To rewrite or not to rewrite?

I'm going to tell you my thinking, rationalizations included.

As I've mentioned, Bren put me to task on The Dead Spend No Gold.  She thought I needed to do certain things.  I can see how doing those things might improve the book.

However, unlike with Led to the Slaughter where the changes were merely cutting or rearranging a scene or chapter -- intimidating enough, but doable -- her suggestions would require a beginning to end rewrite.

I'm leery of that, for a couple of reasons.

Anyway, right now, I think The Dead Spend No Gold is a good book, and that the editorial suggestions by Bren and Lara will make it better.

But I might -- and I accent the MIGHT -- make it better by completely rewriting.

Or, and this is a real possibility, I might make it worse.  Tampering a little too much, for a slight improvement, which might actually make it worse.  When you start taking pieces out of a puzzle the whole thing might fall apart.  Instead of 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, it might be 2 steps forward and 3 steps back.

So is this a rationalization that I don't want to work harder?  (As anyone who reads this blog knows, I don't much like rewriting.)

A little bit, probably.  Here's rationalization #2.  I don't want to end up disliking my book, even if it makes it slightly better.  That it is very important that I continue to enjoy and like my books.

So the equivalent of this is at the store where I know there are a number of things that I could do to make more money, but I'd be miserable doing them.

I decided after a couple of collapses where I did do the money making thing I hated, that it was important that I like going to work, even if it meant making less.  That "Burn-Out" for a long term business is at least as dangerous as not making money.

If you hate what you're doing, you're less likely to keep doing it.

So that is all running through my head.

Here's my plan of attack.  A bit of a compromise.  Making sure it isn't just me being lazy.

I'm going to take the suggestions and changes that Bren and Lara suggest that DON'T require changing the story, and consolidate that.  Set it aside.

That should leave me with a few weeks to go ahead and attempt a rewrite.  And if I don't like the way it turned out, I can go back the original corrected version.