Tips And Tricks For Interviewing by Susan Ager from The Detroit Free Press

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR INTERVIEWING:

1. SITTING AROUND A TABLE RULE: Pretend you're at a table next to your
subject. Remember this is CONVERSATION.

2. Don't be afraid of EMOTION: Allow yourself to REACT, to feel sad or
angry.

3. Ask early on about CLIPS: Any common errors? Any misconceptions?

4. Your most potent questions are these:
What makes you say that?
How did you feel when that happened?

5. Anytime you hear an ADJECTIVE, ask for more. How did you know you felt nervous? Without examples or anecdotes, adjectives are not
persuasive.

6. MULTIPLE interviews are essential, even if only by phone. Trust deepens. Questions - and answers - become more sophisticated and nuanced. As a result, understanding grows. Details emerge.

7. Talk in spots OTHER than the office.

8. Try different TIMES of day, early morning or late at night.

9. Use WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE TOLD YOU to leap into questions: "Your best friends say you're compulsively neat."

10. Use your own CONFUSION: "I'm not sure I understand why..." Don't pretend to understand what you don't.

11. Share your own STRUGGLES, as long as they're relevant, to create a human connection.

12. Ask ANYTHING and everything. You'll be amazed what folks are willing to answer.

13. When you feel yourself AFRAID, ask a question, you MUST ask that question.

14. Ask about TURNING POINTS and struggles directly. Be sure to get visual details of turning-point moments that happened both inside and outside your subject's head.

15. Ask about DETAILS: what's in wallets, car trunks, refrigerators, what's for breakfast, what's parked in the driveway? Not all will be important, but some will.

16. DO WHAT THEY DO. Haul fire hose. Slice through the hide of a deer. Lift road kill on a shovel, for the sake of sensual details.

17. Take notes on SENSUAL details: how things smell, look, feel. A tugboat captain's life is VERY sensual. So is a mail carrier's. And a deer hunter's.

18. Take a BREAK! Take a few minutes to think, process, take notes on stuff you saw.

19. LIMIT interviews to two hours, three at home. You'll be exhausted, and so will your subject.

20. Keep an ear open for what's said AFTER you close your notebook or turn off your tape recorder.

21. Ask for CONTACT INFORMATION FOR OTHERS - their own, and those of friends, relatives, enemies.

22. Before you write, make sure you understand two key things about your subject: What he/she most wants, and what he/she most fears.