My First Real Interview

Tuesday afternoon  I did my first real interview. I botched it. I've had a couple of days to think about it, and I think I've identified the main culprits in the killing of my interview.

The location was all wrong. When I first approached my interviewees (there were three of them), I was thinking maybe we could chat over coffee. We ended up talking in a waiting room of sorts -- a pretty distracting environment -- outside a youth pastor's office. Strike one.

There were too many people. This wouldn't really have been a problem -- but they all knew the people I was interviewing, and they were all curious. Strike two.

I didn't prepare. I had two days to write down questions, but when Tuesday rolled around I didn't know what to ask. Also, I forgot to bring a tape recorder. Had I brought one, I could have focused on having a real conversation without frantically scribbling notes. Strike three.

In the end, it was a great learning experience. And years from now, I'll have a great story to tell a new crop of journalists.