I finished my first novel during NaNoWriMo ’12. It’s crap, but I don’t know how to edit it. i’ve tried a few times but it’s like I get confused and I don’t know what’s good and what isn’t. It’s a complete mess and I don’t know how to clean it up. Help?

Honest answer? Don’t even try. Most first books are crap and cannot be fixed. I’m not saying yours is, but most are. 

So instead of worrying about how to fix it–which, after two and a half years, is pretty obvious you can’t, at least not right now–write another book.

A better book.

One you won’t have to clean up quite so much.

And then, after you’ve written this new book, write another new book.

And after you’ve written that new book, go back to the first book and look at it again.

Because either you will see that it cannot be salvaged and should be shelved indefinitely, or you’ll have learned enough in writing other books that you have a better idea of how to fix it.