Use interviews to add perspective to your stories

Let's face it: For most of us, no matter what topic we're writing about, there's guaranteed to be someone out there who knows more about it than we do. Or someone who has had more first-hand experience with it.

That's not meant to be discouraging! On the contrary, it should encourage you to learn from those individuals—to let their valuable perspective and expertise make your own story stronger. Not only that, including an outside voice in your writing can make a reader feel like they're experiencing the narrative with someone. That human element can help pull a reader even deeper into the story you're telling.

The best way to gain access to a person's brain and the knowledge it contains is often through a good, old-fashioned, one-on-one interview. The act of interviewing is itself a bit of an art, but this article will offer some tips on four stages of the interview process: preparing for the interview, performing the interview, processing the interview, and, finally, working what you've gotten from the interview into your story.

A lot of what goes into an effective interview happens before the interview takes place—or is even scheduled!

First and foremost, you'll need to identify an interview subject (or subjects). If your story is about one particular person or group of people, that part can be easy. But if you're writing about something that you're not super familiar with, finding a college professor who specializes in what you're writing about can be a great place to start. Don't be nervous about reaching out to a stranger; most people with knowledge about something enjoy talking about it! The worst that can happen is they'll say no, which isn't the end of the world.

You'll also want to do some preliminary research. You don't need to spend all-nighters cramming until you're an expert in the subject, but understanding at least the basics (and knowing a bit about your subject themselves) will help hone your list of questions. You'll also be better able to think on the fly during the interview, and you're less likely to have to spend valuable time covering the ABCs and 123s with your subject. Plus, it will be apparent to your subject that you're serious and prepared, which is the least you can do when someone is donating you their time.

And, of course, you'll need to come up with a list of questions. You'll want to tailor these to the goals of your story: What do you want the reader to come away with when they're done? The best answers tend to come from questions that are open-ended; in other words, not easily answered with a "yes," "no," or easily researched fact. Such questions will often ask the subject to explain or describe something. And, in general, try to avoid compound questions that ask multiple things at once (i.e., "This is a two-parter..."). Break those types of questions up to avoid answers to one part getting left behind. If you want, you can also send your question list to your subject ahead of time so that they will have some idea of what to expect.

The biggest key to a successful interview is simply good manners. Be polite: Arrive on time, thank your interviewee both before and after, and remember that the interview is about them, not you! Make them feel comfortable—this extends to being flexible in terms of the format (a spoken exchange versus written responses to questions?), venue (virtual versus in-person?), and timing for the interview. And during the interview, avoid interrupting them until they've completely finished an answer.

As for the meat of the interview itself, use your prepared questions as a guide, not a strict order of operations. Don't be afraid to let the conversation start to take a more natural course—you can always circle back to other pre-planned questions. Especially keep an ear out for things that are surprising, or challenge preconceived notions, and dig deeper into those.

No matter who you're talking to, leave time near the end of the interview for these two questions in particular:

1. Is there anything else you wish people knew about this?
2. Is there anyone else you would recommend talking to about this?

Oh, and most importantly, don't forget to hit the record button on whatever device you're using (and it doesn't need to be fancy, a smartphone's built-in audio recorder will be sufficient)! But definitely make sure your subject has given the okay to be recorded, first.

Now that you've got a hot recording of your interview in hand, the best thing to do is......ignore it for a while. Seriously, if you're not on a tight deadline, let it sit for a few days so that you can come back to it with fresh ears. That way, you're more likely to pick up on how different answers relate to each other in a full story, and you might even catch a detail that you had totally missed live.

The next step is to put together a summary of the interview. Even if you have a full transcription available, it helps to jot down a rough, timestamped recap so that you can easily look up what portion of the interview dealt with certain questions or topics later on without having to control-F a specific phrase or quote.

A summary is also just a good excuse to listen to the entire thing in full again, which can reveal potential gaps that may need to be addressed. For instance, you may end up wanting to reach out to your interview subject for follow-up or clarification on a point or two. Another thing to consider is whether your interviewee was representing one side of a two-sided debate. If so, you might also want to interview someone on the other side of that coin, in the interest of painting a complete picture.

At last, you're ready to work what you've gotten out of the interview into your story. Broadly speaking, there are two main strategies for incorporating the results of the interview.

One option is to present the interview, or at least a chunk of it, as a straight Q&A, with questions and responses written out in full. This can especially work well if the story is largely about the person you interviewed, or a very focused subject on which the interviewee is a specialized expert. The stories  Interviewing Véronique Couttee  and  Old store score  are great examples of how to effectively work a full interview into a story.

In other cases, though, an extended transcript can break up the flow of a story. In such situations, the better solution is to weave bits and pieces of the interview into the story, where appropriate. Selectively chosen quotes can be impactful in support of the overarching narrative. For top-notch examples of that technique in action, check out the stories  She leads a nation  and  Jeanne's journey .

No matter which of those approaches best suits your story, you'll find that you likely need to clean up some of the dialogue. It's okay to use brackets [ ] to paraphrase a more rambling sentence or use ellipses ... to cut out filler words and phrases or link related thoughts that weren't stated in immediate sequence during the interview. Be careful, though, that any editorial adjustments you make aren't ultimately twisting the words of your interviewee, or removing necessary context from what they said.

Audio can be a powerful storytelling device, and you may want to consider including brief excerpts of the interview in audio form. Doing so can help create a greater connection between the reader and the story. StoryMaps allows direct upload of audio files into the body of the story as playable clips, and sound can be used in the background of  sidecar  slides, too. You'll need to be conscious of length—a multi-minute speech runs the risk of taking a reader out of the story. And don't forget about accessibility: It's a best practice to post a link to either an alternate version of the story with transcriptions in place of audio components, or to an outside document containing the transcriptions.

Finally, be sure to send a draft of your story to your interview subject(s) before you publish to make sure they don't feel they're being misrepresented!

There aren't many hard and fast rules when it comes to interviewing; what matters most in the end is that you're able to extract great material from an interview subject, while making them feel comfortable and respected. Using the advice listed in this article as a framework, you should be well equipped to do just that. Then you'll be able to strengthen any story with relevant perspective, experience, and expertise.