Doing Interviews
As you know, I have done a few interviews on the blog already, collected here, and hope to bring a few more to you soon. Over the past few years, I have also done a good many interviews on a local radio station, Plains 96.9 FM, mostly with poets—including New Zealand’s inaugural Poet Laureate, Michele Leggott—but also with such well known novelists as Andrea Levy, Nalini Singh, and Jennifer Fallon.
I enjoy doing interviews, and so felt very honoured to win Plains FM’s “Most Popular Podcast” (ie listened to interview) award 2010. And as with all aspects of my work, I do have a ‘philosophy’ in how I approach interviewing.
Mainly, that it’s all about the interviewee—about trying to find the best questions to allow the person being interviewed and their work to shine through.
In order to find those questions, I have to do homework: read the interviewee’s work, see if I can find other interviews they’ve done—not just to see what she/he has said before, but also so I don’t ask all the same questions as every other interviewer, ie it’s nice to present some fresh material, for the sake of the interviewee, but also for listeners/readers.
I like to take time over the questions as well, and think about what topics will best illuminate the interviewee’s work, and what listeners/readers might find most interesting.
No matter how carefully I’ve thought about the questions though, when I’m actually doing the interview there can be no “script.” If something interesting comes up then I have to follow that up—which is often when the best interviews “spark.”
But I always have a back up question—or three!—especially on air, in case ‘the best ever, surefire question’ falls flat on its face!
Always though, when thinking about interviews, I come back to that first point—good interview is always about the interviewee. If the person doing the bulk of the “talking” is me, then I have failed as an interviewer.
I hope, however, this does not happen often—and that you will enjoy the interviews on the blog so far, and those to come.
woo hoo! congrats on “Most Popular Podcast” – well deserved recognition of the hard work and flair you put into your interviews 🙂
Thanks, Charlotte–I have a few interviews coming up so it seemed a good time to mention my approach.:)