Revise in passes, working from the largest problems down to the smallest: structure first, then argument and scene logic, then language, then grammar and typos.
The rule is well established, and unlike most craft advice the sources also give the reason.
Why Global Before Local
Yale's writing centre handout states it plainly:
"The most efficient strategy typically involves moving from broad elements that govern the construction of an entire essay to more local concerns that affect only a portion of its argument. After all, it is discouraging to spend time carefully revising the language in one part of your essay only to cut that section upon realizing that the argument needs to be reorganized."
Duke adds a second reason, which is the more interesting one:
"If you have time to revise substantially, you will most likely want to evaluate the HOCs first: if something needs to change here, it could change everything lower in the hierarchy... Furthermore, the roots of many LOCs tend to be in HOCs. An ineffective claim, for example, often leads to the incorrect ordering of material, which leads to poor transitions and unclear sentence structure."
So it is not only that you waste effort polishing what you will cut. It is that many sentence-level problems are symptoms of structural ones, and fixing the structure dissolves them. A scene that will not flow is often a scene that should not be there.
Toronto's version is a section heading: "Start Large, End Small".
The Passes
Yale defines five levels. Adapted for a novel:
1. Premise and promise. What is the book, and does it deliver what it sets up? The equivalent of Yale's "Claim and Problem".
2. Structure. Order of scenes and chapters, what is missing, what should go. Yale: "An essay should be organized according to the evolving logic of its argument."
3. Scene logic and causality. Does each scene earn its place and lead to the next?
4. Language. Yale is worth quoting because it argues against treating this as cosmetic: "Though we may be accustomed to seeing language as subservient to the ideas in an essay, it is language that generates those ideas in the mind of the reader."
5. Grammar, punctuation, typos. Yale on why it matters even when meaning is unaffected: "even errors that don't affect your meaning still influence your reader's perception of your credibility as a writer."
Revision Is Not Editing
George Mason draws the line: "Revising a piece of your own writing is more than just fixing errors, that's editing. Revision happens before editing."
Their definition of revision is the useful one: "re-seeing your essay from the eyes of a reader who can't read your mind."
And a rule worth adopting, about scale: "If a reader remarked that you didn't have enough evidence in paragraph three, you should also take a close look at paragraphs two and four." A note about one place is usually a note about a habit.
Reverse Outlining
The single most recommended technique across every centre. Duke calls it "the Swiss army knife of revising."
"We usually think of outlines as something we write before we write a paper. However, a reverse outline gets its name by being written after the paper it outlines... a way of revealing how you organized your thoughts while you wrote."
The method: summarise each chapter or scene in one line, then read only those lines. Duke's two diagnostics work in both directions:
"If you find yourself having problems summing up the main ideas of a paragraph in one or two sentences, you probably have too many ideas in that paragraph... Alternately, sometimes summarizing a paragraph can be difficult because it contains too few ideas; if your paragraph has no unifying point, your summary of it won't be able to articulate that point. In that case, reconsider why you included the paragraph in the first place."
A third, from the same handout: a summary noticeably longer than its neighbours flags an overloaded section.
One Caveat: The Order Is Strategic, Not Sacred
Duke is explicit that time budget changes the answer:
"If you have only a short time and feel your paper is in good shape from a HOC point of view, you could direct your attention to LOCs. If you have only a short time but discover your claim is weak, you could spend your time strengthening your main argument."
They also treat style as conditional: "If your prose communicates your ideas clearly, but lacks flair, style becomes a LOC. When your writing style obscures your ability to communicate effectively, it becomes a HOC."
What Deckle Does
The Outliner is a reverse outline you do not have to build. Each document carries a synopsis field, and reading those in sequence gives you the one-line-per-scene view Duke describes, without transcribing anything. See restructuring your novel with the Outliner.
Snapshots before a structural pass mean a reordering you dislike is recoverable. Structure is the pass where changes are largest and hardest to undo by hand.
Revision colour mode marks a pass visually so you can see what this round touched. See marking a revision pass with colour.
Note the sequencing consequence: because the structural pass may cut whole scenes, doing it before any line work is what stops you polishing prose you are about to delete. That is the same logic that puts developmental editing before copy editing in developmental vs line vs copy editing.
Common Mistakes
- Starting with line edits. You will polish material you later cut.
- Treating a note about one scene as being about one scene. Check its neighbours.
- Doing all passes at once. The point is that each pass has one job.
- Confusing revision with editing. Revision changes the book; editing corrects it.
- Skipping the reverse outline. It is the most recommended technique across every source here.
- Treating the order as absolute. Duke makes it depend on how much time you have.
FAQ
Q: How many revision passes should a novel get? A: No source specifies a number. What is specified is the order: largest problems first.
Q: Why not fix typos as I go? A: You can, but not instead of structural work. Many sentence problems disappear when structure is fixed.
Q: What is a reverse outline? A: An outline written after the draft, summarising each section in a line, to reveal the structure you actually produced.
Q: Is revision the same as editing? A: No. George Mason: "Revision happens before editing."
Q: Can I skip straight to line editing if the structure is sound? A: Duke explicitly allows it when you have judged the big picture to be in good shape.