Anyone else's novel completely changing?

So I finally read over my whole novel again with the plan to edit it to make it better (since obviously it was completely terrible). However, once I read it, I realized there wasn't a good plot, the characters weren't developed, and there wasn't really a theme to the book.
After thinking a while, I have a completely new plot for my novel. It has some of the same elements as my first draft, but would be so much rewriting instead of just editing the first draft.
Does anyone else do this? Has anyone else completely changed their idea? Am I too lost in thinking my writing is terrible and needs to change or is this normal?

Oh, yes, I completely rewrite stories all the time. Why should I think that the first random idea I came up with is going to be the best one? There is nothing wrong with that. I've even met a professional author who says that she throws out 80% of the first draft.

I've been working on my current work in progress off and on for nine years, and it's incredible how much the story has evolved. Entire subplots have been torn out. New characters were introduced. I reworked the main character's background.

Sometimes I have to change scenes that are well written and exciting, but they just don't fit into the story anymore.

My mentor told me not to be afraid to change anything or everything.

I am completely rewriting my novel also. I've scrapped the first two chapters and rewritten them (still working on Ch. 2). Plot was okay, but felt too much like my characters had a Harry-Draco type rivalry, so I nixed the whole thing. Subsequent chapters are waiting review. My book starts at a magic school but doesn't stay there very long and I want to avoid all Potter comparisons.

Also, I discovered that my book drifted far far away from its original goal during nano, mostly because I did only minor amounts of planning. Now this may be a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm going to go through and introduce plot threads that I thought were very important when developing my book but somehow completely missed during the rush to reach 50k.

I think it would be extremely unlikely that you would come up with a perfect plot the first time around. I don't know a single author whose books do not undergo significant rewrite after a first draft is completed. Think about the first draft like a sculpture. First you chisel away all the big chunks of marble, and the basic form of the sculpture appears. And then you spend significantly more time revising and polishing, cutting away pieces here and there, until the statue you want appears. And sometimes, you don't get the statue you've envisioned from that piece of marble and you have to start over, but this time with a better grasp of where you are going, what you want to do, and how to go about it.

Yeah I had to completely rewrite half of it and change the entire personality of my main character. It's a lot better now though, oh and I decided to write a part two.

Apart from the beginning, let's just say that my initial draft and the current stage of my novel seem like two completely different ideas, now. I've added, changed, and taken away so many characters; I've made it into two points of views now, the main character has been changed drastically and there are hardly any elements of the first draft anymore. It has definitely been improved with deeper themes and even though it's taking me a long time, it's definitely worth it.

Thank you all for this advice and letting me know I'm not the only one.
I think my two drafts are barely going to resemble each other and I wasn't sure if I should try to stick with my basic idea or just completely go for the new one.
Thank you, good luck with your editing/revising everyone!

Not this year, but my 2010 novel got changed a lot. My main character started off as a teenager going through chemotherapy, who was writing a book of myths and legends to distract herself from her almost certainly terminal cancer. She ended up as a 9-year-old in a coma, dreaming that she was in Ancient Greece!

I also developed the characters of her family, giving them their own storylines surrounding the MC, rather than just being talkative wallpaper.

It happens. :D

Yes, my novel needs to be significantly revised because I hadn't worked out all of my macro-world-political backstory details when I began. I'd had a lot of characters and a basic plot mapped out, but I hadn't made a complete, logical outline from beginning to end. I just don't operate that way. It has to come to me as I create. I didn't have all of the answers to the questions I posed as I began to write.

The story isn't exactly being rewritten, but I'm starting over the rewrite (stupid flash drive decided it needed reformatting) by changing the POV. I also had a brainstorm in the shower this morning, as you do, and realised that I need a better ending.

Nothing wrong with changing things, but make sure you keep all the different rewrite versions you come up with.

I've had exactly the same problem. I looked over my novel and soon decided that I hated the whole story. I've kept the same characters and setting, but changed just about everything else.

Hahahahahahhahaha.... Oh yes.

