To the presidential candidate seated across the table, I must have seemed like tender meat ready to be shredded by wit sharpened on the pundit circuit.
The year was 2000, and Pat Buchanan was running a half-hearted campaign. Interest was low enough that I, student reporter that I was, managed to get an interview at the last minute.
It did not start well. He mocked my ragged reporter’s notebook. He joked about how I had dressed up for the occasion. (I hadn’t.) He scoffed when I asked a yes-or-no question. Rookie mistakes.
Then something clicked. I asked him what it was like to be the perennial candidate on the road with limited funds and low visibility. He launched into anecdotes about life as a fringe candidate. He talked about all the things he and Ralph Nader had in common. His mocking smiles turned into something resembling enjoyment. I left with the material I needed for a story.
The lesson was clear: When you find out what lights an interview subject’s fire, stoke it.
If you write for a living — whether you’re covering news or creating custom content — you have to know how to talk to people. More important, you have to get them to talk to you. It all starts with the interview.
The Setup
I do not recommend doing interviews by email; the result is rarely anything but stilted. Introductions are a different story, though. Give me an email introduction over a sweat-inducing cold call any day.
You can set expectations by email. Tell subjects who you are, where you work and where you got their contact information. Tell them about the story you hope to write and why their perspective is valuable. For example, the mother of a child with a chronic illness may not be used to the spotlight, so let her know her perspective will help others who are going through the same thing.
Talk Small
Talking about the weather is mundane, and name-dropping a person’s hometown is the stuff of bad stand-up comics (How you feeling, Boise?). But at the start of an interview, small talk can pay off big.
Keep it light. I do many interviews by phone out of necessity, and I record them rather than trying to scribble notes. But recording through our phone system means starting the interview with a menacing robotic voice that says, “Warning, your call is being recorded.” I always follow with, “Well, now that you’re completely at ease…” It’s a lame joke, and I cringe every time I hear it while transcribing. But I can’t help but notice how often it produces a lighthearted laugh and cracks the ice.
You can ease your way into the interview with basic questions. Ask people about their background and family. If you get the sense that they are opening up — from their tone on the phone or their body language in person — dig deeper.
Behold the Power of Silence
Silence is awkward. During an interview, it leaves a hole where the conversation should be. Your first instinct will be to fill that hole with babble.
Don’t do it. Your interview subject probably feels the same way. Why not let him or her fill the void instead? Some of the best answers and anecdotes have come when I thought a person was finished talking … then started up again.
Write a Script, But Don’t Stick to It
Preparing a list of questions ahead of time is crucial. Being prepared to abandon that list may be just as important.
The best interviews feel like a conversation, and good conversations are rarely orderly. You ask a question, and people may or may not answer it directly. Or they may talk about something seemingly unrelated that turns out to be perfect for the story. You follow up. They go on tangents, and you follow them. Then you bring them back around. At the end of a good interview, you’ve covered the ground you meant to cover and made some scenic detours.
The Slow Play
If it’s your job to explain a complex topic to a lay audience, pretend you’re a member of that audience when you ask questions. Do your homework, but allow the interviewee to explain as if you are starting from scratch. If they get bogged down in jargon, ask them to clarify and repeat important details. In my experience, it is far better to have too much information than too little.
Keep Listening When It’s Over
I usually cue the end of an interview by thanking people for their time and telling them I will be in touch with follow-up questions. If I’m lucky, they don’t stop talking.
Sometimes they had something in mind, but I didn’t ask the right question. Other times, they feel at ease once they know the interview is winding down Either way, the best insights often come at the end, so keep your notebook and your ears open.
Do you have an interviewing success (or horror) story? Share it below. I promise not to mock you, Buchanan style.
[Image: chris.yasick]
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Great post with great points. (I’m a huge fan of this blog. You guys know your stuff.) I would argue, however, that email interviews are valuable for two reasons. 1. They make the person being interviewed take time to think about their response and craft a salient, succinct one. (Well, hopefully.) 2. The response to an email interview is a great segue to a follow-up, live interview to dig deeper and/or expand scope.
