Interview with open ended questions and, as with all interviews, use silence on your part to lead the subject to jump to unexpected comments. Most people cannot stand silence, so they will move in to fill it. Great salespeople know this and they use it to close sales. The salesman who closes the sale is the one who knows how to ask for the sale and then shut up. The next person who talks in this ensuring silence (usually the buyer) is the one who loses. (Keep quiet and amazing words tend to spew out of your subject.) —Good Habits Make Good Reporters: More Tips from the Tribune Newsroom (The Salt Lake Tribune)
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Interview with open ended questions and, as with all interviews, use silence on your part to lead the subject to jump to unexpected comments. Most people cannot stand silence, so they will move in to fill it…
…The next person who talks in this ensuring silence (usually the buyer) is the one who loses. (Keep quiet and amazing words tend to spew out of your subject.)
~~~
The phrase “the one who loses” betrays the adversarial nature of the reporting relationship (at least as described by the Salt Lake Tribune), but the technique is a useful one even in less competitive writing contexts. Experienced interviewees, of course, usually have learned when to keep their mouths shut.
But if you are learning about someone and you’re not working under a newspaper deadline, the technique can still be useful. The trick is to take the other person on their own terms, and they will tend to open up.
I don’t write for a newspaper, so I don’t find myself in the role of nailing interviewees. But I have heard some great stories and perspectives from people just by learning to listen carefully and leaving the conversation somewhat open-ended.
You’ve got to watch out for those reporters, though. At least the ones from the Salt Lake Tribune.