Adjusting the volume

I've been reading through draft 4 of my book. Overall I feel quite encouraged. It does fit together more or less. But it's all very loud, very obvious, very explicit. Early drafts of books have to be like that. You have to write it all very big at the beginning. You are in the process of finding out what the book is about so you have to shout the messages of the book out in order to test them out. You have to let the characters behave in extreme ways and say everything they want to say. Then slowly - draft by draft - you turn the volume down and down and down. You take more and more out. You make the book quieter and quieter. You discover the confidence to let the reader work it out for him / herself. You gradually remove yourself from your own book. I know that this is the process but still I find it painful to read what I'm writing at the moment because it is all so loud. I have to maintain faith in the fact that I will be able to make it quieter. That's a large part of what the writing process is about - turning the volume down.