Editing my manuscript, feeling like it's all fallen apart

Well, I might have an even bigger revision than I thought coming up. Does anyone here believe that sometimes you have to write the wrong story to figure out the right story?

I'm pretty sure I'm about to rewrite the entire story. Three characters can be reused, and even the main character will change. The setting will be the number one thing that remains unchanged.

Though, at this point, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just fix this one up currently as is, call it done, and then write the new version as a completely different story.

The reason being, I feel like I did too many things wrong with this one, and I feel like there's also a much better story buried inside this one that's not being told. I still like the story, for the most part, but that might just be on the level of the premise.

I've sent it to a couple friends, and one already read it in two days lol. He said it's got great pacing and it's not boring, but he can see the issues I saw and then some. He likes the ending for the most part, and the plot twists certainly surprised him without jarring him from the story.

So I got a lot of good feedback from him and ideas for things to fix. But I really just kinda want a new story with the way things have gone and the ideas that I've come up with. It's not exactly a premise I can write twice, so I'd rather do it once and make sure it's the best it can be.

Not sure why I'm still writing. I think I'm delaying because I forgot a point... Nah, can't remember. I'll ETA if needed.

I've decided I'm going to keep the story as it is. There are still some big changes to be made, but I wrote a whole novel here, and I don't think the solution to its problems is to write a new novel. The idea I had in mind for the rewrite is completely different. That is to say, it would be a new story, and so it should be a separate story.

This one is still salvageable. I'm going to do what I can to get it to be a cohesive and more importantly good story, and then I'll start the next story that I've been eager to work on. And this time I'll know ahead of time a lot of the things I need to avoid, as well as almost the exact amount of planning I personally need.

So, it's a lot of work, but I enjoy the learning process mainly because it means I'm better prepared for the future.

And a little update: I've written a synopsis for the story, and then went scene-by-scene and did a numbered outline for the story. Should help with organization and knowing where to put specific notes for things to work on. I know almost every change I'm going to make now. Maybe this book still won't be publishable by the time it's done, but I can do my best to make it as good as it can be. I'll be writing my next novel whilst waiting on rejection letters, and taking them one by one.

By the way, I'd just like to thank AbsoluteWrite and all the great AWers here for reviving my excitement for writing. I had a dry spell for three or four years. Being here, learning just how much I have left to learn, reading how differently everyone tackles problems, seeing all the examples of people who just want to let other writers know that they're not alone, it's just awesome.

Really, thank you guys, each and every one of you. I wish I knew how to properly return the favor.

Unfortunately, it's come to light that my characterization in this story is kinda crap. None of the characters really grow, and there's still the issue of deus ex machina to work out.

I'm going to set this one aside for now. I've done the first pass of edits on the hard copy, wrote out a synopsis, did a scene-by-scene and then wrote a new scene-by-scene and now I think it's time to move on to my next project. I've still learned a lot from this process and I appreciate all the help I've gotten here. This next one will certainly have the planning that this story should have.