The ability to elicit interesting, useful information from interviews is a hugely useful skill for the non-fiction writer. I began interviewing people during my career as a newspaper journalist and have found that the knowledge I acquired then – for instance of how to set up an interview, which questions to ask and when, and how to identify a story – has served me well as an author.

So, here are a few tips that I hope will help you carry out interviews that enrich your non-fiction writing project.

How to write an interview request

When you write to request an interview with someone, ensure that your enquiry to that individual is personalised and doesn’t read like a standard request you’ve mailed out to dozens of people. Of course you can use a basic template for your emails and letters, for instance explaining who you are and why you’re writing your book, but be sure always to work in details particular to that person: show you’re aware of their background and their connection to your subject, and tell them why you’re so keen to have their input.

Of course, this only applies to people you’ve identified that you’d like to interview. Remember also to seek out potential interviewees you’re not aware of, e.g. by posting in Facebook groups or placing classified ads in newspapers and relevant publications, asking people to share their memories of a person or place you’re writing about.

Where to conduct the interview

If possible, the ideal place to interview someone is in their home, where they’ll feel relaxed and it should be quiet enough that you can both concentrate without interruption. But not everyone will want to invite a stranger into their home, so if they suggest meeting elsewhere, choose your location with care. Find somewhere quiet and comfortable, not a noisy café where you can’t catch everything they say, and where background noise may drown out your recording of the conversation.

Interview tips

When you’re interviewing, make plenty of eye contact and ensure they know you’re listening by making appropriate responses. You want the interviewee to feel that it’s a conversation, not an interview. Rapport is everything.

Structure your interview so the questions flow from one to another, and save your most important questions for once the interviewee is warmed up and speaking fluently. Accept that they may also have stories to tell which are not what you’re looking for; hear them out, these may prove more useful than you expect, and it’s good to keep the conversation flowing rather than hemming them in and overly controlling things.

Let them finish their sentences and explore some tangents, so long as by the end of the interview you’ve covered all the points you wanted to. Also – at the end ask if they have any other stories to tell that haven’t come up yet.

How to ask questions to get the right answers

Remember that when you’re looking for quotes to include in your book, these will be more easily produced by asking ‘open’ questions, i.e. ones that cannot be answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’. So: not ‘would you describe her as happy at that time?’ but ‘how would you describe her mood?’ Lots of who, where, why, when, how questions.

Equipment for interviewing

Presumably you’ll use a digital voice recorder on your phone, or a separate digital recording device. Either way, ensure in advance that it has enough memory spare, and keep an eye on it while it’s recording so you’re sure it doesn’t run out of space midway through the interview.

(By the way, when it comes to transcription, life is much easier now than it once was! We used to have to allow around three times the duration of the interview for listening to it back and transcribing it. Now there are various online services – e.g. Turboscribe.ai – that will create an accurate, time-coded transcription of your audio file in just a minute or two.)

After the interview

Finally, before you leave, check whether they have any letters, photographs or other documentary evidence relevant to your research. And who else would they suggest you interview? If you conduct your meeting with an interviewee well, the encounter will not only answer the questions that you wanted answered but open up many new lines of research for your writing project.

Summary

Interview checklist

• Decide on your subject
• Reach out to potential interviewees
• Choose interviewees
• Schedule interview time and place (keep in mind noise levels)
• Prepare your interview structure and questions (remember to make them open-ended and flow naturally)
• Test any equipment you are using
• Make sure everyone is comfortable and ready
• During the interview, remember to listen and let your interviewee finish their sentences while keeping them focussed
• Afterwards, make sure you get any additional documents etc. to incorporate in your research