Finished reading First Draft

Last night I finished reading my first draft. Although there are a lot of holes, it is at least, something that makes sense...for the most part. Today and tomorrow are for writing out the scene list, and then deciding what needs to be moved around/deleted, and for creating new scenes that fit the story a little better. (mostly, I've realized that a couple characters need a LOT more characterization to make things believable...and that there's a whole freaking lot of introspection that is unnecessary) My hope is to not become so muddled that I just can't think about it anymore. I think in rewriting/editing, this might be the hardest thing for me (shit, I used to get lost and muddled up in short stories, and this is a whole NOVEL). I want to be able to keep that distance where I can keep thinking of it as a whole and how all the parts make up that whole.

I couldn't help the feeling of "oh, this isn't so bad, I don't need to rearrange everything!" (You know, "This is what came out of me the first time, this IS the story") But in truth, if it's going to be something good, I need to. I have to remember to remain strong in the face of words that still want to exist in the book that just don't fit. XD