The good thing (!) about being told by agent and editor that the beginning isn't strong enough is that you start revising where you'd have to start anyway (if you want the finished work to be smooth throughout) but without the worry that the changes you're making will undo something already really good. Any change needs to be feathered in both before and behind, so it doesn't show, and the farther back you start the feathering in, the better. So starting at chapter one and working toward the end will (nearly always) produce the best possible result.
The bad thing (or less good thing) is that if you do the job you need to do in chapter one, there are still twenty-something chapters to go....YIKES! But once the setup's done, the rest should go smoothly. I hope. Still, it's after one in the morning, and I have only three days before I leave for Conestoga, and *somewhere* in there I need to, you know, pack and stuff. Wash hair. Do those other little things that need doing.
The first fix-it scene went very fast and easily. The second one is being difficult, I think (finally) because I haven't scrapped enough of the original. Hmmm. I may have to print out some of this and look at it that way. I've been making notes on yellow pads off and on all day, as well as staring at the files onscreen. I'm also aware that this is going to screw up my usual chapter lengths, but I shouldn't worry about that now. Reallocating chapter divisions should come at the end, when new material may make different logical breaks.
Meanwhile, my shoulders are knotted, my eyes are burning, and Richard's been asleep for hours. Time to shut down and go to bed.