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You Can't Be Scared to Talk to People if You Want to Be a Good Writer

When I told my mother I wanted to study journalism in college, she didn’t immediately shower me with support and encouragement. Her first words were something along the lines of “But you’re so shy, how’s that going to work out?” Not the response I wanted as an aspiring writer, but it was a valid point. You can’t be scared to talk to people if you want to be a good writer.

My mother has always been very supportive with whatever I’ve wanted to do in life, but seeing her shy son walk up to strangers and conduct interviews probably felt like a stretch. I admit, it intimidated me a bit at first. However, I knew I wanted to be a writer, and solid reporting requires you to talk to people. It can be the worst part of the job, but it can also be the most rewarding.

Interviews don’t have to be long and dry. They can develop from great conversations between you and the interview subject – it just so happens that you’re writing down everything he says. You can plan your questions ahead of time, but always be ready to abandon them if you get an answer that leads to a more interesting interview.

Demand Media Studios writer Jan Stowell recently took a trip down to his local fire station to interview the chief for his article Structural Firefighter Annual Training Requirements, and the first-hand information made the article come alive. The use of direct quotes was spot on and not excessive.

I’ve done more than 300 interviews in my writing career, and while some were not so great, others were fantastic. I ended up coming back to some people repeatedly because they were easy to talk to and had a lot of useful information to share. They were also great with referring me to other people I could talk to on similar subjects.

The point is, if you don’t know all the information required to complete an assignment, there is someone out there who does. Go find them and talk to them. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Franklin once said “Back when I first started, I thought intelligence was the most important attribute a reporter could have. I have since changed my mind. You do have to be intelligent, but the big thing is courage. Courage to open your mind and let the whole damned confusing world in. Courage to always be the ignorant one, on somebody else's turf. Courage to stand corrected. Courage to take criticism. Courage to grow with your experiences. Courage to accept what you don't understand. Most of all, courage to see what is there and not what you want to think is there."

15 Comments

I really appreciate this. I have been a reporter for my local newspaper for years, and I still get incredibly nervous about interviews. I had to talk to the local sheriff just yesterday, and I dreaded it all morning. I have another interview to do tomorrow, and I get butterflies when I think about it. I am going to save that Jon Franklin quote; I love it!

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I am reading this from our both at SPJ in Vegas. (Don't tell anyone.) This post brought me back to all the wonderful, frustrating, inspiring, long, short interviews I've done over the years. Thanks for putting words to my memories.

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I actually love doing interviews. I guess I tend to think of them more as conversations since I try to keep them light and personal. My problem is I never keep to a time limit. Some people are so interesting I could visit with them all day!

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Love it.

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I haven't seen the name Jon Franklin in many years but I was fortunate to have him as a professor in the late 80s. He actually helped me find the courage to stretch myself (at the time it was stretch or flunk) and I've been using what he taught me ever since.

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I am not a big fan of doing interviews, because I am painfully shy. I suffer through them when need be though. But ultimately, this is part of why I prefer writing fiction. Then I can just talk to the people in my head!

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I too was painfully shy before I got into journalism, and the job soon cured me. I remember one of my first assignments as an intern at a small daily paper was to go interview some construction workers at a bar. (They were in town working on some kind of demolition project; I don't remember what.) I paced outside the place for 10 minutes, rehearsing a lie about how they had all left by the time I got there. My sense of responsibility finally won out, and I summoned the courage to do it. They were the nicest guys in the world, I had a fantastic time and my article turned out great!

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Thanks for the encouragement, Johan! I agree with NicoleE -- it's easier for me to write fiction, too. I've always been shy, but I realize that being a writer means stepping out of my comfort zone, too.

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Jon Franklin -- what a gifted writer. As I side note, he put me in touch with the copy desk at the Baltimore Sun when I approached him after he gave a talk at the National Institutes of Health, which led to me breaking into daily journalism.

Here is Jon's amazing article that won the Features Pulitzer in 1979: "Mrs. Kelly's Monster:"

http://www.jonfranklin.com/Stories/Mrs_Kellys_Monster.html

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Jon Franklin ... helped me get my job on the copy desk of the Baltimore Sun by talking to me after he completed a talk at the National Institutes of Health. To read his marvelous Pulitzer-winning article search on "Mrs. Kelly's Monster" and his name.

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You Can't Be Scared to Talk to People if You Want to Be a Good Writer

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