Editing

This week I have mostly been editing.
They say that the editing process is the most important one when it comes to any form of writing, but its also the part of the process that I find most difficult. Don't get me wrong, I ENJOY it - plugging plot holes, developing slight characters, altering the timeline, even dropping in hints of things to come, all things which I know will make the story tighter, more readable and, ultimately, more enjoyable. No, its not that I don't enjoy it. I just find the process quite difficult.
For example, my test reader (Hello, Miss Headteacher!!)was looking over the first forty thousand words or so of my sequel this week and suggested that, perhaps, a well loved character wasn't acting true to themselves and that he/she/it had lost some of the sympathy that they had previously garnered. I understood what she meant - whilst I could rationalise their behaviour, he/she/it seemed rather distant and, in some respects, unlikeable. So, I took the pages and re-read them, before making a start on editing.
This is where the process gets difficult. I wasn't sure how much I actually needed to rewrite to make him/her sympathetic again. Did I need to go all the way back to the beginning, strip the character back to basics and then build them up again? Could I insert bits and pieces here and there, to develop what I'd already written? Could I even get away with just a few words to explain certain out of character behaviours? How about a couple of new chapters? Maybe a new timeline? Hey, I could kill off the character and replace them with someone new, who would act in this way? Maybe I should just start the whole thing again? Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!
And breathe.
As you can probably tell, the choices become limitless and settling on one of them is somewhat akin to a magic trick. I uhm and ah for what seems like an age, before finally deciding what I need to do - and then, of course, I worry that maybe I haven't done quite the right thing and ought to do something different. In this case, I'm still not sure that I've done enough to alter my character, but my test reader (Hello, again!!) will have a look and, undoubtedly, put me straight.
Hopefully, before I've written too much more that will need editing.