Interview questions should elicit more than a blank stare

As basic as putting pen to paper (boy, that’s archaic!), I mean fingers to the keyboard, writers must understand the fundamentals of “The Interview.” Without that understanding, our writing can become a blathering stream of consciousness relying on the expertise of no one in particular. The Writing Loft decided to explore this topic and share some tales from the past.

Reporters interview people all the time to gather facts for their stories. Historians interview people to learn the back story of a period of time. Fiction writers should be interviewing people to help build their characters. It’s all information gathering and every interview should have a goal, be it a story, a lively quote or a deeper understanding of an issue.

Asking the obvious

I once interviewed a jet pilot from the Vietnam War. As an officer with nerves of steel, he flew many, many missions and always came home safely. I asked him if he was ever, even once during any of those missions, just a little frightened.

The pilot stopped speaking and finally he said “yes.”

“When?” I quickly followed up.

The pilot told me he was most frightened on the day Peace was to take place after all the treaties were signed. Peace was to be declared by both sides at noon on a specific day. All activities of war were to end. But on that day, at noon, this pilot and his squadron were 200 miles north of the DMZ, having just completed one last early morning bombing run.

“We were all racing through the sky to get back over the DMZ and into South Vietnam’s airspace.” He said he was frightened and knew everyone else in his squadron shared the same fear. “None of us wanted to be the last guy shot down by someone below who hadn’t gotten the word about the Peace Accords or didn’t know the time.”

It was an emotional story prompted by a single question. It was the best question of the interview because it got my subject to tell a story in his own words and express a deep personal emotion.

Questions from outside the box

Interviewers should also explore asking the unusual question. This tactic often gets the memories flowing from deep within the interviewee. Another time during my newspaper career I interviewed a former CIA agent who spent 20 years in a Chinese prison. The agent was recruited right out of college to do spy flights over China. On his first mission he was shot down and captured. He was a prisoner for most of his young adulthood. For two decades he was denied news reports of things happening in the United States.

I knew it had to be an unimaginable hell. So I tried to turn things around a bit.

“What was the best day of your captivity?” I asked.

He looked at me and said “That’s easy. It was the day the Chinese admitted they held me captive.”

I was puzzled.

“You see, for the first seven years of my captivity the Chinese denied having me. Once they admitted I was their prisoner they could no longer walk in and put a bullet in my head. They had to account for me after that point,” he explained.

That was his life for his twenties and thirties and part of his forties, a prisoner. And for most of his twenties, he lived in fear of being shot on a whim.

For writers, the lesson here is to ask the unusual. Try and get your subject thinking.

Planning questions in advance

I learned the hard way to plan my questions in advance. However, the second part of this lesson is to never ever ask a question that can be answered with a one word answer.

I once attended a national press conference featuring then-presidential candidate George H. W. Bush (soon to be Bush 41) to my area. I was determined to push forward and get a question asked and answered at the event and not be intimidated by the national media. I had researched an issue, read all the national publications I could find for days in advance and crafted a clear concise original question.

I elbowed my way to the front, hollered “Mr. Bush, Mr. Bush,” with the best of them and was finally recognized. I stood, clearly enunciated my question and Mr. Bush looked me square in the eye and said, “No, next.”

That was it. I had a two letter, one word answer of “No” to build my story upon. Lesson learned (as stated earlier), no matter how sharp your elbows are, never allow an interview subject the opportunity to answer a question with a single word!

Technology is only a tool

Finally, every writer who has ever used a recoding device has run into a problem. Expect dead batteries, bungled tapes, damaged chips or flash drives. Electronic tools are great . . . when they work! Check power lines and batteries in advance. Familiarize yourself with every operation of you device. You may not get a chance to correct a problem. In short, be prepared for the worst! Enough said on this topic!

-30-

Advertisement