Self-Editing Your Novel in Deckle

A revision pass goes better with a structure to it: a snapshot before you start, a way to track what's actually been revised, a way to catch inconsistent details across the whole manuscript, and a way to leave yourself notes without disrupting the text itself.

What You'll Need

• A complete (or complete enough) draft to revise, and a rough sense of what this particular pass is for. A full structural edit reads differently from a line-edit or a continuity check.

Step-by-Step

1. Snapshot before you start a significant revision pass. In the Inspector's Versions tab, save a named snapshot of anything you're about to substantially rewrite ("Before revision pass 1" is more useful later than an unnamed one). This gives you a clean way back if a rewrite doesn't work out. Turn on Revision Mode too if you want to see exactly what you added during this pass afterward.
2. Set up a Status for your revision stages. Deckle ships with To Do, In Progress, First Draft, Revised, and Final by default, or rename them to match how you actually revise. Mark each chapter's status as you finish working on it.
3. Use the Outliner to see your revision progress at a glance, filtered by Status, so you always know exactly what's left rather than relying on memory.
4. Run a project-wide Search pass for consistency issues: a character's eye color that changes partway through, a place name spelled two ways, a word you overuse. Search covers your whole manuscript at once, not just the chapter you're currently in.
5. Leave comments for yourself on passages you're not sure about, rather than making an uncertain change immediately. A comment marks the spot and your reasoning without disrupting the surrounding text, and you can resolve it once you've decided.
6. Check Timeline for chronology problems if your story spans a meaningful timeframe or has more than one POV thread. A date or sequence that doesn't line up is much easier to catch on a timeline than by reading straight through.
7. Check your writing history in Stats → History after a revision pass, mostly as a sanity check that your activity matches what you expect. A big unexplained word-count swing can be worth a second look.
8. Snapshot again once a pass is done, before starting the next one. "After revision pass 1, before line edit" gives you a clean checkpoint between distinct stages of revision, not just a single starting point.

Common Mistakes

• Skipping the snapshot because you're confident about a rewrite. The moments you're most confident are often exactly when a snapshot would have saved you. It costs seconds and has no downside.
• Doing a full read-through to catch consistency errors instead of using Search. A character detail that changes on page 200 isn't something you'll reliably catch by memory alone. Search for it directly.
• Making an uncertain edit immediately instead of commenting first. A comment costs you nothing and keeps a record of your reasoning; an uncertain edit made directly in the text is easy to forget you were unsure about.
• Letting Status go stale during a long revision. It's only useful as a real-time picture of where you are. Update it as you actually finish each chapter, not in a single pass at the end.