Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today’s guest for the WHAT is Natalka Burian, author of The Night Shift . Natalka is also the co-owner of two bars, Elsa and Ramona, as well as the co-founder of The Freya Project, a non-profit reading series that supports community-based activism and annually awards five unrestricted grants to further the work of women and non-binary writers.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

 I love this question! The origin point for The Night Shift was actually a song: Destroyer’s Kaputt. There’s a line in the song that references the “back rooms of the world all night.” It sparked a conversation between me and my husband about being young in NYC and staying out way too late chasing down the next fascinating thing. We talked about how magical and mysterious those nighttime “back rooms of the world” could be. It was a time of life where anything seemed possible, even the existence of secret doors through space and time. From there, it was a pretty short jump to conceive of the shortcuts in The Night Shift .

 Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

 Oh man, this absolutely was the hardest part. The concept was so fun and fantastic I wanted to make sure that the story could stand up to it. I knew the plot had to have some emotional grounding because the concept was so wild. Developing Jean, the protagonist’s, character really helped guide me to the right story. She is truly lost at the beginning of the book, and the plot sort of built itself around her personal emotional journey. It’s definitely not a coincidence that therapy plays such a substantial role in the plot.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Always! In everything I’ve ever worked on, there is, inevitably, some drift from the original plan. In the Night Shift, though, it was less drift and more Rubik’s Cube. I’ve never written anything with time travel and I found that tweaks and shifts in the plot were essential to align everything that needed to be in alignment. It required constant plot flexibility and vigilance—honestly, I have never been more grateful to my editor or the proofers who worked on this book. Those extra pairs of eyes caught so many things that I missed!

 Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

 Story ideas come to me a medium amount. I wish I was one of those people brimming with new ideas all of the time, but I’m also grateful I’m never sitting out there languishing and waiting for something exciting to begin. I find that every time I’m ready to start a new project, a compelling (usually only one!) idea is waiting.

 How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

 I almost always start with the idea that feels good, even if that idea is still on the vague side. I heard someone once say that you should write toward joy, that you should feel joy—or at the very least—pleasure when you’re developing an idea or writing toward something. So, I try to do that.

I have 6 cats and a Dalmatian (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

 You are living my dream life! I love cats so much (and living in NYC, I love even more that they are adorable and majestic insurance policies against rodent invasion.) Sadly, two of the people I live with are allergic to cats. But they aren’t allergic to dogs, which is great because I don’t know what I would do without our beloved, neurotic, sweet-tempered dog, Ruggles. I welcome writing buddies of all kinds—fortunately, I am not easily distracted!