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Topic: Do You Have Magic Bullet Questions?
| Author | Message |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 12:28:03 PM | show profile | email poster We've all encountered the zombie source: the person who gives dead answers who you were counting on to make a piece come alive. What are your secrets to spicing up a dull interview? Do you have never-fail questions that always net interesting answers? Or do you find other ways to work around the problem? ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 2:40:48 PM | show profile | email poster Let's start it this way if you like, 'cause misery loves company. What was the worst interview subject you ever had, and how did you make it work? ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| flipflap | Posted – 3/17/2006 3:29:36 PM | show profile hey, Claire. I do a lot of pieces that quote maybe ten different people, so I do a lot of interviews. My questions are usually tailored for each piece. However, whenever somebody says, ''That's a very good question'' and then proceeds to give me an insightful quote, the question becomes of template for others. For example, in a recent piece, let's say one of the ten interviewees had a business in a downtrodden section of town. The other nine were in thriving areas. Of course, all had something else in common, that's why they were in the article. So I asked the one guy what the others could learn from his situation. Quite a lot, it turned out. I guess you could say the q & a turned a negative stereotype into a positive. He was surprised by question & I think the reader will be surprised by what he said. |
| belinda | Posted – 3/17/2006 4:19:07 PM | show profile My very worst interview ever was with a pantomimist. I turned it into a Q&G piece -- question and gesture. |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 4:55:28 PM | show profile | email poster OK that's a good one. I love reading articles advising you on how to conduct good interviews that suggest asking your interview subject about his favorite color, or what he thinks heaven looks like, or what his bedroom looks like. ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| worm | Posted – 3/17/2006 5:05:07 PM | show profile I once had to interview a guy who spoke almost exclusively from the PR document, word for word. If I strayed from the ''script,'' he gave one-word answers. I knew he had done other interviews, and was sick to death of the process. I was about to hang up when I tried one last question: What's the one question all your interviewers missed...what do you wish you could have a chance to explain? I got a 30-minute detailed explanation of the news topic. I've tried this a couple other times since then, and it has only failed once. |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 5:23:51 PM | show profile | email poster ''Failed'' meaning it wasn't fruitful, or they snapped at you? I just had an interesting interview with a fellow who dictated his answers to me. Literally. He said ''Put down 'I said, quote, I didn't want to answer that, dot dot dot, for now, endquote.'' ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| inquisitive | Posted – 3/17/2006 5:37:29 PM | show profile i sometimes find asking the real broad, open-ended ''anything else you want to talk about/add?'' and, yes, ''anything i didn't think to ask that i should have?'' can actually be really fruitful. it can often elicit something that wasn't in the press release, hasn't been reported on yet, something that's fresh on their mind. doesn't always work, but sometimes it really does, and it certainly can't hurt. |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 5:42:45 PM | show profile | email poster How about for interviewing kids? I am working on an ongoing profile of a high schooler for a teen magazine. 15 year olds are not especially talkative. But we have a joke that I ''make'' her tell me one thing that I didn't ask her about at the end of each conversation. But I guess you have to have a relationship of some sort to be jokey like that. ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 5:52:46 PM | show profile | email poster I am off to join the real world now, but before I go, I want to say I had no hand in picking out the sexy silhouettes that illustrate this featured topic. ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| queeniedugan | Posted – 3/17/2006 6:16:31 PM | show profile My top three interviews were all with musical groups - interestingly all at very different ends of the spectrum. One was a three-member boy band, one was a popular-with-the-college-crowd alternative act, and one was a rising rapper with a huge entourage (all of whom I had to interview to get the interview with the big name). The common thread between all of them and the moral of the story is -- get to them BEFORE they start doing drugs in the green room. :-/ |
| queeniedugan | Posted – 3/17/2006 6:18:20 PM | show profile Let me clarify... by ''top three,'' I mean the most rude and uncooperative subjects I have dealt with. As for making it work, I just kept a brave face and did my best to keep them on task. |
| worm | Posted – 3/17/2006 6:36:37 PM | show profile by ''failed,'' I meant failed to elicit an interesting response. I never thought that it might cause someone to snap at me! Usually, the interviewees are happy to have a chance to answer what THEY think is important, as opposed to what I and other interviewers thought was important. |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/17/2006 6:41:30 PM | show profile | email poster That's a good point, worm. Although it's murder when it's obvious that the writer and the interviewee clearly want to talk about two different things. ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| cornfrost | Posted – 3/17/2006 9:12:16 PM | show profile | email poster Claire, I am surprised you say that 15-year-olds are not talkative. I wonder whether you are talking to the wrong 15-year-olds, like teenage boys who grunt. In some ways, there's a parallel to casting reality tv shows -- if you're in control of whom you talk to, you pick people who will be more talkative, not less. |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 3/17/2006 9:48:42 PM | show profile Surprising someone (but not necessarily in attack mode) with a detail or two about them (having done a lot of research on them before you speak), that they probably assume you couldn't or didn't bother to dig up can be helpful. I was interviewing someone today, on something totally unrelated, but was so intrigued by something he'd done about a decade earlier I just said ''OK, way off topic, but tell me about X'' and he happily did. I didn't need the data but was curious. I think sometimes the fact you're truly curious about them -- not just doing the bare minimum and sticking to obvious questions -- can help. No matter how crude a technique, even going 20 or 30 pages deep into Google can bring up some interesting details on someone to spark a few questions. If someone is known to be a tough interview I'll try to get a tidbit, used strategically, that freaks them out a bit. I once IVed a Prime Minister's wife, very wealthy and accustomed to being in control, who hadn't given an IV in about 15 years. I called about 30 people before our IV and, when she said something said, ''Your Mom told me something quite different.'' She couldn't believe I'd dared to speak to her Mom, or vice versa, and that had some effect. I called her college and had them read her ''quote'' that ran beside her yearbook photo. It was quite telling in how her life turned out, and prophetic of how she'd made her choices. I didn't use it, but could have if needed. I'm less persuaded by asking things like someone's favorite color. I asked her what makes her angry. Some of my worst interviews, too, were with rock or pop musicians, who seemed very in love with themselves. Pro athletes can be tough, too. If it's right, and your instincts (and research) can tell you, I'll share a personal story or use humor. It's interesting how much you could have in common with the least likely person -- a hometown, a pet, an alma mater, a hobby, an interest in politics or travel or...If someone realizes, through a little warmth or compassion, you're human, not just drilling for data, they can open up much more than you'd think. Some people are very shy. Some are terrified of reporters. Helps to find out why, if possible, they're being so monosyllabic. But this has happened to me in maybe 2% of all my interviews over 30 years. ------ Author of "Blown Away: American Women and Guns" (Pocket Books, 2004.) |
| writesonwater | Posted – 3/17/2006 11:35:12 PM | show profile | email poster Caitlin has it right. Have to chuckle to recall the time I lost an interview to a competing journalist at a competing publication because the subject had cockatiels, and the other writer had first noticed it and professed a love for cockatiels!! The subject actually said ''Well, I had to talk to her, because she loves cockatiels, you know.''!!!! |
| willwriteforfood | Posted – 3/18/2006 3:02:38 PM | show profile I agree with Worm. I recently did an interview that was really more of a ''get a quote'' than finding anything out about the subject that I hadn't already got from press releases and research of my own. At the end of the interview I asked if there was anything else they would like me to cover in the article, and they gave me some information that I had not found elsewhere and was incredibly relevant to the article and readership. I'll certainly be using that question again. |
| ideefixe | Posted – 3/18/2006 6:16:39 PM | show profile I think most teens are easier to inteview via IM or email. With others, if they're a bad interview, I'm not working hard enough. Either I've failed to connect with them or I haven't done enough work, or I'm not giving them the cues to open up. In TV, where I do most of my work, the pre-inteview is very important, and helps establish the rapport, as well as gives me more reference points for the real interview. For print, I've try to do a quick phone chat before showing up in person or doing the real phoner. I don't really like phone interviews, and so I do a great deal of research in advance. But I don't have never-fail questions, along the lines of what tree they would be or favorite color--and how that gets more than a one-word answer if beyond me. Usually if I'm really listening and not just formulating my next question in my head, I can find some trail to follow to the real story. |
| willwriteforfood | Posted – 3/18/2006 6:42:13 PM | show profile I've never had a problem interviewing teens, but I think it depends a lot on the environment they are in when you do the interview (who else is around, if there is something more interesting going on elsewhere, etc.) I think the subject matter is also a big factor on if they are talkative or not, as is if they are going to be quoted directly with their name in print. |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 3/18/2006 7:24:18 PM | show profile | email poster >Claire, I am surprised you say that 15-year-olds are not talkative. I wonder whether you are talking to the wrong 15-year-olds, like teenage boys who grunt. I agree about the IM and email. I know some of you are really anti-email/IM interview but I actually think it's a different situation with teens. I should clarify now that I have gotten the subject to open up to me without too much time but it took a little while for us to dig up a rapport, and I think that she probably shares more with me now that we sort of joke around than if I was just someone who called her up every month. IM is better because she speaks in teen speak. I'm only 10 years older than her but still I get lost when she will say ''This is this and then she was like whatever and I was like okay and then he said that he was upset and then that was that.'' I realize she'll take a full minute to explain ten seconds of story if that makes sense. ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 3/18/2006 7:55:50 PM | show profile ''What's the one question all your interviewers missed...what do you wish you could have a chance to explain? '' and ''Do you have any further thoughts that we havent gone over'' have both worked very well for me with all sorts of people. I ask it at the end, obviously. The find-something-in-common concept is also helpful. ''Yes, I know what you mean because I also am left handed'' or whatever it may be. |
| activeverb | Posted – 3/18/2006 8:13:07 PM | show profile Some questions: ''How would you explain that to someone who knew nothing about the field.'' To a generalization: ''For example?'' ''How so?'' |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/18/2006 8:57:51 PM | show profile ''What aspect of the project are you most proud of?'' has always worked well for me when I'm talking to creative types. It gets the conversation away from what everyone else thinks and lets the artist/architect/whatever show the passion that got them to this point in his/her career. ------ Never settle! |
| lvanderkam | Posted – 3/18/2006 9:09:49 PM | show profile Few things. First, when interviewing experts in technical fields, throw in something in the first question or two that indicates you know something about the field. A bit of jargon, a reference to an obscure but important paper in the field, anything. I've gotten medical researchers, statisticians and others to go from the very patronizing I'm-talking-to-a-dumb-reporter tone to an indepth discussion of the issue quickly that way. Second, when doing profiles, try to get a few good pivotal scenes. Then keep asking about those scenes. Everytime you go back to it -- ''now when you and your father went to Beijing, where exactly did you live? What did your house look like?'' -- you get better details. The frustrating thing is that most of the best details come at the end of the interview. Don't quit unless you're forced to, or you have what you need. |
