Time To Talk: How Good Interviews Lead To Good Articles

Although a lot of freelance writing work is online, there's still quite a bit of the old fashioned kind around. Remember print? Newspapers and magazines? These are good and often well paid markets for freelance writers. Most of the work you write for these markets will require you to interview someone, get some information and turn it into a good article. But as with almost every form of writing, the secret of a successful article starts well before you put pen to paper or talk to someone – with the preparation for the interview.

Interview Preparation Tips

The most important thing you can do before you go to an interview is prepare. This is the thing that will keep you informed. What this means is that if you are going to talk to a person so that you can do a profile or find out about an event, you need to find out what is already known about that event. This means doing your research in advance and there are lots of places you can do this.

Start with the Internet and look for newspaper databases such as Lexis Nexis which has an archive of newspaper articles on various subjects for several years. Do a Google search and see what has previously been published about the topic or person you will be talking about. Interview time is often limited, so you won't want to waste time asking questions that are obvious. Do your preparation and you can concentrate on the good stuff.

Once you have done your research it's time to think about any gaps in your knowledge. What else would you like to know? More importantly, what would your readers like to know? This may vary depending on the publication. As a freelance writer you may be writing on the same subject for different publications and you will need to bear that in mind when formulating your questions.

Checking The Facts

In addition to seeking new information which will be the main drawing point of your article, interviews are also about fact checking. Any research effort may throw up contradictory facts. The interview is your chance to get to the truth. Finally, in formulating your questions, you will need to make sure you have remembered the basics – that's the who what why where when and how of your story.

So that's the preparation. Now on to the interview itself. It's a good idea to record your interview if the interviewee is happy with that. Sometimes you can check; at other times just set up your equipment and see if anyone raises a question. You decide how best to handle each interviewee. Always have backup batteries, power supply and storage media for your recording device. And just in case, take a notebook and pen to write down the most important bits. You never know when technology will fail and you may not get a second chance at doing the interview.

Approaches To Interviewing

There are two ways of approaching your interview. Some people prefer to warm up their subject by asking easy, fact checking questions before getting into the deeper stuff. A twist on this technique is to ask people to explain things as if you knew nothing. You can get a lot more information this way. Others prefer to go right to the heart of the story and catch their subjects off balance. Only you can decide which is the best approach and it may vary with each interview you do.

Finally, your interviewing technique may determine how good your final article is. Avoid yes-no questions, as this won't give much information. Instead, go for open ended questions that encourage the interviewee to talk and don't worry if the subject diverts from your carefully prepared list of questions. An interview is a conversation. Get this right and you will be well on the way to writing articles that people line up to read.

~Sharon Hurley Hall

Sharon Hurley Hall has worked as a writer and journalist for 20 years and now freelances successfully, working from home as a ghostwriter and web content writer. She is passionate about writing and has taught and mentored several people to help them develop successful freelance writing careers.