@PT
And yes i made several bad decisions. But man i hope i can find that last part, it was great, but i don't think i could write it again.
Recovery from a nuclear war, teraforming then settling other planets, discovering and rescuing an alien civilization, the Kisselfolk become a full race, broadcasting a message to the universe from the center of the Galaxy. Can't wait to read it again!
I was lucky recently. As normal, I had at least a dozen editing windows open at the same time, when the system crashed (I accidentally tapped the power button reaching for something). The first chapter I'd been struggling with hadn't been saved. But, when I went back, the story came together better than it had the first time, and reformulating it from scratch, I already knew which approaches didn't work and which did, which helps tremendously.
Several famous authors would rewrite each chapter (but especially the opening chapters) repeatedly, rewriting the entire thing until they got the ONE version which worked perfectly.
I've NEVER been able to do that, as I generally like whatever I put together, and I tend to dislike my rewrites, but I can see the appeal in the process.