Writing Diary #16- I Love Editing???

I've never properly edited a manuscript before. Sure, I've written two first drafts in my life but the first one was so awful that I discarded it immediately (when you know, you just know). But, with my current first draft, I've been editing my heart out and have surprisingly found that I enjoy it!
At the moment I've been sticking to the major edits- big plot line issues, scenes that need to be changed or chunks of dialogue that need to be re-written. And I thought this would be a super painful process because looking back at your awful and sloppy work is always a bit of confidence beater. But I'm really enjoying taking scenes and improving them- it feels so rewarding! I love finishing a scene and knowing it's so much better than before.
I've also been able to expand plot points as I've gone along too. Re-reading the whole thing with such fresh and close eyes has also helped me come up with new things to add to the story and to make the plot a bit more complex and deep.
As I know so much more about the characters now, it's been nice to really flesh them out and keep them true to themselves from the beginning.
Sure, there have been very painful moments when I just can't get things to fit together nicely or have to re-do something from scratch and it takes ages but... in the end, it's making my book better and that's what I'm focusing on.
So now I've finished the second draft which has been my main content edit. From here, I have a nice plan of what rounds of edits come next. (Yay. I'm so excited.)

My next step is to do a character edit. As I've been working through my manuscript, I've found that there are some inconsistencies with characters and I'm even worried my protagonist is unlikable! I've focused so much on making her a flawed character and not simply a perfect cardboard cutout but I may have gone a little overboard, so that's gonna take a lot of editing to alter.
Then will come a closer prose and line edit, followed by a round of edits focused completely on cutting down the word count (the manuscript is a good 120,000+ words so far).
Then hopefully, will come beta readers and feedback before I can do it all over again! I don't want to look too far ahead but it's nice to know specifically what I have to do. 
So, I'm enjoying the content editing while it lasts because I just know that line editing is gonna be a bitch.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe