What Should I Do?

Okay, I have a problem.

As I mentioned last week, Knighty was able to restore the first story I started writing: The Final Element. It's definitely rough, but it has a special place in my heart, and I actually progressed the story a fair bit before I put it on hiatus for a rewrite. Then I took notes for the rewrite and deleted the original story so I could write the new version.

Then I stopped writing for ages and forgot what I was supposed to rewrite.

Anyway, I have a choice to make. I need everyone's help (whether you read the original or not, I'd love your feedback)

1 - I can restore the story as-is, with the exception of making some grammatical fixes. This might be fine, but there is something that happens in the story that wasn't received very well in the original.

2 - I restore the story as-is, with alterations. If I do this, it would likely be chapter-by-chapter. I would be changing a few things (for example: the main character is a brony in the original. I would take out the brony references, and probably change that big scene from the original. Problem is, without that scene, we end up losing a lot of the emotional scenes that follow. I can probably pull it off and still make it work, but it may take some time.

3 - I use the original as a reference, along with the notes I had for the rewrite, and do the rewrite. This would immediately make it a more coherent story, but a lot of the original scenes would be gone.

So what should I do?

Comments

[Lofty Withers]

3 - I use the original as a reference, along with the notes I had for the rewrite, and do the rewrite. This would immediately make it a more coherent story, but a lot of the original scenes would be gone.

Sounds like you should do 3.

[Evo]

Here is what it sounds like to me;
1- repost original + some word-band-aid
2- repost original + some word-band-aid + add/remove/make changes that may or may not work...
3- use the original as ref + notes, and make a better/coherent story++

So I think the 3-option might be the best.
The other are maybe more like a band-aid, and may limit what you can do with the story.
But I think regardless of what people say, you should do what feels right for you.

So yea... hope this helps

[ninjanaut1000]

like mentioned by others, sounds like #3 is your best bet seeing as you had already planned on re-writing it anyway.

[Luna Aeterna Solutae]

2/3. Brony going to Equestria stories are cringe as fuck

[Thunderbug80]

5278992
Yeah those are the bits as I was re-reading I thought to myself, "Why?"

Oh wait, I know why. It was 2012, and I thought "Now this is an original idea..."

[DezzarTac]

Why would you delete the chapters from an existing story to replace them? That feels like tearing the pages out of a book and reusing the cover. Why not just make a new story posting with the eh... 'remaster'? I can't even remember the original, but I still feel somehow slighted seeing as it still has a gold-star on it from before FimFic introduced bookshelves and read-later.
If you must, then there is no point in going backwards by eight years (urgh I feel older);

3 - I use the original as a reference, along with the notes I had for the rewrite, and do the rewrite. This would immediately make it a more coherent story, but a lot of the original scenes would be gone.

edit: Riiight.... don't forget to review the rules for this regarding the rating system and comments.

[Babroniedad]

Just a thought, but you could repost the original warts and all, and slow release the rewrite (3), the thought being to bring more attention by re-releasing the original first. But regardless, yeah 3 sound like the ticket. Good luck!