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. 

Today’s guest for the WHAT is Madison Davis, author of The Loved Ones: Essays to Bury the Dead which is the winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize

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 had a few! The Loved Ones first existed as a number of different projects. The real “idea” was to weave these disparate threads together into a non-traditional memoir. 

There is a section in the book that follows my research into the death of my great uncle who was killed in action in WWII. This storyline began with something like a “bolt of lightning” moment. I had always been fascinated by the story surrounding my great uncle, but I was driving one day—mind wandering in stop-and-go traffic—when I first thought has anyone in the family really looked into this? I realized that the story had been loosely filtered down from my grandmother in the form of scattered details and questions, but no one had tried in earnest to track down answers in the age of the internet. What followed was years of research culminating in a trip abroad to visit the place he died. 

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

I tried a few different ways to weave the content together. There are a lot of moving pieces—names, places, dates, and familial relationships over generations—so I needed to find a structure that a reader could follow. Ultimately, I decided to dedicate a section of the book to each of the central figures. Then, after all my main characters had been defined and the details of their lives and deaths had been told, the final section revisits each through the lens of the funerals and physical remains. Once the reader is well-situated in the narrative, I found I could take more leaps in that last section, draw more connections. 

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

For the most part, my writing evolves on the page over many (many, many) iterations. There is rarely clarity in my mind before it’s on paper (and not for quite a while after that). I find a lot of enjoyment in editing the raw material. I love taking a piece apart and putting it back together in different ways until I see something new in it. Of course, there have been times that I believe something will work but it just falls apart on the page and requires total reimagining.

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

I’m always writing. Most of the little threads go nowhere. Other pieces combine into a project or grow into a whole piece of their own. At some point in my life, I began to see everything as writing material, for better or worse. I never know which seeds will grow, but I rarely experience a lack of ideas; a lack of time is the more common problem!

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

I tend to have various projects percolating. I try very hard to follow my interest. If I’ve lost interest in a piece, it probably won’t become interesting if I force it. If there is something to it, I’ll find myself pulled back to it again down the road. It helps to have 2-3 projects in a rotation. If I’m stuck or struggling with one, I can pivot to another. 

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?

I write alongside my dog, Stevie. She’s an excellent writing partner. She reminds me to take walks every so often but is otherwise content to just snuggle up and listen to the typing. When I’m struggling to focus, I like to enlist a human writer friend to work near me. It’s great to feel the productive energy in the room for a specified amount of time (set a timer!) and then have a fun, rewarding break with a friend. 

Madison Davis is a writer and editor based in Oakland, California. She is the author of the books Disaster (Timeless Infinite Light; Nightboat 2016) and The Loved Ones (Dzanc 2023).