Liza, good point. I hadn’t thought about it that way. Some people truly are more thoughtful in writing than in speech. That said, I still like the flexibility of a live interview.
What a timely article, I have an interview coming up next week and was looking for some pointers like this…
Chris – I enjoyed reading your article. Totally agree about the importance of preparation. Back when I was a student reporter going on one of my first interviews outside the college, I spent a ton of time in the library researching the topic so I could ask smart questions and not look stupid. It paid off for me, because the guy I interviewed complimented me, saying that he had an interview earlier with an experienced newspaper reporter who didn’t ask any of the good questions that I asked him.
Really great piece, Chris. I too prefer to record my interviews and just transcribe them afterward. And YES, prepared questions should serve as an outline. Deviate as the conversation dictates.
One thing I debate about is the standard, “Anything else you’d like to add?” closing question that many reporters use. I’ve gotten some decent colorful quotes by using that but more often than not, the response is something disposable. What do you think?
Great tips, Chris. Interviewing is a craft not much taught in J-School. The only way to learn, really, is by doing. It’s also a good idea, if you have the opportunity, to look at how other well-seasonsed reporters conduct their interviews. I once had an opportunity with a group of reporters to interview Bill Gates at an event for the nation’s governors. I’d been working in newsprint for about two years. They sat me next to David Broder. By the time they got around to me, I had no idea what to ask. His questions were far superior to mine and I looked like an idiot. But I sure learned a lot.
Great piece. Love your point about silence and using the interview’s end as a new opening.
Early in my career, an experienced video-vet gave me some advice:
Preface every question with “Tell me about..” or “Talk about…”. It invites an open ended conversation rather than a defined, matter-of-fact response.
I do that sometimes too, Michael. Sometimes it is good to be very specific with your questions, but other times leaving the door open a little leads to a better answer. I also use “Walk me through…”
Good tips. I always ask the “Anything else you would like to add?” question. It isn’t always great, but the interview is over by that point anyway, and sometimes they give you a really good aspect that hasn’t been covered.
Also to soften the more controversial questions, so that the person isn’t defensive but still gives you an answer, you should try to couch them in a conversational way, like, “One of the things that people have said …,” or “i was talking to someone and he raised the concern …” etc.
Thanks for the tips and comments, everyone. Corey and Allison, it’s amazing how much the experiences we have when we’re young and green stick with us.
Ricky and Rob, I don’t know that I consistently ask the “Anything else you’d like to add?” question, but I also don’t think it hurts anything. Sometimes people will tell you what they want to add unbidden, but some sources need more coaxing than others.
Thanks for the insights, Chris.
Flattery, or at least a polite opening, can be helpful — as long as the interviewee sees it that way.
One of my first politics interviews was a one-on-one with Fritz Hollings, when he ran for president. A recent column had described him as too good to be true, a Democrat who could appeal to moderates across the country because of his solid credentials on race, defense and fiscal policy. When I mentioned some found him too good to be true, thinking that would be a way to start off on the right foot, he must have thought I’d called him a phony,. His response nearly took my head off. He settled back, though, and the rest of the interview was innocuous enough. Lesson learned.
Thanks for the story, Chris. I think maybe it is an initiation of sorts; you get to be a full-fledged reporter once a professional politician has spit fury at you.
Great article, Chris.
And great comments from everyone here.
Near the end of most interviews, I ask a variation of this question: What have I not asked you about that you think should be in this story (or that you think our readers should know / would want to know / don’t understand / need to know)? Often that triggers a great comment and sometimes turns the story in a better direction.
When it’s a medical or health story, I ask what mistake reporters make when they try to explain this to their readers – and how can we make sure that doesn’t happen in this article?
And, of course, the old favorite everyone uses: Pretend you’re telling your barber / hairdresser / bartender / Aunt Sally about this — what would you say to help her understand this and see why it’s so important or why you care so much about it?
Peggy, your approach to medical sources is smart; they are misunderstood or misquoted often enough that your phrasing probably helps win them over. Similarly, I often ask, “What are the biggest misconceptions about… ?”
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