the purpose of the second draft

I had to learn the hard way the purpose of the second draft.  My first novel, a magically realistic family chronicle that I never published, was truly awful. In my mind, the entire story was about one thing that the reader either got or didn’t get. It was like an intelligence test.  What a stupid idea to base your book on.  My second full-length, Shedding, I did publish, but I’m