Rewriting old novels

I'm re-writing my novel Auroradawn at present,  I wrote the original over a decade ago, and aimed it at the young adult market.  Now I'm re-writing it with a view to making the book a New Gen/adult SF crossover.  My main characters have become older and I'm deepening their characters.

As part of that, I'm adding new parts of introspection to the text, but the major change is a total restructure of the book.  Originally Arrien, my heroine, was the major viewpoint.  Her brother Baak was definitely secondary.  His viewpoint didn't appear anything like as often as Arrien's.  And in the original  version both viewpoints appeared in the same chapter, separated by section breaks.

Now I've separated out the two viewpoints into their own chapters.  It's meant that Baak's story has become stronger, and I've discovered far more about his background.  In the original version I knew he was estranged from his family, but I hadn't worked out the details of why.  Now Baak has his own chapters I can explore the issue more fully.

The viewpoints are now more equal.  That's not a bad thing if it means that the book might appeal to both male and female readers.  And there are other benefits.  Book two of the trilogy revolves around finding clues hidden in paintings.  If I make Baak's art expertise more obvious in Auroradawn, my readers will believe he's an expert when he uses that talent in Auroradawn's Quest to decipher clues contained in paintings.

What I thought would be a simple re-write has become a major job.  Chapters of the original version are being merged, and cut at new places.  I realise how many opportunities for cliffhangers I missed in the original.   I'm putting them in this time round.

I've had to write new scenes to link material as well as deepen Baak's part, and it's a slow and complicated job,  but what will emerge at the end of the process will be a far more powerful novel.  And that's always worth doing.