“It’s astonishing how similar everyone’s editorial problems are”: A Conversation with Allison K Williams

Allison K Williams’s recently released book, Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, is exactly what the title says: a step-by-step editor’s guide to getting a book done. Williams calls draft #1 The Vomit Draft. “It isn’t dainty, but it’s a relief. Better out than in,” says the author.

Wait, was she cracking a joke? This craft book about writing a book is funny? It is! The humor in Seven Drafts makes it a fresh, fun read. Plus Williams covers, in depth and detail, how to write a book in seven drafts: from vomit to story, to character, to technical, to copyedit, plus the friend and editor reads.

Williams, a native of Florida, has lived in Dubai since 2013. She’s a writer, editor, speaker, and teacher and has been editor of the Brevity Blog for six years. I met her through Writers’ Bridge, a biweekly online writing community she leads (for free) to help writers navigate the social media and publishing landscapes. When we caught up on Zoom, she was in Italy leading a writing retreat and sporting her signature casual style: auburn hair in a ponytail, a short-sleeve tee, no makeup, and her ubiquitous smile. We talked and laughed for over an hour about how to write a good book.

The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Andrea A. Firth: You go by the moniker The Unkind Editor. Harsh?

Allison K Williams: No. Praise makes you feel good, but direct and specific feedback makes your work better.

AF: Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book—why seven separate drafts?

AW: Having a way to work on elements or facets of a book is valuable. It’s hard to concentrate on great punctuation that takes your reader through the page like a music score when you are also looking at what a character wants in a scene. By dividing it up into seven specific drafts, the writer isn’t overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once.

AF: What inspired you to write this book?

AW: I had two reasons. It’s astonishing how similar everyone’s editorial problems are. I often see writers having trouble with the same things, and I have many well-developed answers for how to address these issues that I share in the book. And two, not everyone can afford a couple thousand dollars or more for a professional edit. If you want to put the work in and go through the seven drafts, you will get the experience of being edited, only you will be doing it yourself.

AF: You have a BA in drama and an MFA in playwriting. You’ve worked as a stage actor, director, playwright, circus/street performer, fire eater, and aerialist. Quite a résumé. How has your background contributed to your work as an editor?

AW: My theater experience has greatly informed my editing at the story level. I often imagine a book playing out on the stage in my head. I’ll find an underwritten character looking up at me from the page asking, Why am I in this scene? That’s what an actor says in rehearsal when she doesn’t understand her motivation. If your character can’t answer that question, it’s time for some rewriting. With dialogue, when you hear a line in a performance, you learn to recognize what’s working and what isn’t. On the sentence level, in street performing you see a direct correlation between what you say, the exact words you use and how, and what makes the audience laugh and throw money in the hat.

AF: You include a total of 132 footnotes in the book! Here’s one of my favorites: “Some critics talk about male vs female plot structures. A slow build to a single climax protagonist is ‘male.’ Interlocking story structures with multiple protagonists and multiple climaxes are ‘female’—get it?”

Why so many footnotes?

AW: I use footnotes because it’s a special way to talk to the reader. There are moments in the book when I have a smart-ass comment to share or an extra example to throw in. If I add those to the main text, it has the potential to derail the reader. But as a footnote, we share a joke together, ha ha, then we get back on the book’s main path.

AF: How do you recommend a writer approach and use your book?

AW: I think you can dip in wherever you like. If you are at the start of your book, sure, go through the drafts in order. Otherwise, ask yourself: What is the most challenging part of writing my book? What feedback do I keep getting that I don’t know how to fix? Go to the relevant draft and section to address that.

AF: What if I suck? The thought crosses every writer’s mind.

AW: It’s good to worry that you suck, because when you are worried that your work is not doing everything it can, you are looking for ways to develop it and improve it. The best way to know that your work is not without hope is that you are asking that question.

Praise makes you feel good, but direct and specific feedback makes your work better.

AF: The word suck serves as an acronym in draft #2: Story. What does suck mean then?

AW: S-U-C-K is what your book must have at the start. Something Simple, Unexpected, and Concrete that Kicks off the story.

Take the beginning of Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle. The narrator is riding in a taxi dressed for a night out. She sees her mother rooting through a garbage bin and keeps going.

Simple: She’s in a taxi going out.

Unexpected: That’s mom routing through garbage on the street!

Concrete: Nice clothes, taxi, mom, garbage.

Kick off: How did I come to be the person who sees her mom digging in a garbage bin and doesn’t stop?

AF: You talk about the importance of mystery in both fiction and nonfiction. How is it essential?

AW: Writers often overexplain because they are worried that the reader won’t get the story; this comes back to showing versus telling. By giving clues, showing through actions without directly connecting all the dots, the reader leans in and looks more carefully. Some telling is good. The bad side of telling is when the reader leans back and crosses her arms mentally, because she knows what’s going to happen. You need to maintain some mystery.

AF: How can the writer be faithful to her own truth while treating others in the book fairly?

AW: It’s important, particularly in memoir, for the narrator to recognize her weaknesses and lay that on the page. Also remember that the villain is the hero of her own story too. Here’s a powerful exercise: In the second or third draft, rewrite a couple of chapters from the perspective of the villain in the story. What is she angry and frustrated about? What makes her feel bad about how the narrator or protagonist is behaving? The more you can introduce those elements, the more the reader comes to understand both characters. When you make the villain universally bad, it makes the writer look weak.

AF: Draft #3: Character. Why do readers attach to a character, and how does the writer achieve this?

AW: There’s a concept called character zero. This ties back to my years of doing improv and theater. Character zero is a pose an actor strikes when he first enters the stage, which shows the audience something about him. Each time a character walks into a book, we need to get an immediate sense of the person. You don’t have to describe every detail of his appearance or give a play-by-play of his entrance; you choose these details selectively. For example, a man enters a bar, puts a cigarette in his mouth, strikes a match on his shoe, and lights up. We’ve learned something about the time period, his age, and his habits. Each time he enters the book, you add on more layers of detail. As the character becomes more rounded, more real, the reader becomes attached.

AF: After each draft, you advise the writer to let the manuscript rest for a week. Why?

AW: For at least a week, and honestly much longer. When you write, your brain is filling in all the stuff that’s not on the page. When you walk away from the manuscript for a week or two or six, you clear away the extra information and context that your brain has been autofilling. Then you can look at the text and see what is missing.

AF: How do you get useful, actionable feedback when you share your book with a friend or beta-reader?

AW: People are afraid to hurt your feelings, so I find it helpful to give them a list of questions. Start off with “What did you like about the book?” Then get specific. Ask: “Where did you find yourself skimming or feeling like you already knew what was going on?” “Which character did you find annoying?” Ask questions that invite negative answers. This makes it easier for the reader to criticize the work.

AF: When do you recommend that a writer pay for a professional editor?

AW: First, when you’re at the stage where you are sending out the book and agents are saying no. You’re getting form rejections and you don’t know why. Another option might be if you prefer to spend money more than invest time; a professional edit can speed up the process.

AF: You’ve written the book about writing a book. What’s next?

AW: Next is the book of my heart, a young adult novel that I’ve been working on for several years. And I have a book on self-publishing, author platforms, and social media in progress too.

AF: Any other advice for the writer?

AW: Improv! All writers should take an improv class. You don’t have to want to be funny; you don’t have to be funny. In fact it’s better if you are not, but go take an improv class. It will make you a better writer.

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