Can I ask you a few questions?

Simon Whaley and Julie Phillips

I attended my Wrekin Writers meeting today and Julie Phillips gave a great talk and demonstration on how, or how not to interview people when you want a story. She brought it home about paying attention to people you are talking to, researching and thinking about suitable questions before you go ahead and interview someone.

Simon Whaley pictured above with Julie was a willing interviewee and showed how interviews can go very wrong if you do not plan and take an interest in the person you are talking to.

This is something I still struggle with. I have spent years writing my novel which has been a very solitary experience and I kept the story to myself for years before sharing it with anyone else. Most of the articles I have had published did not require any input from another party so I have not had much experience in interviewing other people.

Julie's workshop gave me a boost of confidence to try other ways of approaching people for an interview, new angles and how to conduct a successful interview so now I have to go out and try it for myself.

New found confidence

For the first time this week I started to believe that I can do things that I thought I would never do. This week I knocked on the door of a total stranger and did an interview for a future article. Of course I had emailed the lady to arrange the meeting, so it was not unplanned but for me it was still a big thing. I have never been confident in pushing myself forward for situations such as this but after completing my journalism course, I do feel that I have found my confidence and want to make myself do things to progress in the future. I really believe that doing my distance learning course helped me to achieve this.

It was so wonderful to talk about a subject that I knew nothing about and then get home to write about it. I will not be paid for the article as it is for my local parish magazine but I still went about the whole thing in the same manner as I would for any other market. I made sure I still tackled the subject with the same professional attitude, though we did laugh when I showed her my pass pictured above. I just didn't want her to think I was some odd person turning up at her house and that I was genuine in my reasons for being there.

It was a great experience to go into a situation and learn something new. I have mentioned in the past that I have played safe and only written about my favourite and almost obsessive subject of chickens! This inspired me so much and in just over an hour taught me not to be afraid of new subjects, talking to new people and most of all having confidence in what I can do.

Never work with Children, Animals or Neighbours!

There is a saying that you should never work with children or animals and that has certainly come true for me over the last week. Brodie my pony pictured above is well and truly on the naughty step after his recent behaviour. He has almost certainly spoiled my chances of getting an interview for an article I wanted to write.

After attending Julie Phillip's great workshop the other week at our Wrekin Writers meeting, I felt really motivated to go and try some new ideas with my writing. I wanted to branch out into other projects.

I thought I had my perfect chance when I discovered a lady in the village has a very unusual hobby. Armed with note book I tracked her down feeling very exited with the material I may be able to get. Instead of an interview I got a severe telling off! She informed me that Brodie was escaping out of his field and into hers. I guess he thought the grass was greener. I was upset as she was clearly not happy which I do understand but every option I gave was not enough and we parted on very unfriendly terms.

For a while I pondered on the situation and thought I will never bother again. I thought it would be so easy with someone I know but my confidence dropped after such a horrible experience.

However a few days on I reckon nothing could be that bad even with a total stranger so my notebook is at the ready for my next willing interviewee!