I threw out about 50% of the first half of my novel and added new scenes to take the place of what I threw out. The scenes that I did keep are not even close to the original order.

All of the second half just got thrown out, because I'm going in such a different direction, but I suspect that about 25% of the scenes will be useful as-is (with minor editing, that is) and maybe 25% will be useful with major rewrites (thinks like taking out a character, changing the setting, changing the point of view, etc.)

I threw out some really good scenes that just weren't working with my plot, but I'm also thinking that they might be useful in another novel, since I plan to make a series using the same characters. :)

I'm keeping the basic plot and the characters but I've changed the POV. Writing is going much slower but it 'feels' much better.

A few characters are changing as I'm writing - a father and husband who was very sweet in the first draft is turning into a complete grump in the second ... no idea how that happened, but I'll go with it :-)

Oh yeah. I'm just getting to the point where I'm starting to write again. I'm rewriting it completely. The characters are the same and their problems and what I want to say with the novel, but the plot is completely different. It was a fantasy novel during NaNoWriMo, now it's not. How about that! :D

Not sure if I'm excited or frightened to rewrite it, but hell, I'm gonna do it. I think I'm both.

Definitely! The plot changed slightly, the characters' personalities are different, and their names are different as well! The point of view changed as well and I decided against using a gender neutral pronoun when referring to my main character in the narration of the story. (The point of view was from a character who wasn't even aware of gender neutral pronouns so I'll be taking out quite a few 'zhe's.) I also have some new characters as well.

...and despite this it seems that if I wrote a little description for my novel it would change only 2%. Beats me how that worked out.

Yes. I'm cleaning up the loose ends of the plot. There are too many of them ...

I also haven't quitefigured out who my main character is yet. I couldn't write my original impression of her, so this time through, I'm making her a Type B Stepford Smiler. It's working okay. Maybe.

Good God, yes. My whole story's changed. I've only just started editing, and it's undergoing massive changes. I've kept the first chapter fairly intact, but after that I'm having to redo most of it.
My problem was not having a decent outline before I started writing, and I'm having to change pretty much the whole middle of the book, with just the first and last chapter staying pretty much the same, and one or two in the middle. I'm adding a whole new section too, or will be once I can work out what's supposed to happen. It's just a part of writing.
I am going to really try to create a better outline before I start my next novel though, as this is a lot of work.

At some point, plot-hole repair became something else entirely, with the repairs making up most of the new structure.

Draft 14? I think. Draft 1, you wouldn't recognize anything besides the basic premise and the two main characters. Everything else changed. The tone changed, the character's names changed, the type of humor changed, the plotting changed and the structure changed too.

Despite being draft 14, I've been working on other novels/short stories at the same time. ^_^ I don't believe in investing all my energy into one novel. That often helps you to fix problems in your existing novel. The only reason I persisted so long is that the novel has some fans...

*raises hand* YES!

My first chapter is mostly intact (only because I got an amazing review of it), but I have majorly toned down some characters' Mary-Sueness. I decided my steampunk universe is now non-magical. The villian now has a motive and an entertaining fixation with capturing the MC. I threw out a character, and added two new ones. I changed where part of the book takes place. Character's names have been changed. A character's sexual orientation has changed. But the pitch I wrote still describes the book well. This rewrite is draft 7. Lucky 7. Hopefully. :)

Yep, I have to re-write mine - I just don't know when I'll have the time next because I'm pursuing another story idea at the moment.
I love the prologue, epilogue, last chapter and chapter 17 but everything in between is a crapshoot of dragging storyline, too little amount of characters, and not enough story. I already know what I'm going to change, though, so that's good. I'm tearing out about ten chapters, adding two subplots, adding three other POV's, and then maybe another one, and I'm going to tear out almost every way that I mention the revelations of the storyline after the prologue, because it reveals too soon. I need to up the suspense, and it's just not 'there'.
Thankfully, I'm only on my first draft! First draft, second edit. Now for the second.... *deepbreath*
Oh, and Steampunk avi8or mentioned their pitch - I re-read my summary and realized just how far I left that behind! Time to backtrack.