What an 11-Year-Old Journalist Can Teach Us About Fear
This guest post is by Elaine Grant, a former editor at Inc. magazine, a longtime freelance writer, and the health and science reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio.
I’ve now taught my eight-week class, “Magazine Writing Basics,” several times. And I’ve noticed a pattern: my students tend to get stuck when they get to that point in the class where they have to interview sources. My theory is this: it’s about fear. Many, many people – especially newer writers — freeze when they consider picking up the phone and asking a stranger for his or her time. For some people, it’s even harder when that stranger is, say, an elected official, a celebrity, or a CEO.
And it can be intimidating. In my last session, I had a really smart, provocative 18-year old student. He had dropped out of high school and gotten his GED, and was already making money as a freelance copy editor. He wanted to learn journalism, and he had a great idea for a story about how public education should be remade to reduce the dropout rate. But he was stymied by the need to interview officials – senators, school board members, and the like. He was afraid that they wouldn’t take him seriously—or even talk to him — because he was so young. And so he didn’t try. He’ll never know whether they would have talked to him or not.
I think most would have. And I’m sure that 11 year-old Damon Weaver does too.
Damon Weaver has a lot to teach us adults. He’s the smiling, confident sixth grader who interviewed Barack Obama about education, bullying and school lunches. He’d previously interviewed several well-known people, including Colin Powell and Vice President Joe Biden, as he explained to NPR reporter Robert Siegel. He’d been trying for months to get an interview with the president. When at first he didn’t succeed – well, you know the rest. He didn’t assume that no meant “never.” In fact, in the audience at an Obama event, he held up a banner requesting an interview. Because it didn’t materialize immediately, he said, “The president must not have seen my banner.” He didn’t feel that the president didn’t consider him worthy of an interview, but rather, that if Obama had actually seen his request, he would have granted it. Which, of course, Obama eventually did.
I’ve been a journalist for more than 20 years, and at this point, I’ve interviewed CEOs and scientists, senators and governors, drug dealers and undercover cops – the list goes on. Still, I wish I’d had half of Damon Weaver’s confidence and persistence even five years ago – because these are key characteristics of a great reporter. And great reporting is, of course, the foundation for great nonfiction writing. Get past fear – of reaching out to sources, of handling yourself at a press conference, of writing the first sentence on a blank page – and you’re halfway toward doing great work.
Need a little inspiration and support of your own? Sign up for the next session of my e-course, “Magazine Writing Basics.” It starts September 14.
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Sep 3, 2009 Interviewing, Observations
Agreed, kids have something that many of us adults lose over the years. It’s hard to put into words, but everyone understands it. If we take a step back from something like interviewing Barrack Obama, and forget that this event could make or break our careers, and just focus on the fact that this is just another human being, just like you… why fear anything, just give him a chance to speak and respond to your questions. But I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work out like that for most of us. The same applies to writing, it’s too easy to get caught up in what this or that group might think that we don’t speak our minds as we should.
Great article.. thanks a lot!
Elaine,
I worked for Inc.com in 2006 while in grad school at NYU. I learned a LOT about interviewing while I was there. I have always had the ability to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger…which has helped me in my journalism career. When I was at Inc.com I had to frequently cold call people on the phone and interview them. They didn’t know me and I didn’t know them. I found that being right up front with people right off helped. “Hello, my name is Melanie Brooks and I am writing a story for Inc magazine’s website (if I said inc.com many people thought I was saying ink.com) about blah blah to be published tonight.”
Often times I was not an expert on the subject I was covering…like the plight of citrus growers in Florida or certain small business tax problems. When I would be assigned a story that I didn’t really understand, I would do as much research on the topic as possible BEFORE I had an interview with someone. And when I would have that interview I would come right out and say “I have to let you know that I am not an expert on blah blah. I want to make sure my readers really understand so if you could explain blah blah to me like you would your 10-year-old niece I’d really appreciate it!” When I was honest about my naivety I found that the source appreciated it and took the time to use layman’s terms…especially if it was a difficult topic like how methane gas from a landfill is used to power a generator.
What it really comes down to is practice. I teach college classes here in Maine and the more my students practice interviewing the better. It’s a big part of our class and a trait that comes with self esteem, preparation, and experience.