Scan-N-Land

An encouraging word (or 2, or 3, or...) and some tips

Amy seems to think there are too many furrowed brows in the classroom. I thought it might help iron a few out if I pointed out the following fact: It took the old veteran who gets paid to do this sort of thing just as long as the rest of you to complete today's assignment.

I was there just as long as anyone else and (though you may have been too polite to notice) exuding just as much flop sweat as the most rookie among you.

Writing is hard. It gets easier but it never gets easy. The good news: You can spend decades pushing pencils for a living and never get bored. Every assignment is a challenge.

The challenge in this one: There's no natural drama in most lectures, which means the burden of creating the interest is on the writer. Moreover, the topic of Mills' talk (internet and database journalism) was somewhat technical. It's always a challenge to translate techno-talk into plain English.

Here's how I generally go about writing a story on deadline:

I go through my notes and type the best stuff into my file. This gives me a handy list of the quotes and other elements that struck me as interesting. I start writing. I try to come up with a good lede (opening sentence) first, but if one doesn't come, I start writing other bits. They might be full paragraphs; they might be fragments of sentences. This helps me get my mind going. Other people might find it useful to rough out an outline; I just don't seem to have a linear thought process.

Eventually, the sentences start to come together and pretty soon, voila, you have a story! But you've got to get the fingers going. Otherwise, it's easy to get blocked.

The other big tip for deadline writing: Keep it simple. There's a time and a place for elegant, narrative style writing but when you are "right on the nut," as one of my mentors used to say, it NOT one of them. Sure, go ahead and try to push the envelope if you have a great idea. But if it doesn't start to flow after the first couple of minutes, scrap it and head back to the safety of the 5Ws formula. It's a great safety net when time is short. Bottom line: When in doubt, hit it straight up the middle.

For those of you who are facing your first interviews, here's a couple of techniques that work for me.

Start out with a few pleasantries. You might even confide your uneasiness with the whole process by telling the subject that this is your first interview, or that you haven't done this very often. It will create some rapport.

Don't be afraid to ask your subject to repeat a quote, or to walk you through an explanation again if you didn't get it the first time. It's perfectly legitimate and it will put you more at ease in your questioning and your note-taking.

Get a phone number or email address so you can contact the person with follow-up questions. Almost inevitably, there will be one you forget...or one your editor dreams up that you didn't think of. Sometimes, a piece will take an unexpected turn -- either because of an epiphany you have during reporting or writing -- and you will want to ask a source about a new development or a new angle. Again, knowing that you can get back to a source if need by will put you more at ease in your interview.

The Woodward & Bernstein experience is the exception, not the norm, in journalism. Most interviews are NOT hostile interviews. In most situations, this rule will serve you well: If you ask people to help you out, most of them will.

Most interviews are fun. You get to meet interesting people and find out what makes them tick. And that ain't a half-bad way to spend a day.

Happy trails!
Kathy Kiely

posted by Mark H. @ 11/11/2006 08:50:00 PM