The Dreaded R Word

I got some feedback for my WIP over the weekend, and I'm still digesting it all.

Many of the "issues" are easily fixed—factual corrections, simple actions my characters did that were way out of, uh, character, needless repetition, needless repetition, needless repetition.

Other things went much deeper, and will require more time to correct:

Make characters nicer. Make characters meaner. Change some motivations. Ramp up the tension. Change the beginning. Change the middle. Change the ending. Introduce more possible suspects. Eliminate a flat character. Reduce the number of alien abductions. Move scenes around. Delete scenes. Add scenes. Change scenes.

With all this work ahead of me, am I overwhelmed?

On the contrary. I think I see my work a lot better now, and I'm confident that making these changes will result in a much stronger story (it's amazing how clear some problems are after someone else reads the manuscript).

But next time, I'm going to skip the first couple drafts and go straight to the third draft.

What about you, writers? Do you feel encouraged or discouraged facing a slew of revisions?