While writing my invisible person piece I realized that my interview skills were lacking. It made me appreciate the brilliance of people like Diane Rehm on NPR who are great at taking interviews. I’m sure she has question she writes down, but when an interview takes a life of its own she know exactly what questions to ask.
Many times it’s something that has to be spontaneous. Once the moment is past to ask the right question, it’s very hard to back. The rhythm of the interview is lost.
As an attorney I take depositions for a living. These are very similar to interviews. However, the difference with depositions is that you can take as long as you want and always go back to questions that pop up in your head.
It’s like if your brain is somehow digesting the previous information and then out of nowhere a new question or issue arises. However, in journalism this opportunity to go back is rarely an option. I hope that interviewing is an acquired skill.
I agree with you to some extent, but I think it's okay to bring up the question later when the conversation pauses. "Just now you mentioned... Can you tell me more? What was on your mind when you..."
ReplyDeleteOr, if the conversation has moved on to other topics, we can keep the question until the end. "Before we end this, I want to check with you... Just now you mentioned... "
I also find it useful to scribble a keyword and circle it up whenever a question pops up in my mind (but asking it might spoil the flow of the conversation). Then, when I'm about to wrap up the interview, I'll go through my notes again and check with the interviewee on the questions I have.
I think this works as long as we are print journalists. :)