Fudging the First Novel

So, as The Sound of the Sea starts to take shape (43,000 words and counting), I'm drawn back to edit another novel, which I first started in 2007, called The Apple House. I'm not entirely sure if this is a good idea or not.
The Apple House was my first novel. I started looking at it again when I was trying to tidy my study last week. I'm very fond of it and all the characters in it, even though it has lain in a drawer, unpublished and unloved, apart from by me, like a forgotten bridesmaid at a wedding.
I made all my mistakes with The Apple House. I made things vastly complicated with multiple narrative points of view (five in all) and didn't write things in a linear fashion, so the action jumps about from scene to scene.
Unsurpisingly, structurally it's a bit dodgy too (note my use of posh literary technical terms). Scenes are either too short or repeat things that have already been described by another character, 10 pages earlier.
All these things a kindly publisher told me, when they critiqued The Apple House for me some years back. Having since gone through the rigmarole of trying to get an agent, written two and a half more novels (the half is a whole other story), applied for grants and attended numerous literary events, I realise just how kind this gentle critique from the publisher was.
So every year or so, I take out The Apple House again, try to iron out a few more of its numerous mistakes and fall in love with the characters all over again. Now, I'm thinking that I might try to dislodge one of the five narrative points of view and see if the story will stand up without one of them and risk the whole thing collapsing, like a house of cards.

Character doubles

So, my main character, Clare, is a bit more lively now I've given her Muriel to play with. I can feel Clare's sense of humour coming across in dialogue with Muriel. However, (gosh, why is there always an 'however'?) Muriel reminds me of Miriam. Miriam was a character from another novel who served as my main character's confidante, to dispense advice and a shoulder to cry on, when necessary. She also provided information on the new town my character was living in, which was much more fun than endless paragraphs of rather dreary exposition.
So maybe I need to change Muriel just a little so that she doesn't end up as an exact double of Miriam. I'm not sure if there is anything wrong with 'character doubles' but when they sound the same, heck, when they even have names beginning with the same initial, is there not a risk that the faithful reader will feel a little bit short-changed?
I can just hear them now: "She hasn't made an effort at all, you know. Muriel's exactly the same as Miriam in the last book."
As well they might. I think I might have answered my own question...

Knickers in Alaska

Now, before you think I've gone all Fifty Shades of Grey, the headline for this week's post came about during a random conversation with a friend. She mentioned another friend who lives in Alaska and always gets her - well, pants - in Seattle. This led to another conversation on the difficulties of finding said items of underwear in small towns and villages.
It was one of those giggly moments that stayed with me and made me realise that my main character, Clare, is lacking a sense of humour. This may be because a) she's still a work in progress b) tough stuff has happened to her or c) I haven't given her one yet.
However, if I'm to spend any amount of time with her (as I'm going to have to), I will be deadly bored after five minutes unless I give her something to laugh, or even smile at. It may be something as random as overhearing teenagers on a bus describing (and indeed acting out) their favourite episodes from Friends (this happened to me on Saturday).
Of course, humour is so subjective and it can't be forced. But, gosh, I've got to get her smiling soon or I'll be crossing the street to avoid her...
PS - I'm reading James Scott Bell's excellent Revision and Self Editing for Publication at the moment. Highly recommended.