A good personal history interview is like a symphony – complex, engaging, and harmonious. Over the past three years I’ve written extensively about the art of the interview and assembled these articles here in one convenient list. Enjoy!…Read more.
Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Tips
Tagged How to, interview, Interviewing skills, Life stories, Personal historian, Question, Tips
How many personal historians have found themselves in this situation? You have an enthusiastic client, an adult child who really wants her mom or dad’s life story told, but the parent is reluctant…Read more.
Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Tips
Tagged Family, family story teller, fears, How to, interview, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, reluctant, solutions, Tips
Not long ago I was asked to audio record some final words from a young mother who was dying from cancer. I’ll call her Sonia to protect the family’s privacy. She was in her early thirties and she wanted to leave something for her only child, a five-year-old boy…Read more.
Posted in End of life, Inspiration, Interviewing, Life stories
Tagged audio legacy, child, End of life, interview, legacy, Life stories, mother's dying words, wisdom
Too busy for a vacation this summer? Then you may want to read The Importance of Vacations in this week’s Monday’s Link Roundup. If you’re not familiar with Cowbird, check out this latest web-based means of collecting stories. And as someone who relies on my copyeditor to save me from embarrassing gaffes, I highly recommend 6 Ways Copyeditors Make Your Book Better.
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Posted in Monday's Link Roundup
Tagged Allianz, archival photos, Baby boomer, Baby Boomers, books, Bruce Hood, Copy editing, copyediting, copyeditors, Cowbird, design, interview, legacy, link roundup, mind, Monday, narrative medicine, publishing, Self Illusion, storytelling, survey, Tips, treasure, trunk, vacations, web
Marc Pachter founded Living Self-Portraits at the Smithsonian and was its master interviewer. In his TED talk below he shares the challenges of getting a good interview.
…if all you’re going to get from the interviewee is their public self, there’s no point in it. It’s pre-programmed. It’s infomercial, and we all have infomercials about our lives. We know the great lines, we know the great moments, we know what we’re not going to share, …
Marc recounts several interviews and how he cut below the surface conversation to have his subjects reveal the truth of their lives…Read more.
Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Tips
Tagged courageous questions, difficult questions, End of life, How to, interview, Interviewing, Life stories, Living Self-Portraits, Marc Pachter, People, Personal historian, Questions, questions to ask, Smithsonian, terminally ill, Tips
Imagine yourself in this situation. You’ve just completed videotaping an hour-long interview. It was nicely lit and framed. And the interview itself was fantastic! Excitedly you rush back to your editing suite, put up your interview to screen, and then the shock. The picture looks great but the audio is terrible.There’s nothing you can do to fix it. The interview is ruined!
I know that getting flawless sound all the time is nearly impossible. But you can improve the odds if you avoid making these 5 common audio mistakes…Read more.
What part of a Life Story do you focus on when it appears patients may have only a few weeks or days to live? Patients may initially indicate that they want to talk about the broad spectrum of their lives from childhood to the present. The reality, unfortunately, is that they’re not likely to have enough time to complete such an undertaking. Here’s what I’ve suggested…Read more.
What do you do when you lose a potential client? A few weeks ago this happened to me. I was disappointed but it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time that I hear the words, “I’m sorry but…”. However, over the years I’ve learned to see this as an opportunity and not as a loss. Let me explain…Read more.
Posted in How to, Life stories, Marketing, Personal historian, Tips
Tagged clients, How to, interview, life story, losing clients, Marketing, Personal historian, Tips, winner
Don’t worry. If you’re expecting this to be another New Year’s admonishment about unhealthy eating, excessive drinking, or lack of exercise, it isn’t. It’s about what not to do if you want to get the best life story interview with your client.
Recently there’s been some discussion among my colleagues at the Association of Personal Historians about the way to record life story interviews. Some personal historians use a digital voice recorder. Others prefer taking notes by hand or typing the interview directly into their laptop.
The latter make it clear they can type as fast as people talk, edit on the fly, maintain eye contact, and save the time and costs of transcribing the interview. For those who take notes by hand, they explain that this helps them keep the story to the essentials.They may record the interview for reference to ensure the accuracy of quotes. All point out that this method of interviewing is what they’re comfortable with and their clients are happy with their work.
