Nailing the Interviews: Excerpt From My Book: A Friendly Guide to Writing and Ghostwriting

“Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.”

- - - Katharine Hepburn

It’s an intimate experience to sit down in a quiet room, face someone whom you hardly know and conduct an in-depth interview. During this process, I ask them if it’s okay and I tape the conversations. I turn on my recorder, I look directly into the eyes of the person opposite me, I ask questions, and I do my best to interpret smiles, frowns or darting looks. I need to be aware of what they say and what they don’t say.

Maintaining eye contact is crucial for making a strong connection so if I’m looking downward to take written notes, it will cause me to lose focus, miss some important signs and risk breaking the delicate bond we’re forging.

Learning about a celebrity’s life and having free reign to ask any questions you like is a rare opportunity. You get to learn the truth, above and beyond the rumor mill. You get to study the lives of highly successful people and learn from their successes and mistakes. At times, you also get to interview other interesting people along the way. During the course of my career, I’ve been asked to interview celebrities’ best friends (these are often other celebrities), family members, personal trainers, lawyers and I even had the opportunity to interview Larry King, arguably the greatest interviewer of all time. It's a thrill to sit opposite these people with their focus directed on you, but in order to avoid getting tongue tied or intimidated, I always arrive with a list of questions that can keep me on track.

My questions vary somewhat from person to person, but in general, here are twenty examples:

1. What is the theme of your book?

2. What message do you want to get across to your readers?

3. What are the highlights in your life that you want to write about? (This will guide you in creating a Table of Contents.)

4. What happened in your childhood that made you who you are?

5. What kind of relationship did you have with your parents?

6. Did your parents divorce or stay together?

7. Who were your childhood idols? Who are your current idols?

8. Who helped you along the way?

9. Who tried to stop you?

10. How did you achieve excellence in your field?

11. What’s the best thing that ever happened to you during your career?

12. What’s the worst?

13. How did you overcome adversity?

14. How do you feel about your life now?

15. Which of your stories are fun and inspirational?

16. Which of your stories tragic and how did they motivate you?

17. What are your greatest successes?

18. What are your regrets?

19. What makes you proud?

20. What are your hopes for the future?

The above is a long list and you won’t get all the answers you need in one session. In fact, you may never get some of them. Even if your client is cooperative, he or she may need time to think since you’re asking some serious life questions or they may make a clear decision not to talk about something. You have to be patient and let them take the lead, but when someone tries to change the subject or divert your attention like a politician, that’s a signal that you’re onto something. This may not be the time to exert pressure. Maybe you can find a different way to ask the same question or maybe you need to wait for another day when you can bring it up again. Just make a note to yourself to return to that topic, perhaps when the client is in a better mood or after she’s learned to trust you more.

“This is a rare platform to get across your thoughts and ideas,” I start out. “What matters the most to you? What do you want people to know?” I’m not rigid about sticking to my particular questions. If the interview starts moving in an unexpected direction and it’s interesting or informative, I go with it. But if the conversation veers off in an unrelated direction, I return to my list, make sure the tape recorder is working, and I gently get the interview back on track.

I can't stress enough how important it is keep checking your taping device or devices. This is the only time it’s beneficial to turn your attention away from you client to your iPhone or whatever device you're using to create recordings. It may be slightly distracting for you to look away, but the alternative, losing material, is deadly. One time, I turned off the recorder when the client went on a rant, but I forgot to turn it back on and I didn't have a backup. I couldn’t ask her to repeat the same material so I had to try and recreate the story from my memory. Once was enough to make me hyper-vigilant and to have a backup tape running, just in case.

When it comes to interview styles, it's your job to figure out what will put a client at ease. No client is the same as any other. Make sure to laugh at their jokes and show compassion for the difficulties they have encountered in their lives. It’s all about making them comfortable so they feel safe enough to tell the truth about themselves.

Oscar winning movie star, Viola Davis, says, “Your only job as an artist is to put the truth out there into the world.”

Celebrities lives are extremely challenging which affects their moods. Granted, they have a lot of expensive stuff, they fly in private jets, and they take over entire restaurants to accommodate baby showers and birthdays, but they also suffer time when their dirty laundry gets aired publicly. Many of them have been so slandered and exposed, they’re gun shy to talk to me at all, so I have to remind them that I’m not a reporter and they get the final say about what gets printed and what doesn’t. Between the confidentiality tomes I sign and my efforts to not be swayed by their fame, they usually find some comfort and permission to be themselves.