Opting for the Long Open-Ended Interview

During the fall, I was interviewed a number of times regarding my cookbook. Each time, the reporter seemed to have a strict list of questions. It's not that they were close-ended, which is the death of interviewing, but more close-scoped. The writer had a structure already in mind and was looking to fill in the appropriate blanks. Another way of looking at this is that the writer had already written the article, and just needed the requisite finishing details.

That, to me, is an almost unthinkable way of conducting an interview. I don't mean unthinkable in the judgmental and disapproving sense, but unthinkable, as in such an approach rarely occurs to me. Perhaps it's my rambling nature, but I prefer longer interviews - 45 minutes to an hour being a usual amount for me. While that increases the research time of an article, I find that the payoff is immense, which keeps me going back to the same method.

A bit part of what I can offer to editors - and what they specifically have said they like - are the details and unexpected views and insights that they often find in my work. Although having a large dose of ego, I don't mean that as backhanded bragging. I often enter intricacies in subjects that don't often get coverage. I only get those because I don't decide ahead of time what I "need" and let the interview dictate that. It may be that the nature of the stories I do lend themselves to this, but I've also done at least 30 minute interviews, and often longer, even for stories that will only run several hundred words.

Not only do editors like the result, but so do I. the available material is deeper and richer, giving me many more options in structuring and writing the piece, which makes the writing process more enjoyable. I get other story ideas, a lot more information in case I'm doing another take or slant on the story, and I seldom get questions from editors that I can't answer directly from my notes.

Finally, when you provide clients with what they like but seldom get from others, you increase the value you offer and, accordingly, what you can command in compensation. Here are some tips from my time in long interviews:

• Avoid pointed and specific questions. At least early in the interview, skip the particular questions that will net you the information you think you will need for the story. There is always time for those later into the interview. Start by asking about the topic in question. Encourage people to just start talking and see what is important to them. You don't need to make a direct assault on the topic. Use this time to get a lay of the land - a topicgraphic map, if you'll pardon the pun.


• Use what you just learned. Once you've spent some time letting people talk about the topic, you'll realize that you've provided the psychological tool and opportunity for them to show you what they consider most important. Take note, because it can explain what they know best or see as the heart of the issue. Some people will use this as a chance o dictate their own spin, which is fine. Use it as an opportunity to let them get that out. Until they do, you probably won't get anything else.


• Begin exploring. Now that you've figured out the person's relationship to the topic and their interests, you can start to investigate the topic. Continuing with an open-ended interview technique, enter into some of these areas and keep digging. Let them define and describe, even if you think you know what they are saying. There might be an alternative vocabulary that will be important to understand, or you might find that you know squat. That's fine, as you need to know the limits of your knowledge.


• Keep pushing. Remember the basics of who, what, when, where, why, which, and how (WWWWWWH) in reporting? here's where you can use them in a natural and investigative way. Let each be part of the foundation of your being able to describe something that the interview subject says. Don't just repeat, but be sure you know the importance of what they say, its relationship to other parts of your topic, the mechanics of its operation. The questions help you structure a whole picture that you'll then integrate into the other pictures from the other interviews. In doing this, you move from the information-based world of traditional news reporting to the understand-based world of modern journalism.


• Use a topic list, not a question list. Of course there are things you'll need to learn to write the story, and you want to ask those questions. But treat them as topics you need to discuss. Rather than create a topically close-ended question - When did you first start cooking? - you now have a topic of the person's introduction to cooking. You'd start by asking them to talk about their early times cooking, and then move into additional WWWWWWH questions (Who introduced you to cooking? Do you remember the first dish you cooked? Did other people you knew show any interest?) about those early times.


• Ask for help. You've just shown evidence that you're interested in what the person has to say, and not just look for a series of stock answers to plug into your "process." So ask who else might be helpful. You can get some great sources that way.


• Honor the subject. In most articles, you cannot use everything the person said. But you can use things in context, mine the conversation for the points that the interviewee thought were important, and present, as much as possible, the essentials of the person's views. When you do that, you reduce the subject's feelings of having wasted time on just "a quote or two" and increase the sense of having participated in something substantial.

Try these techniques in non-critical situations at first, and see how you can make use of them. Then, as you gain experience, you can bring more depth to your reporting and differentiate yourself from all those "other" writers.