A Second Draft Is Several Jobs. Do Them One at a Time.
A revision pass is one read through your book looking for one kind of problem: structure first, then scenes, then sentences, then typos. Shiro gives each pass a checklist per scene and a colour for what you changed, and keeps a Worklist of everything your editor said.
Why a Second Draft Goes Wrong
The usual way to revise is to open chapter one and start fixing whatever you see. A comma, then a motive, then a comma. Three weeks later the opening is lovely, and on page 240 you discover that the opening shouldn’t exist. Polishing a paragraph in a scene you’re going to cut is a sad way to spend a morning.
Editors work the other way round, from big to small, and a guide to revising a novel will tell you the same. The hard part has always been keeping to it once you’re alone with the text and there’s a comma right there.
What a Pass Is, in Shiro
A pass has a name, a colour, a checklist and a set of scenes: all of them, some chapters, the ones at a given status, or the ones you pick on the Board. One pass is active at a time. You go through its scenes in order, tick the checks, press Done, next scene, and the panel keeps count. Scene cards on the Board show a pip for each pass, so you can see at a glance that chapter nine got the character pass and quietly skipped dialogue.
The checklists are specific, which is most of their value. The scene pass asks whether it opens late and leaves early. The dialogue pass asks you to read it aloud, and whether tags are simple: said, asked. The line pass wants filter words gone (felt, saw, thought).
Passes That Know What You’re Writing
A novel starts with structure, scene, character, dialogue, line and proof. Non-fiction swaps in argument, clarity and a fact check. Then the genre adds its own:
- Romance gets a tension pass: do we ache for them to get together?
- Mystery gets fair play: could the reader have solved it?
- Thriller gets pace, horror gets dread, and fantasy and science fiction get a check on whether the world follows its own rules.
- Historical fiction gets a period check, down to whether any word, object or idea is out of its time.
- Memoir gets truth and consent.
All of them can be edited, reordered or thrown out. You can also make your own, and a pass devoted entirely to the word “suddenly” is a legitimate use of your time.
What You Changed, in That Pass’s Colour
Switch to Revise and whatever you type takes the active pass’s colour. Deleted text stays visible and a click puts it back. You can see every pass’s colours at once, only this pass’s, or none. None of it reaches your exported text.
Start a pass with a snapshot and Shiro first keeps a named copy of every scene, “Before Line pass”, so you can compare later or go back. You can also have the AI ask you before it moves, merges or rewrites a whole scene during that pass, even in Auto.
The Worklist, and What to Do With an Editorial Letter
An editorial letter is eleven pages of kindness wrapped around the sentence “the middle doesn’t work”. Paste it into the Worklist and Shiro splits it into the points it makes, matches each to the scenes it concerns, suggests a pass, and picks up a due date if the letter gives one. Each proposed task quotes the letter’s own words. You accept, change or skip them one at a time, and nothing is added until you do.
The Worklist also collects tasks you make from comments and from a read-through, and from what your beta readers reported. Tasks are grouped by pass and open at the place in the text they refer to. So the note “she wouldn’t forgive him this fast” stops being a sentence in an email and becomes a job, in the pass where it belongs, on the scene it’s about.
The Questions People Ask
What is a revision pass?
One read through the book with one question in mind. Does the story hold together? Does each scene do its job? Do the sentences read well? Keeping the questions apart stops you polishing a scene you’re about to cut.
Which passes does a new project start with?
It depends on the book. A novel starts with structure, scene, character, dialogue, line and proof, plus one for its genre where there is one. You can drop any of them or add your own.
Do the revision colours show up in the finished book?
No. They stay out of your exported text, and you can hide them or clear them whenever you like.
Do passes need the AI?
No. Passes, checklists, colours and the Worklist work with the AI turned off. Only turning an editorial letter into tasks uses it, and you can always write tasks by hand.