Rewriting in a big way

I think when I was a newbie writer, rewrites were not really effective rewrites. I might have changed sentences here and there, rewritting sentences so they flowed better. I might have added a character but not one that really helped the story move forward better. Now I know that rewriting takes a whole lot more than just dotting more i's and crossing more t's. Rewriting is really tearing things apart and building stuff back up. It really takes a lot to get to the core of the story and sometimes that means rebuilding. A lot! Even in this rewrite that I'm working on, I have put a scene that was in the middle, as my opening scene. I thought, well, it's a comedy, and that comedic moment happens half way through my story. It's a very visual moment. And we all know that opening with a visual moment is a good idea. So I decided why not? The good thing is you save the other drafts, so if it doesn't work, you can always go back to the older version. I think that was key as a writer for me to learn. That it's okay to play around and try new things. Once I learned that as a writer things became and felt so much more freer. I even got rid of an entire character that I was sure I needed. But people had suggested I might not need him. So I thought, why not try it without him? And by introducing a whole new character, now I have more motivation for my inciting incident and the 2nd act. So ask yourself, what are you doing in your rewrite? Is each scene filled with conflict? Does each character help move the story forward? Do you have some characters that fill up the same spot and purpose that other characters do? Don't be afraid to cut out things and put entirely new stuff in. You just might surprise yourself and see your story flourish like never before.