research article.
When I have beta readers and I get this, it generally means one of two things.
Either it’s a matter of personal taste and opinion (“I like this!” vs. “I don’t.”), and I can do whatever I damn well want to.
or
The problem is neither with X nor Y, but with Z, where I failed to accomplish something that will make X and Y dovetail and be revealed for the right and necessary things they are.
I can tell one from the other because with possibility #2, I’m thinking, “No, no, no, I need to keep both of those WHY CAN’T YOU SEE????” But possibility #2 is why I love good beta readers, because that’s the stuff they catch that vastly improves your final product.