But achieving the best interview possible has nothing to do with the time and cost of transcriptions, what process a personal historian is most comfortable with, or editing on the fly. These are all factors that speak to the preferences of the personal historian not the quality of the interview.
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1. An integral and invaluable part of any personal history is recording and preserving the spoken word. Hearing a loved one’s voice is a precious remembrance for bereaved families and future generations. Personal histories involve more than assembling edited transcripts into a story.
2. Laptops and note taking are distracting. I know this from having been interviewed a number of times by journalists. Imagine for a moment that you’re talking to a columnist. You’re pouring your heart out but she’s writing nothing down. Then you move on to something that seems insignificant and the writer starts scribbling furiously. You wonder why these comments elicited such a response. It’s unnerving. It’ll be unnerving for your clients too.
3. Multitasking doesn’t work. There is now sufficient research to show that the mind can’t process more than one thing at a time. People can’t type or take notes and be fully engaged with a client at the same time. Trust me. It can’t be done.
4. Editing decisions are best made after not during an interview. It’s not possible to tell what portions of a narrative need to be dropped until you have a feel for the whole story. An item that seems of little importance at the time of the interview may turn out to be a crucial element in the story.
5. Listening to your interviews improves your skills. There’s tremendous value in recording an interview and being able to play it back. I do it all the time. For one thing, it enables you to see what follow-up questions to ask. But equally important, it gives you an opportunity to assess your strengths and weaknesses as an interviewer.
Conclusion
Not all approaches are equal when it comes to recording personal histories. Choose a good digital recorder and microphone over a laptop or handwritten notes. Your clients will thank you.
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Photo by DonkeyHotey
A weakness common to novice interviewers is their inability to take charge of an interview. Interviews frequently look like a runaway train with the interviewer gamely hanging on to the proverbial little red caboose.
Taking charge doesn’t mean forcing or dictating the direction of the interview. It’s more like riding a horse. Anyone familiar with riding knows that it requires confidence and a gentle hold on the reins. The same approach applies to interviewing.
Here are four ways to keep control of your interview:
If you’re clear before you start on the topic that you want to explore and its parameters then it makes it easier to stay on track.
For example, if you know you want to capture a client’s childhood stories about summer holidays, then start your interview by saying something like, “Tom, today I’d like you to think back to your childhood and your summer holidays. What’s a particularly strong memory of the games you played?”
The more precise your questions the more specific the answers from your interviewees. For example, a good question would be “What was your Mother’s special gift or talent?” A poor question would be “Tell me about your family.”
Questions that aren’t specific make interviewees anxious because they don’t know what you’re searching for. If you continue to follow-up with vague, unfocused questions, their trust will erode and so will the interview.
It’s difficult, I know. It seems somehow impolite. But you’d be surprised how many people really don’t mind being interrupted in an interview. In fact they appreciate that you’re paying attention and bringing them back on topic.
To interrupt politely wait for your interviewee to pause before stepping in. For example, “Margaret, this is a fascinating story about your aunt. Later we’ll be taking more time to talk about your extended family. But I’d like to come back to the earlier question I asked about your mother?”
It’s important to acknowledge the interviewees’ remarks, assure them that the topic will be covered, and then gently nudge them back on track.
Sometimes it’s best to throw your plans out the window. An apparent innocent question on your part might trigger a strong emotional response in your interviewees that has no apparent connection to your question. If this happens, take the time to explore the story behind the emotion.
Clearly your interviewees wants to talk about this now. If you put them off by forcing them back on topic, you can lose a really important story.
If you’re just starting out as a professional personal historian, I hope these suggestions will be helpful. Use them as guidelines not as hard and fast rules. Interviewing is more an art than a science. With experience comes an intuitive sense of how to guide an interview and get the best possible story.
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Photo by Mazeau
Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian
Tagged get control, How to, interview, Interviewing, Life stories, life story, managing, Personal historian, personal history, Question, Tips
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