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Write up your notes in full immediately after the interview. You don't have the luxury of writing everything down in detail during the interview so make sure that you complete this task before you forget key aspects of what was said.
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Write up your notes in full immediately after the interview. You don't have the luxury of writing everything down in detail during the interview so make sure that you complete this task before you forget key aspects of what was said.
What is your main hook for the article? What's the juicy sound-bite that will have your readers salivating to read on? • How are you going to introduce the article? • How are you going to structure the body of the article, so that you get all your key elements in? • How are you going to end the article? What is the last thing that you want to leave readers with? • What title are you going to give the article? It should tie in with your main hook, and be something that is likely to draw readers to your article.
Narrative articles Describe what the interviewee says in third person • I ask John about his job and he tells me he likes truck driving. Instead of: • “I like truck driving.”
An interesting quote is a good way to start the article, if you get one. It's surprising how dull many successful or talented people can be in person. I've read straight question/response interviews and find them repetitive and boring in many cases. Again, it depends on the person and the topic. Record everything because you may have a word-count quota and have to stretch a limited amount of information.
written in the present tense. • Feel free to be creative in writing your interview, but always make sure that you’ve quoted only what your interview subject has actually said, and only in the context of how they meant it.
Narrative interviews have the advantage of being more creative than your basic Q&A interview. While they don’t necessarily need to tell a story, the author has much more freedom to present the ideas and angles as they see fit. Still, the narrative interview is a chance for the interviewer to switch into story-telling mode. • The questions and responses can be integrated into different events during the interview. If you are talking over dinner you can give details about the meal, receiving your drinks, placing your order, paying the bill etc.
Remember, not every thought in your narrative interview needs to be recorded chronologically. • Your interview subject might express a thought at the beginning, middle or end of the interview, that you might want to use at a point that is better suited for it.
Conversation is full of half sentences, gestures, unspoken words and sudden changes of topic. To make the interview readable, you’ll have to rephrase most sentences. There’s a simple rule of thumb concerning rephrasing. • Rephrase as much as you like, but don’t change the message. • So, you might rephrase every sentence in order to make it fit your preferred style of writing, as long as the interviewee can find no reason to complain about his or her message being changed.
