Revision decisions are usually made from memory of the draft, and memory of a draft is unreliable in a specific way: it contains what you thought about most, not what you wrote. A survey before a rewrite corrects that. It also changes what you decide: some of the material you were going to cut is load-bearing, and one of the scenes you were protecting happens twice.
The survey
| Question | Method |
|---|---|
| What does the book name? | Term extraction, with counts |
| What appears once? | The bottom of that list |
| Where does each character appear? | Scene index, or first appearances |
| What is the actual structure? | A reverse outline |
| Which scenes change something? | The scene index's last column |
| What was set up and not paid off? | Comparison with your outline |
| How long is everything? | Word counts per chapter |
Row two is the one that changes decisions. A list of everything named once is a list of things the book mentions and does not use, and each is either texture, an orphaned setup, or a rename that didn't finish.
What the survey changes
- Cuts become informed. You know what a scene carries before removing it.
- Orphaned setups become visible, so a rewrite can resolve or remove them.
- Underused characters are identifiable by count rather than by feel.
- Duplicate scenes surface in the reverse outline.
- The rewrite has a plan rather than a direction.
Point five carries the argument. A rewrite without a survey is a second draft written from the same memory that produced the first, which is why so many second drafts change the prose and not the problems.
The inventory half
The Novel Kit produces the inventory: every proper noun and unusual term with a count and a first appearance, in minutes, from the draft as it stands. Sorted by count it answers rows one and two directly, and the first appearances feed the structural questions.
The reverse outline, which answers the rest, is manual and is covered in checking a manuscript against its outline.
A practical next step
Before your next rewrite, extract the terms and read the single-occurrence list. It will change at least one decision.
Sources checked
Frequently asked questions
Why check before a rewrite rather than after?
Because you are about to make decisions about what to keep, and those decisions are better made knowing what is actually in the draft.
What should I be looking for?
Inventory rather than errors: what the book names, where things appear, what is used once, and what the structure actually is.
Is this the same as a proofread?
No. A proofread is about correctness. This is about knowing your own draft well enough to revise it deliberately.