With a full draft
A writer with a complete draft and readers’ notes should start with The Structural Edit (Chapter 18). It shows how to build a map of the draft, one row per scene, and how to sort the notes by the level at which each problem’s cause lies, so that the revision begins with the decisions everything else rests on. The chapter’s table from symptom to cause leads into Appendix B, the symptom index, which takes a reader’s complaint (it drags in the middle, I didn’t believe the ending, I couldn’t tell the sisters apart) to the chapters, tests and failure patterns that explain it. Appendix C gives every chapter’s checklist in the order of the revision.
With a single problem
A writer who knows where the trouble is can go to the chapter directly. A scene that is busy but inert belongs to Chapters 1 and 2; talk that is fluent and empty to The Dialogue Exchange (Chapter 3); description that is accurate and tells the reader nothing to The Descriptive Detail (Chapter 4). Readers who stall after scene breaks, or call a book relentless or shapeless, need Chapters 5 and 6. Flashbacks that readers skim belong to Backstory and Flashback (Chapter 7), and a timeline readers lose or skip to Non-linear and Multi-timeline Architecture (Chapter 8). A first chapter readers put down belongs to The Opening Pages (Chapter 9), a prologue they call unnecessary to The Prologue (Chapter 10), and a middle that sags to The Middle (Chapter 11). A protagonist who does not change, or a theme that is stated rather than felt, needs Arc and Theme (Chapter 12); viewpoint characters readers confuse, The Viewpoint Shift (Chapter 13); a secondary thread that feels like filler, The Subplot (Chapter 14); a twist that is guessed or resented, The Reveal (Chapter 15); an ending that feels unearned, tidy or evasive, The Ending (Chapter 16); and a book that readers say was not what they expected, Series and Genre (Chapter 17).
Within a chapter, the quickest route is the In brief page, then Diagnostic Tests, then the failure pattern the tests point to. The theory in How It Works can wait until a test has failed and the writer wants to know why the test asks what it asks.
With a plan
A writer planning a book, rather than revising one, should read in the order in which a book’s decisions depend on one another, which is the order The Structural Edit (Chapter 18) sets out for revision. What the book promises comes first, in Series and Genre (Chapter 17) and in the contracts of The Opening Pages (Chapter 9). Whose book it is and how it is arranged come next: The Viewpoint Shift (Chapter 13) on viewpoints, Non-linear and Multi-timeline Architecture (Chapter 8) on times and The Subplot (Chapter 14) on threads. The shape follows, in Arc and Theme (Chapter 12), The Middle (Chapter 11), The Reveal (Chapter 15) and The Ending (Chapter 16). Parts I and II matter most once there are pages to revise.
In a course
A student or a writing group should read in order. Part I is the foundation of everything after it, since the value shift, the domains and multiplicity are introduced there and used throughout. The Purposes of a Scene (Chapter 1), The Opening Pages (Chapter 9) and The Ending (Chapter 16) make the strongest single sessions; The Dialogue Exchange (Chapter 3) and The Viewpoint Shift (Chapter 13) carry the most contestable material, and the Reference text of each of the twelve revised chapters includes exercises, seminar questions and an assessment rubric. A course on the short story or the novella can use Appendix E, which says what each chapter’s instruments become in the shorter forms.
See also: Contents, with every chapter’s question; the glossary.