The seeming simplicity of the interview is erroneous. When asking questions, you need to be able to get the interlocutor to talk in such a way as to get the necessary information, and not a set of streamlined phrases. An interview is a dialogue in which the one who asks questions.
Necessary
list of questions, pen, notepad, voice recorder, contacts of the interlocutor
Instructions
Step 1
First of all, the involvement of the reporter or interviewer in the topic is important. If you are really interested in asking people or a specific person about his life or an event he witnessed, then you will not have to puzzle over the list of questions. Try to avoid cliché questions like “how did you become an actor? how do you write songs? what did you feel when your last book came out?"
Step 2
Before starting the interview, consider what the article will look like. Try to find as much information as possible on the topic. Make an approximate list of questions (about 10), determine their sequence. Of course, during an interview, questions can change places, disappear, often during the conversation new questions are born. Keep in mind the concept of the future material, do not deviate from the intended course, otherwise you will not get a whole interview, but a set of incoherent questions and answers. If the interlocutors do not hear each other, neither the interviewer, nor the interviewee, nor the reader is interested.
Step 3
According to David Randall's book The Universal Journalist, tricky questions betray either an inexperienced interviewer or a reporter overly concerned with his article. Ask the classic but really important questions: what? where? when did it happen? as? why? Having received answers to them, you will understand that you have key information in your hands.
Step 4
Listen carefully to the answers. This will help you stay on course and deceive you with veiled phrases. Ask to clarify them, often behind them is not quite the meaning that you interpreted in your own way. The phrase “not for print” should be used as seldom as possible. To do this, stipulate all the details of the conversation in advance, and after agreeing, do not back down from your words.
Step 5
Don't be afraid to sound like a fool when asking about things that are obvious to the interviewee. Remember that the information you receive will be read by people who are also interested in it. Most sources are usually willing to tell you a lot more if they see someone interested in their topic.
