Hatrack River Writers Workshop   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Writers Workshop » Forums » Open Discussions About Writing » what do you like to know about authors? (Page 2)

  This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2   
Author Topic: what do you like to know about authors?
Keeley
Member
Member # 2088

 - posted      Profile for Keeley   Email Keeley         Edit/Delete Post 
About interviews in general, I've only seen one interview per issue in a mag and it's usually a one on one interview between author and editor.

I like that format because it allows the interview to flow and bend according to the feel of the answers. And it feels much more intimate than a list of generic questions.

Just my thoughts on interviews in general. Must get back to the rest of my life now.

[This message has been edited by Keeley (edited April 20, 2005).]


Posts: 836 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Josh Leone
Member
Member # 2365

 - posted      Profile for Josh Leone   Email Josh Leone         Edit/Delete Post 
I enjoyed the interview.

Josh L


Posts: 95 | Registered: Feb 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
TaShaJaRo
Member
Member # 2354

 - posted      Profile for TaShaJaRo   Email TaShaJaRo         Edit/Delete Post 
JB - you make an excellent point about marketing and I had not thought of that. You're completely right that writers need to take any and every opportunity to market their work because no one else is going to do it for us. There are no trailers for books. An interview is a perfect marketing tool and I'm glad you brought that out.

I still believe that the interviewer will have better results asking general questions rather than pointed ones, but you're right; we're writers. No matter what the question, we should be able to create an interesting answer that tells exactly what we want to share.

I'm glad you continued to explain your view on this topic because you've changed my opinion of interviews for the better.


Posts: 225 | Registered: Feb 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
I don't know that the interviewer should ask pointed questions, but certainly questions specific to the writer's work might be a good start.

I may not be of the opinion that really great art can be created without genuine passion for the subject, but that doesn't mean that I want to find out whether an artist has the right experiences/beliefs/morals before I can judge the art. I think that the reason great art requires sincerity is because you can see the feeling in the art itself. Anything that doesn't carry an imprint of the creator's spirit isn't art, it's just artificial.

So I'm a textualist because I believe that anything you really need to know about the artist to judge the art is already embedded in the art, not because I believe that art isn't related to the artist.

Therefore, I think that there are many questions about any work of art that only the artist could truly answer. Questions that the work raises about that artist and no other. And even questions that are both, questions about the specific art that are really questions about the artist.

I know that if I were being asked specific and insightful questions about my work, I'd feel much more involved in the interview. And as an interviewer, just asking stock questions makes me feel like I'm not involved at all.

At the very least, the published interview should consist entirely of questions that are original and asked specifically of the person being interviewed. I feel this very strongly. Otherwise it's just a questionaire. I might give creative answers, and those answers might tell some of the readers some things about my stories, but really...if that's all you want, to throw the entire burden on the author, why not just ask them for a short bio piece? I'd feel less like I was being plugged in to fill space, more like I was actually producing something original.

And of course, I'd feel more free to turn you down flat if I didn't feel like writing a bio. If you ask to interview me as a writer, I'm going to assume that the questions will be about me, as a writer. If they aren't, then I'm not going to feel very interested.

Does this sound like I'm being disagreeable? Well think about whether or not it's useful to continue asking writers dull, generic questions that could be addressed to anyone and then complaining when they give you dull, generic answers. Ask different questions, questions that the writer will be interested in answering.

You started this thread to look for advice on how to interview authors. Turning it into a discussion of how writers can turn lackluster questions to their own advantage is all well and good, but that doesn't really help you become a better interviewer, does it?


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
JBSkaggs
Member
Member # 2265

 - posted      Profile for JBSkaggs   Email JBSkaggs         Edit/Delete Post 
Actually it does... becuase it is an education process for me.

I came to this assuming (which says something about my naitivity) that my purposes for an interview were the same as the writer's.

I now have learned the difference and can adjust accordingly.

JB Skaggs


Posts: 451 | Registered: Dec 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
Heh heh, you will adapt, eh? So may we all.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
Administrator
Member # 59

 - posted      Profile for Kathleen Dalton Woodbury   Email Kathleen Dalton Woodbury         Edit/Delete Post 
Well, even a good interviewer (and I submit that Dennis Lythgoe is one) can experience a bad interview.

He did his homework, he asked specific and insightful questions, and he still got frustrating answers.

See what y'all think:

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600130132,00.html


Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!  | Report this post to a Moderator
Tanglier
Member
Member # 1313

 - posted      Profile for Tanglier   Email Tanglier         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Still, I think I'm affirming the position that the artist should believe in the truth of the art. Otherwise that person is a hack, pretty much by definition, creating something without appreciation of it.

Agreed.


Posts: 193 | Registered: Dec 2001  | Report this post to a Moderator
djvdakota
Member
Member # 2002

 - posted      Profile for djvdakota   Email djvdakota         Edit/Delete Post 
OOF!! Poor Dennis! Remind me to never be such a, hmm, witch when I'm famous.
Posts: 1672 | Registered: Apr 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Teriasas
New Member
Member # 2537

 - posted      Profile for Teriasas   Email Teriasas         Edit/Delete Post 
I would ask, "Tell me everything."

Maybe with leaving it open, the author would want to open up to me. I wouldn't want to know what is important to me about him; but what, at that given time, is important to him. People live in the present, no matter how much they remember from the past. If he answers in the present, I will pursue his train of thought. If he starts on with the past...."no further questions".


