A novel revision board: your reader and editor notes, sorted into a plan

Two jobs: a checklist of what to look for, and a plan from the notes you got

Most pages that rank for revising a novel are checklists. Nathan Bransford's revision checklist (June 2022, read in full) is a list of questions grouped as storytelling essentials, structure, characters, craft and brass tacks. A checklist tells you what to look for. It doesn't say which of three contradictory reader notes to act on, or in what order to fix things. That second job is the one this board is for, and it is what newer posts like Indie Author Magazine's "How Your Beta Reader Feedback Becomes a Revision Plan" (June 5, 2026) are about.

Keep your checklist wherever you like and use the board for the notes. It gives the checklist a place to land: a failed check becomes a card in a pass list.

How to run a revision on the board

These steps follow what the authors and editors we read describe, each as one person's method. Tiffany Hawk (a published author who teaches writing at Stanford Continuing Studies) says to triage instead of revising from page one, so that the biggest things come first. Susan Odev in Indie Author Magazine sorts reader notes into "must fix," "consider fixing" and "not for this book," and starts the plan with structural issues, then chapter-level ones, then small ones. In r/writing, u/alanna_the_lioness says the value of beta readers is big-picture feedback that may mean taking the book apart, and that she breaks out the main takeaways and starts a new outline from them.

1. 1Reverse outline first. One card per scene in the act lists, with the one thing that scene does. Between the Lines Editorial (April 20, 2022) breaks a reverse outline by scene rather than chapter and looks for each scene's "core nugget"; a scene with none is a flag. Scene and act labels (S1, S2) let a note point at them.
2. 2Wait for all your readers, then put every note in one list. Debbie Emmitt (April 29, 2022) says to wait until all feedback is in before reading any of it. Each note is a card with the reader's first name and chapter.
3. 3Look for patterns before individual opinions. Odev says that when several readers name the same problem it is a signal, and that outliers often reveal taste. Emmitt gives a rule of thumb: if most readers (3 out of 5 or more) say something negative, seriously consider changing it. Those are their rules, not ours.
4. 4Sort each note. Move it to Must fix, Consider or Not for this book, and add an owner and a plan on the card. Say why a note is in Not for this book, so that you don't reopen it at 2 a.m.
5. 5Join notes to scenes. Draw an arrow from the card to the scene it is about and caption it ("drags here", "arrives late"). The arrows stay attached when you move the cards.
6. 6Put the editor's letter in its own list. One card per point, and an arrow from each to the pass task it becomes. Hawk says a developmental editor's letter can run 3 to 15 single-spaced pages; the board holds your summary of it, not the letter.
7. 7Work the passes in order. Pass 1 story (structure, plot, character, new scenes), then Pass 2 scenes, then Pass 3 lines. Tick each task off. Park anything you aren't ready to decide in Parked and done.

Hawk also says to revise from a new draft and never delete anything, so you keep a boneyard. That lives in your writing app, not here.

Where Word, Google Docs, Reedsy Studio, Scrivener, Plottr, Notion and a spreadsheet are better

Read on November 14, 2026, each from its own page. Microsoft's Track Changes page says that deletions are marked with a strikethrough and additions with an underline, with a different colour for each author. Google's comments page lets you comment on highlighted text, reply, resolve a comment and, when you add someone with @, they get an email. If your readers or editor mark up the manuscript itself, that is the right tool, and this board starts after their notes come back.

Reedsy Studio's home page says Studio lets you invite your co-author, editor or proofreader to view edits, respond to comments and revise live, and share individual chapters with beta readers through an online e-reader. Its core writing is free; the home page lists the Outlining add-on at $7.99 a month. Its planning page says Boards can't yet be shared with a collaborator. If you want the draft, the editor's marks and the plan in one app, that is the better fit.

Scrivener's page describes a ring-binder, an integrated project outline and compile to Word, PDF or Final Draft, on macOS, Windows and iOS. One reply on the Literature & Latte forum in 2020 says Scrivener imports Word comments but not Track Changes markup; that is a single forum post from 2020, so check it against your version. Plottr's pricing page lists Plottr at $60 a year and Plottr Pro at $99 a year, with Pro adding a browser app and real-time collaboration, which it says suits writers who need to collaborate with a co-author, coach or editor.

For the sort-and-count job, a spreadsheet is better. Debbie Emmitt's free template (an .xlsx, April 2022) has drop-down lists, a Done column that turns the row green, and a separate sheet for positive comments, and her post says compiling into a spreadsheet lets you see whether most readers found a scene slow or just one. Notion lists a free "Beta Reader Feedback Tracker" template for authors; we did not read what is inside it. A spreadsheet sorts and counts. This board doesn't.

Planning a book before you draft it is a different job; organizing a novel with index cards and a mystery outline board cover it, and a romance outline board does the same for two points of view. After the passes, a book launch plan board picks up the next stage.

Sharing it with an editor or co-author

In the share menu, choose who gets the link. New boards start view-only, so an editor who only needs to read your plan can open the link signed out and sees everything but can't change it. To let a co-author add cards, set Share to "Anyone with the link can edit"; they sign in free and write live, and you each see the other's changes within seconds. Beta readers can read the board too, but you probably don't want them to: it holds your own judgement of their notes. Anyone with the link can read it, so leave off unpublished chapters, contracts and logins. Two people typing in the same card at the same time are merged keystroke by keystroke, with no lock, so give each person their own cards.

Free calls on the board run up to 60 minutes per call, with a warning 10 minutes before the end. Calls need a free sign-in for everyone, aren't recorded, and Pro has no limit.

This board vs Word and Docs vs Reedsy Studio vs Scrivener vs Plottr vs a spreadsheet

Limits of the free plan for a revision board

• Items. Each card and each list is 1 of your 150 free items, across all your boards. The example is 43 cards and 12 lists, 55 in all (our count). A real novel is far bigger: 80 scene cards, the 12 lists and 60 reader notes already come to 152 (our arithmetic), so reverse-outline by act or by chapter, or keep notes shorter.
• Boards. The free plan includes 5 boards. Making your own copy of the example uses 1 of them; a card that opens its own board uses another, so the example keeps everything on one board.
• No manuscript, no tracked changes, no comment import. Reader notes are typed in as cards. Nothing links a card to a line of your draft, and nothing records which draft a note was about.
• No sorting or counts. You see a pattern by looking. Nothing tells you that three of five readers named the same scene.
• No reminders and no timeline axis. A deadline is text in a card.
• Readers need a free sign-in to write. A reader who joins by link or code can add cards, and the board counts as one of their 5. Most will keep sending notes the way they do now.
• Copy as image only. To send the plan to someone without the link, use Copy as image on the board.

Questions