by Rachel Smith
15 June 2018
You might be the most talented writer around, but being able to nail an interview for your story, case study, client bio etc is an essential skill. And a multi-part one: you have to write decent questions that will elicit the types of responses you need. You need to be able to create a rapport with your subject. And you need to have the talent, the courage (and sometimes, the charm) to steer an interview in the way you want it to go. I’ve conducted hundreds – if not thousands – of interviews over the past 20 years. And I’d wager that I’ve made a LOT of interviewing mistakes along the way! So if you’re new to interviewing or just looking to brush up on your technique, here are just a few traps I try to sidestep.
Sometimes you can wing a quick interview without much prep; others require huge amounts of research before you hit the phone. My rule of thumb: the more complex the topic, the more research I’ll do (on both the topic and the interviewee). In my experience doing this pays off because the interviewee a) will see you’ve done your homework, making for a better interview; b) won’t have to explain the nitty gritty of every concept, thus saving time and c) will potentially give you quotes no one else has gotten.
Mistake 2: Not planning your questions.
It’s not only about asking the right questions or open-ended ones (like ‘Talk me through how that felt…’, ‘What prompted your move to Antarctica?’ or ‘Why do you believe so strongly in XYZ?’). It’s about putting them in the right order, and thinking about segue-ways to help things flow and feel conversational. Assessing and tweaking your questions, and slashing redundant or duplicate questions before the interview starts can also save heaps of time at the transcribing end. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather transcribe (or pay to transcribe) a 20-minute interview that has all the quotes I need over a one-hour interview that’s full of waffle and small talk.
There are a lot of nervous nellies out there, terrified they’ll say the wrong thing and be misquoted. I always try to soften up the subject with a little casual small talk, an off-topic question or something that lets them talk about themselves for a second, so they chill out a bit for the actual questions. That said, ditch the softly-softly approach if your interviewee is clearly not into small talk. I interviewed a busy heart specialist recently who resisted all my attempts to build rapport – so I just cut to the chase. Once I did, she rattled off some great quotes in ten minutes flat.
Mistake 4: Not recording the interview.
I can’t type 150 words per minute or do shorthand, so I record every interview I do. And I’d still record it, even if I could do those things. Mainly because it leaves me free to focus on the subject rather than my notes, I don’t have to worry about missing a key quote and it makes the interviewee feel more relaxed knowing their quotes are being captured accurately.
I’ll never forget the time I was interviewing two young stars for the Chronicles of Narnia (2005), only to realise my dictaphone had completely karked it mid-interview. Cue cold sweat. Similarly, I’ve had times when my most recent recording solution – the app Tape-A-Call – has also mucked up during the interview, leaving me with no recording. So always have a Plan B (for some time after Chronicles I carried a back-up dictaphone with me); these days if I’m using Tape-A-Call, I might double-record using my phone on speaker next to Quicktime audio on my computer. It’s not worth the stress of realising you’ve got nothing after the subject has just hung up!
Mistake 6: Sending questions beforehand.
I’m often asked to do this and sometimes, if the question requires specific stats or data the expert needs to dig out, I will send the relevant questions over to save time during the interview itself. Sending ALL of them just shows your hand and can result in boring, well-rehearsed answers. And it goes without saying if you’re a broadcast journalist doing something to camera – never give out the questions beforehand!
When you’re steering an interview, there’s the urge to fill silences with more questions. Don’t. The interviewee could be deep in thought and about to give you the quote of the day. Just wait and listen. I’ve often inserted a question into what I thought was an uncomfortable silence and regretted it for this very reason – it just throws the whole process off.
Mistake 8. Talking over the interviewee when they’re finishing a quote.
Again, a GREAT way to bugger up what could be a brilliant quote. A good way to learn you’re doing this annoying habit is to transcribe your own interviews, painful as that is. After you’ve kicked yourself a few hundred times for cutting off your interviewee at a potentially key moment, you’ll learn to stop doing it.
Most interviews for me involve having a strong outline in my head of the structure of the story I’ll be writing, and the quotes I need (at the very least) to fulfil the brief. But it can be easy to get too focussed on your questions that you forget to listen for tidbits that could warrant more digging. I have a baseline of questions I write, but as the person speaks, I often think of other questions to ask and jot these down quickly, which often results in some unexpected or surprising information. And don’t forget to ask at the end, ‘Is there anything I’ve missed asking that’s really important to mention?’ For me, this often results in some of the best insights of the entire interview.
Following your question plan is great if you’re short on time, but sometimes a interview ‘going rogue’ can a) net you some great material and b) serve up ideas for new stories you could pitch. It takes practice to reign in an interview and get it back on track, but if you’re getting lots of interesting stuff you weren’t expecting (stuff that could be another great story to pitch down the track), sometimes those tangents are worth it. I would say 40-50 percent of my interviews bring up ideas for future stories and when you freelance, that’s a hugely useful way to keep work flowing.
A mistake I used to make all the time, until we designed our expert tracker. Once you finish an interview, you enter the person into the tracker and then they’re there and easily searchable next time you might need them. Build those relationships now, and finding good interviewees becomes much easier later, especially if you’re often writing on similar topics. It’s also good practice to check quotes before filing (just the quotes; don’t send the entire story), and sending the interviewee a link to the story or a pdf. If they have great social media numbers, they might even share it and help promote your work.
Have you made any of the above interviewing mistakes? Are there any I missed? What are your tips for better interviews?
Great article Rachel. I think #11 is really important and often overlooked in the race on to the next story.
Thanks Heather – glad it resonated with you. And yes – it’s so important building those relationships. I’ve recently been going back over old stories and building up my list of experts from the past 20 years and it’s already saving me a lot of time when I need similar experts quickly.
I’m good at #10 and #11 but am currently schooling myself to not do #8 – talk over the end of a quote. I either inadvertently cut them off mid-sentence or can’t hear the final word or two on the tape because of my voice. A terrible habit but one that listening back to my interviews as I transcribe has revealed loud and clear.
Such a bad habit of mine too, Vivienne!