Greetings, Gather writers, and welcome to Thursday's Writing Essential. I'm in Sarasota today conducting a couple of interviews. In light of my my own assignments, I started wondering who you'd consider the ideal subject to interview. Do you have a dream interviewee? Perhaps you've already achieved success in an interview and would like to share it with everyone here at Gather. Are there any p
articular questions you feel are mandatory when interviewing a subject for an article?
I find that "telling" rather than "asking" garners far better results when I'm conducting an interview. For example, "Decribe how you felt when you learned your husband had been unfaithful, Mrs. Spitzer" is likely to afford me a much better quote than had I simply asked "How did his infidelity make you feel?"
Another tip I've always found useful is to prepare about 20 questions more than you believe you'll need to ask. Have them at the bottom of your list. Once in a great while an interviewee will respond with such simple, short answers you may be left with a content deficit.
Good interviewing skills are vital to all writers. Hone some concise ones and develop a very distinctive interviewing style. Practice interviewing people you know. Ask them how you could have livened up, hastened or streamlined the process.
Submit your interview ideals, tips, successes and any related thoughts to Tuesday's Writing Essential. If you're at liberty to do so, feel free to post actual interviews you've conducted.
A special thank you to John Philipp for moderating this while I'm working today!
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Comments: 16
My "other" job is teaching English in Japan, and students can be notoriously shy when it comes to answering questions. If you let them, they'll just say, "Yes, No, I don't know".
I always begin with "Tell me about...."
Somehow I came up with a list of questions on my own to ask that are the same that journalists are taught to use:
How? When? Where? Why? Who?
These are quite general, but they help to get you thinking about specific questions to ask your interviewee.
Kathryn Esplin-Oleski, Mar 27, 2008, 8:21am EDT
Oh good Lord, Kathryn....I just got back from Sarasota and saw this....no wonder no one has submitted anything. John Philipp must think I've lost my ever-loving mind.
Yes, I think I'll blame it on the sun!!
As for an artist interview, I would love to see a Robin Williams interview again, and for writers John Randolph Price who wrote 'Angel Energy'.
This Rose also agrees. I would love to see Harper Lee interviewed. I wrote to her awhile back after I read, "Mockingbird" A prtrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields. which gave me more information on the woman. She never wrote back, but I didn't expect she would. I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" every few years. It gives me a good feeling about the human being.
So Rose (the ole GA peach) and this Rose from Long Island, New York agree.
It is inspiring, in some ways, to see that she has not capitulated to the culture of celebrity that has ruined the work of so many modern writers.
Tom Wolfe could have been a great writer, too.