Don Shelby on Writing, Storytelling, and the Sound of a Great Sentence

A recap from The Thinking Spot’s author evening with Ashley and Don Shelby

We often talk about the power of story. But rarely do we hear someone unpack it with the clarity, humility, and lived wisdom that Don Shelby did during his conversation at The Thinking Spot.

What follows are the lessons that stayed with me—not just as a listener, but as someone trying to write better, think deeper, and live more intentionally.

1. Storytelling is in our bones

Don opened by reminding us that storytelling predates the written word. Before data. Before journalism. Before books.

“All knowledge that has grown up through our ancestors… has been the story.”

This isn’t nostalgia—it’s architecture. Story is how the human brain processes complexity. And that matters more than ever now, in a world saturated with fragmented facts but starving for meaning.

2. Smuggling in facts: the journalist’s sleight of hand

Don shared one of his most resonant techniques: don’t just present dry facts—smuggle them into a story.

“Rather than giving a litany of facts, tell a story that includes them.”

Whether reporting on climate science or high school basketball, the structure of story gives facts stickiness. They land. They linger. They move people.

3. Craft one great sentence

This hit me hardest. Don believes every writer should obsess over crafting one powerful sentence—a line that sounds like music and feels inevitable.

“Great writing is like music—it has rhythm, tone, melody.”

It’s not just what the sentence says. It’s how it sounds. This is the line that echoes long after the page is turned.

4. Learn by imitation. Then rise.

To help his daughter Ashley find her voice, Don assigned a unique exercise:

Rewrite a story in the voice of Hemingway.
Then do it again in the style of Twain.

Imitation isn’t mimicry—it’s scaffolding. You climb through others’ styles until your own voice rises through.

“Imitate first. Then your style rises out of it.”

I loved this. It validates learning through practice, not just inspiration.

5. Read three times

Don’s process is methodical:

First read: for the story.
Second: for structure.
Third: for the sentence-level mechanics.

And sometimes, he pauses over a line, struck by the construction.

“With Dickens, I stop and ask—how long did it take him to make that sentence?”

That kind of reverence for language? It’s contagious.

6. Voice is earned through revision

This resonated with what Ashley shared too. The vulnerability of writing badly. The persistence of returning to the page. Over and over.

Voice isn’t found. It’s revealed—through honest revision, through attention to rhythm, and through trusting what only you can say.

Closing thought

Don’s book, The Season Never Ends, is about basketball. But really, it’s about life. About learning in practice, about grace under pressure, about the assist being more beautiful than the shot.

That night, I walked out reminded of something simple and profound:

Listen like a journalist. Write like a coach. Speak like a musician. Think like a storyteller. And always, always, respect the sound of a great sentence.