Shelly Davis

Fiction editor, especially women's fiction and historical fiction. Book lover. Music lover. INFJ. @EFAFreelancers member. #WFWA

[Elle Lookbook @EvaLovesDesign]

What words mean … this is a great list

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

disregard | verb | to pay no attention to : treat as unworthy of regard or notice

[David Perell @david_perell]

Some highlights from the interview:

1) "The point is not to try harder; it's to resist life less."

2) "Reverence is about constantly asking yourself: how alive am I willing to be? It hurts to be fully alive. It means taking off some of your armor."

3) From her husband, Neil: "Everything true and beautiful can be discovered on any ten-minute walk."

4) What Anne says to her inner critic: "Thank you for keeping me alive as a child, but I won't be needing you right now. I'm in the middle of something."

5) Two rules for writing: Remove the boring stuff. Then, write the hard stuff.

6) If it sounds literary, remove it. The goal isn't to sound literary. The goal is to sound human.

7) The ABDCE formula for storytelling: Action, Background, Development, Climax, Ending.

8) "If you've survived your childhood, you have enough to write about for the rest of your life." — Flannery O'Connor

9) "Worship good editors. They save you from yourself, from your blind spots, and from your weird little habits that you think are charming but actually are not."

10) The first thing she says at all her writing workshops: "You've got to stop not writing."

11) Writing is like getting into very cold water. Once you're in, you might as well paddle around for a minute.

12) Laughter is carbonated holiness.

[David Perell @david_perell]

Anne Lamott is the queen of writing teachers. Ask 100 writers for their favorite book about the craft, and her book, Bird by Bird, will top the list.

Everybody who's tried to make a work of art knows how loud the inner critic can be. When struggle comes, most people try harder. But Anne says: "The point is not to try harder; it's to resist life less."

Improving as a writer is about becoming more aware and paying closer attention to what's already around you, and this conversation is about how to do that.

It centers around her famous writing advice: “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

Timestamps:

0:39 Bird by Bird
2:17 Why writer's block isn't real
3:36 The problem with trying harder
9:06 Every book has three drafts
14:24 Learning to observe the world
15:58 Facing your inner critic
27:59 "Help, thanks, wow"
31:16 You get three pages
35:51 Revenge = fuel
38:26 Anne's #1 writing prompt
48:53 Finding writing ideas
54:57 Writing lessons from movies
1:02:08 The ABDCE storytelling formula
1:05:37 What makes for a good ending?
1:10:57 Dealing with criticism
1:16:28 Writing to be fully alive

I've shared the full conversation with Anne Lamott below. If you'd prefer to watch it, I've published it on YouTube, and you also can listen to it on Apple / Spotify. I've shared those links in the reply tweets.

This is one of those bucket list interviews I've wanted to do ever since I started How I Write, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

I strongly encourage you to ignore the bestseller lists & seek out niche, forgotten books. Algorithms make this harder than ever, so you have to be intentional about finding fiction that resonates uncannily. We become interesting over a lifetime of reading strange books.

[becks @queenxofpeace]

in a world full of fake performative AI slop girlbosses we have HER

[Things From the Past @pastarchive]

This is where “uppercase” and “lowercase” came from. In the early days of printing, capital letters were kept in the upper compartments of the type case, while the smaller letters were placed below for easier access.

[Joseph Massey @jmasseypoet]

I love being surrounded by books in every room of my apartment. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t read most of them yet. They sit there as little monuments to humanity, stacked capsules of time, the promise of future conversations—friends.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

The fact that you can open a book and access the expertise and wisdom of someone born 4,000 years ago, that they can speak to you as though they were still living, is a magic that chatbots will never be able to replicate.

[` @ymmayerr]

As an adult, you're going to get the urge to return to hobbies, like reading, that you used to enjoy as a kid... it is very important that you do so, and start doing things that bring you joy again.

[TechCrunch @TechCrunch]

The dictionary sues OpenAI https://t.co/Vp8P5Kt9yA

[Dr. Dominic Ng @DrDominicNg]

Writing forces your brain to coordinate memory, reasoning, and meaning-making simultaneously.

Every time you write, you rewire toward clearer thinking. Every time you let an LLM do it, you rewire toward consumption.

[maia🌙🌷 @ladybirdml]

suzanne collins was 46 when she wrote the hunger games. philip pullman was 49 when he wrote northern lights. diana wynne jones was 53 when she wrote howl's moving castle. you'll be fine if you dont get a nyt bestseller by 20 chill out babe life doesn't end in your 30s

[The Oxford Comma @RealOxfordComma]

In lists of things, we often see
A tiny curve, a little key.
It sits between the final two
And gives a pause, a breath, a clue.

Without its presence, we might find
A sentence jumbled, undefined.
But when it’s there, we can be sure
Each item's clear, each phrase secure.

So let us honor, one and all
The Oxford comma, standing tall.
For in its use, we'll always find
A certain message, peace of mind.

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Ok, which one sounds better?

A) It’s an old little amazing house.
B) It’s an amazing little old house.

B, right?

Which of these?
1) She was wearing a huge green raincoat.
2) She was wearing a green huge raincoat.

You chose 1, didn't you?

WHY??

[Heidi N. Moore @moorehn]

Really great pep talk for anyone who needs it: Do it messy, do it scared, do it unprepared

[The Oxford Comma @RealOxfordComma]

Happy Christmas to you all, my friends, followers, and fellow pedants.

May your pauses be short, your lists be clear, and no one wonder whether you’re eating Grandma.

[Aaron Day @AaronRDay]

For You "Elon Saved Free Speech" White Knight Assholes: Read the New Terms of Service Released Today

X just updated their Terms of Service effective January 15, 2026. Here's what you agreed to:

AI TRAINING RIGHTS GRAB: Everything you post becomes training data for their AI models. Every thought, opinion, creative work. You're building their models for free. No compensation. No opt out.

PERPETUAL CONTENT LICENSE: They get a worldwide, royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, and distribute your content "for any purpose" in "any media now known or later developed." Forever. They can sell it. Give it to governments. Anything.

FORCED JURISDICTION: All disputes must be filed in Tarrant County, Texas. You waive the right to join class actions. If they wrong millions of users, you sue alone in THEIR court.

ARBITRARY TERMINATION: They can delete your account "for any other reason or no reason at our convenience." Years of content, connections, reputation. Gone. Zero due process.

$15,000 LIQUIDATED DAMAGES: Access more than 1 million posts in 24 hours and you owe $15,000. Per million. Journalists and researchers investigating the platform face financial ruin.

GOVERNMENT DISCLOSURE: They reserve the right to hand your DMs, drafts, and entire history to governments based on what they "reasonably believe" is necessary.

ANTI-JAILBREAK CLAUSE: Testing their AI systems, exposing censorship mechanisms, or security research is now explicitly a Terms violation. They added "prompt engineering or injection" to prohibited conduct.

ONE YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS: Discover they harmed you after 366 days? You "forever waive the right" to pursue any claim.

MAXIMUM LIABILITY $100: They destroy your business, reputation, or life through negligence? Maximum recovery: one hundred dollars.

Free speech platform. Sure.