Have I built a book map from the draft, not from memory, with the change column filled for every scene?
Can I write the book’s promise and its governing question in two sentences, and do my first and last chapters answer to them?
Have I put every note and every failing test on an edit list, with the rung where it was felt?
The order
For each note, have I checked the rung above the one where it was felt, and recorded the rung of its cause?
Am I working downwards: the promise, then allocation and arrangement, then the shape, then the joins, then the scenes?
When work on a lower rung showed me a higher decision was wrong, did I stop and make that decision before going on?
Am I leaving the opening pages, the last page and the line edit until rungs 1 to 3 have settled?
Each repair
Have I changed the map before the text, and listed the tests the repair reopens?
Have I rerun those tests before making the next repair?
Does the repair answer at least as many notes as it reopens tests, and could I move or cut instead of adding?
For every addition I keep, have I found something of equal length to remove?
Stopping
Does a pass down the first three rungs now change nothing below them?
Is every failure I keep defended on the edit list in a sentence?
Has someone who has not read an earlier draft read this one, or have I left it long enough to read it cold? Do the new notes avoid clustering above rung 5?
Exercises
The book map. Build a map of your draft with one row per scene and the columns of The Mechanism. Do it from the draft in a single sitting if you can. Mark every row whose change column you cannot fill, and every column you could not fill without rereading.
Two sentences. Write your book’s promise and its governing question in two sentences, without looking at the draft. Then read your first chapter and your last chapter, and write down every place where either answers to a different promise or question.
The edit list. Take a set of notes on your draft, from readers or from your own reading. For each, record where it was felt and its rung, then run the test of the rung above and record the rung of its cause. Sort the list by the rung of the cause, and count how many notes share a cause.
The reopened tests. Choose the highest repair on your sorted list. Before making it, change the map and write down every test it reopens and every row those tests touch. Make the repair, rerun the tests, and record what they found.
The cold read. When you believe the edit is finished, give the draft to a reader who has not read it before, or set it aside for at least a month. Sort the new notes onto the ladder. If they cluster on a rung above the fifth, the next pass begins there.