Speaking of roofs

There is currently a gentleman stomping around on top of mine. We live in a town home, and I had no idea that they were going to be working on the roof today. It started out with a little bit banging in the unit next door, or at least that's what I thought, but then it sounded like someone was running around in the crawl space. Now there is banging, and scraping, and I wonder just how long this is going to go on.  It is really creepy to hear unexpected footsteps across your ceiling.

I can connect this to writing. Sometimes when you are in the middle of editing, you think one little minor repair needs to take place--let's compare it to replacing a shingle, but once you get up there you realize that the one little mistake in your story is actually a lot bigger, and you need to replace the whole roof. The entire thing, nearly starting over from scratch.

Do you just patch up the hole and hope it holds together, or do you get down and dirty and start fresh?

I recently pulled out an older manuscript that I'm about a third of the way through and realized that I love the idea, but I've got to scrap it. It is so telly, and I can also see how I've improved as a writer between now and then. So do I scrap the project entirely or do I start fresh? A single shingle isn't going to fix this one.

Happy Writing