Lamott’s main focus in Bird by Bird is the craft of creative writing. A throughline that runs through all her advice is the importance of focusing only on one small piece of the writing process at a time, since in this way the writer can avoid feeling overwhelmed by the task of writing a whole novel or other large project. This is the significance of the title, Bird by Bird—which is derived from the advice Lamott’s writer father gave to her brother when he felt daunted by a school report on birds.

Since many creative writing students are unsure what to write, Lamott recommends looking into your childhood and focusing on just a “one-inch picture frame” (34). That is, focus on describing a small part of a specific moment. Recording the specific details within this frame is important. It is not important to have a perfect first draft. Lamott gives the reader permission to write “shitty first drafts” (21) because “All good writers write them” (21). Getting words on the page is a way to think through things—it can help to simply start writing even if you are still unsure what your topic is.

Early in the drafting process, Lamott believes that it’s important to generate a lot of writing.