Problem Scenes

I've run up against a snag in the rewrites. There's a pretty pivotal scene that's just not working for me. It leads to a turning point in the story and is what kicks off the middle part of the book. But there's really not a lot of conflict or tension, no excitement. It's just a bunch of events. I finally realized yesterday that this isn't a scene I can fix. What I need is a new scene.

So I brainstormed possibilities for a new scene that can serve the same purpose, and I think I have it narrowed down to two. One is possibly less colorful and exciting but more believable, and I think I can give it some interpersonal conflict. There might even be a way to throw in some danger. But it also comes dangerously close to repeating a scene from the first book. Similar things happen, but there's a different purpose, different people are there, and there's a different outcome. I could even use that, I suppose, and have the characters aware that this scene is eerily familiar.

The other possibility is a lot more colorful and would be a major sequence in the book, but I'm not entirely sure it makes a lot of sense. Would people really do something like this? It would be a lot of effort for what they want to accomplish.

So I'm torn between a more realistic scene that might be a little boring and a more colorful scene that wouldn't be very realistic.

I've been able to visualize it both ways. I may need to make a pro/con list. I may even need to try writing it both ways and see which one works for me.

It's this kind of thing that makes writers develop homicidal levels of rage when people complain about having to pay more than 99 cents for an e-book. So many hours sweating over stuff like this to make the book the best possible experience for the reader, and there are people who whine about having to pay more than they do for a fast-food soda or cup of coffee for the product.