I was thinking about a manuscript I have, Dreamers Sea. It’s a complete manuscript but I’m completely dissatisfied with it. It lacks umph and angst (great words). So, over the last many months I’ve been wracking my brains as to what to do with this story. I love the characters, I love the settings and if I add in the missing elements I think it would be a really good story.
Thing is, the elements I want to add would pretty much change everything about the story. The characters would still pretty much be the same….. well, sort of, the setting would be the same, but nearly everything else would be gutted and rebuilt.
I had thought about going through the current manuscript and just changing things when they needed to be changed, but that’s easier said than done. There’s just too much to change.
Would it be cheating to rewrite this story for NaNoWriMo? If I don’t go back and snag bits from the original and just completely start from scratch? I’ve been a stickler for following the NaNo rules and I don’t want to bend them, but I know this story, I know the characters-and how I want them changed in this new version, I know the setting, the plot (pretty much) and how I want it to end.
If I start from scratch it wouldn’t be cheating, would it?
Cerian Hebert 
I think it's a great idea. You are starting from scratch, not using any of the previous pages . . . but what you have is an outline and well-developed characters. I'd say go with it.:)
I say it's not cheating. Heck, I wrote "Liv" for NaNo, and she was a character I pulled out of another book. If you're writing from scratch, it works, IMHO.
I don't think it is cheating. Run with the new story.
I think you should too. You love the characters and settings. It's meant to be rewritten and this will be perfect time to do it for NaNo.