Posts: 2 | Registered: May 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
Let's face it, anyone who's been divorced three times and hasn't started to wonder whether there might be a common factor in each of those marriages isn't going to be the best bet for anything. And when you combine that with a core philosophy of "I believe that ignoring fundamental realities is the high road to enlightenment", it's not even about communication anymore.

Still, being mean to Jane Fonda is all well and good, but I think that Lythgoe had to have known about how this interview was going to go. I mean, what did he expect? Given not only who she is as a person, but the relative disparity in fame, can you even imagine the interview being worth much? The major media is already giving her plenty of time to say everything she wants to say. Given that she apparently never had the ability to fill that bandwidth with anything coherent, it is hardly a surprise that she fails to pack some new gems into the relatively tiny extra slice offered by this interview.

There's a lesson for interviewers. Choose to interview someone who might actually have something new to say.


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
Doc Brown
Member
Member # 1118

 - posted      Profile for Doc Brown   Email Doc Brown         Edit/Delete Post 
Reaching for another new frontier of objectivity, eh Survivor?

I heard Fonda intervierwed on the radio. She didn't make me want to buy her book, not at all. I've tried to imagine where she was coming from in that interview. Perhaps the agreement with her publisher required a publicity tour, and she didn't actually want to go?

If someone publishes my book I'd be delighted to go on a publicity tour.


Posts: 976 | Registered: May 2001  | Report this post to a Moderator
Keeley
Member
Member # 2088

 - posted      Profile for Keeley   Email Keeley         Edit/Delete Post 
Reading that interview reminded me why I hope I don't ever have to do a book tour. I'm a lousy actress and would have an extremely difficult time trying to hide any exhaustion or anger. Though it would be nice to talk to fans and see their faces, I would hate to hurt their feelings or disappoint them. And I know I would if I was having a particularly bad day.


Posts: 836 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
You need to cultivate a dark, edgy persona from the start. That way, when you're nice everyone is shocked in a semi-good way, and when you're yourself, it works out okay.

You also have to have something intelligent or at least interesting to say if you're going to open your mouth at all. So dark and brooding is still a winner.

And let's face it, "[author's name] lives in [author's town] with [author's commensals]" really doesn't tell us anything interesting about the author, while "resides in the bowels of hatred and despair" tells us quite a bit.

It's even better if you didn't pick that up from the writing itself. Imagine a happy childrens' book with an author bio about suffering the torments of the damned at the end


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
JBSkaggs
Member
Member # 2265

 - posted      Profile for JBSkaggs   Email JBSkaggs         Edit/Delete Post 
Ah Survivor I see it now, Maurice Sendak's plummet into heroin binges and rat's eating his baby sister! At the end of Where the Wild Things Are.

Would probably explain alot.


Posts: 451 | Registered: Dec 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Keeley
Member
Member # 2088

 - posted      Profile for Keeley   Email Keeley         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
You need to cultivate a dark, edgy persona from the start.

Hmmmm. Haven't tried that since high school. I'm a bit rusty. Would it help if I tried be mysterious in a Harlan Ellison kind of way? Or would that come across as silly?


Posts: 836 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
rickfisher
Member
Member # 1214

 - posted      Profile for rickfisher   Email rickfisher         Edit/Delete Post 
Hmmm...interesting. Harlan Ellison has never seemed mysterious to me. As a personality, he's always seemed entirely transparent and rather obvious. In any case, I wouldn't try to emulate his behavior. If it doesn't come naturally, you'll never manage to make it believable. I'd suggest something simpler that you can lay atop your own personality, like cultivating a sense of sarcasm.

[This message has been edited by rickfisher (edited May 04, 2005).]


Posts: 932 | Registered: Jul 2001  | Report this post to a Moderator
Keeley
Member
Member # 2088

 - posted      Profile for Keeley   Email Keeley         Edit/Delete Post 
Actually, I was thinking more of his pics and bios.

I'll agree that his personality is definitely transparent. I might be able to toss around some sarcasm, but I don't think I will ever become as... gruff?... curt?... as Ellison seems to be (and probably is).


Posts: 836 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Doc Brown
Member
Member # 1118

 - posted      Profile for Doc Brown   Email Doc Brown         Edit/Delete Post 
Warning rickfisher: SARCASM BAD!

There are lots of reasons why sarcasm is that absolute worst form of humor to choose. The main one is that it takes no brain power. The world is swimming in low quality sarcasm.

High quality sarcasm is hard to find, probably because sarcasm turns people off so much. Especially in a writer.


Posts: 976 | Registered: May 2001  | Report this post to a Moderator
rickfisher
Member
Member # 1214

 - posted      Profile for rickfisher   Email rickfisher         Edit/Delete Post 
Ha! I was talking about the effort to
quote:
cultivate a dark, edgy persona
or rather, an approximation thereof, not about being funny. You're right, sarcastic people can be really annoying in person, though I tend to like them a lot as characters.

Posts: 932 | Registered: Jul 2001  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
Being dark and edgy is easy for a celebrity. You just don't say much. Don't smile or look directly at cameras, take a long time before answering (or refusing to answer) questions. Just don't ever do the fake stuff that people do to set up a "public persona".

Okay, that won't necessarily make you dark and edgy unless you're a bit that way already. But it will mean that you don't have anything to fear from being yourself at times.


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
  This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2