Category Archives: The Writing Life

An interview with Celeste A. Peters.

Interviews can be entertaining, informative or a disaster. There are three types of interview styles: personal audio/visual (podcast, television, radio); written (email communications); and personal converted to written. It isn’t the type of interview that makes it good – it’s the ability to conduct the interview, to transform what you’ve learned into an appealing story. To learn more about how to conduct a successful interview, I asked Celeste A. Peters about interviewing tricks and techniques. She’s interviewed a broad spectrum of people including politicians, scientists, farmers and medical patients.

You’ve interviewed an array of people from different professions and in different walks of life. How do you handle your nerves when you’re interviewing someone you admire, someone who in your mind has great status or authority? Is there a difference in how you approach that person versus someone else?
I’ve found that conducting an interview with respect and an air of confidence garners the best results, regardless of the status of the person being interviewed. Sure, it can take time to develop your confidence, though. To do so, conduct all of your interviews as though the person you’re interviewing is a head of state. Just don’t tackle an actual high-level interview your very first time out.

You’ve done your prep, you’ve got your notes and your questions, yet the interviewee takes you off on a tangent. What do you do?
If the tangent seems littered with material that’s relevant to your other questions, it might be worthwhile to let the person ramble for a while. Sometimes they provide valuable material you never thought of asking about. On the other hand, if you’ve got limited time for the interview, you might interrupt and say something like, “That sounds so interesting, but I’m afraid we’ll run out of time if we go there right now. We were talking about X…” The interviewee usually gets the hint.

How do you prepare your questions? And how do you ask them? I mean, is it a good idea to ask personal questions first to become comfortable, a mix of light hearted questions and pointed questions, or do you just get to the heart of the interview, the nitty-gritty?
Before the interview, determine why you need it; is it to collect information, obtain someone’s opinion on a topic, or a mix of both? Also define your target market for the resulting written piece. This will determine the depth of the questions you prepare. Next, research what material is already easily available on the topic or individual. What unique angle can you bring? If you’re doing an on-spec piece, this will be critical. If you’re writing on assignment, the nature of your questions might be determined by your employer. Then prioritize your list of questions: know what information you absolutely must not come away without. And, finally, arrange the order of your questions. Lead with one or two easy, perhaps light-hearted questions, followed by the meat of your interview, then any questions you deem a ‘bonus’ if answered. And be certain to arrange with your interviewee beforehand—preferably when you book the interview—how much time is available. If it’s less than you expected, you’ll need to pare down your list.

What is the most challenging interview you’ve conducted and how did you handle it?
No single interview stands out as ‘most challenging’. I have had to interview what I’d call ‘reluctant’ interviewees, though. I once was hired to write the big, glossy PR book for the Canadian branch of a multinational company. Some of the department heads only granted an interview because they were ordered to. I eventually got all the information I needed by remaining serious in demeanor and strictly professional in approach, and by asking for the name and number of someone else in their department who could flesh out material they decided they didn’t have the time or inclination to cover.

Time has run out and there are still unanswered questions. What’s the best way to handle that situation?
If you don’t finish the interview within the specified time, you might want to estimate how much more time is needed and request the interview keep going if convenient or request another meeting. Neither of these moves is optimal though; this is where prioritizing your questions beforehand comes in handy. Are the ones still unanswered just your bonus questions or do they include one or more of your critical questions?

What are your thoughts on an interviewee wanting to see the final product before it’s released?
If you’re writing a piece of journalism, politely, but firmly, decline. Period. Some employers even forbid it outright. The interviewee has said what they said—you should have a voice recording or, at very least, detailed notes to prove it. How you incorporate it into your work is up to you. If you have any doubt whatsoever you’ve understood what they were saying, ask them to verify the quote or clarify the piece of information you are planning to use—and nothing more. If you’re writing something other than a work of journalism, use your judgment. For example, on my first book I worked closely with a leading researcher in the field of Seasonal Affective Disorder; his feedback on my first draft was essential.

Is any question ever too big or too small?
Depends on the scope of what you plan to write as a result of the interview. For example, you don’t want to ask someone to summarize their entire life if what you plan to write will focus on a single incident.

Is there anything I didn’t ask that you want readers to know?
Check your ego at the door. No matter how much you personally know about a topic, ask questions from your least educated reader’s point of view. This means you will need to ask questions that might make you look ridiculously uninformed in the eyes of your interviewee, but this way you get the answer in their words, from their point of view, not yours. Sometimes, I’ve even found my preconception of what their answer would be was way off track. Those were humbling learning moments.

Now for the big question: What style of interview did I use to interview Celeste? Was it personal audio/visual (podcast, television, radio), written (emails), or personal converted to written?

For this blog, Celeste A. Peters called on several decades’ experience in journalism,

public relations, and non-fiction book writing—-now all in her past. Today she focuses on developing her skills in the wonderful world of fiction. Successes have included publication of short-stories in the Aurora Award-nominated Urban Green Man anthology, the Amok: Anthology of Asian-Pacific Speculative Fiction, the inaugural issue of Enigma Front anthology and in the chapbooks of winning entries for the 2011 and 2015 Robin Herrington Memorial Short Story Contest. Celeste is Senior Editor for Enigma Front’s upcoming second issue and she can be found at www.celestepeters.com.

My Best Sale

November 20, 2015

Colette Black

Isotropic Fiction cover — Isotropic Fiction: “Watchboy”

I’ve sold a number of short stories. Most of them have gone through a few rejections before getting picked up by a magazine or anthology. Some have even become the cover story. I used to hear others talk about writing non-fiction and thought, “But how boring.” A few months ago, I learned better.

In a desire to improve my writing skills and branch into something new, I googled “call for nonfiction submissions.” This site showed up and so I looked it over: http://www.newpages.com/classifieds/calls-for-submissions. I found an educational magazine, focused on homeschooling, with a call that sounded interesting to me. As Ace Jordyn said in her previous article, How to Write Non-Fiction Books for Profit, when you find something you love to talk about then your enthusiasm can be contagious. I’ve done some homeschooling and I’ve had experience with many schools and different teaching programs. So I went to work and gave my take on education with the article Essay Overload. I didn’t expect anything to come of it.

THSR: "Essay Overload" — THSR: “Essay Overload”

However, just like an article I wrote in high school in my very first creative writing class, my essay submission sold almost immediately. It published this month. (Click on the picture to the right and go to page 27 to see the article.) The magazine’s rates were at least three times higher than ANY fiction short story I had ever sold up to that point. I was amazed, ecstatic, and a bit dumbfounded. Say what? But this is just the fact of fiction. The best part, I was able to use that money to pay for my flight home from the 2016 Superstars Seminar. So, my non-fiction is helping me pay for my fiction endeavors.

On a side note, I also think writing non-fiction helps our ability to write in other areas. I’ve noticed that some of the best writers do both worlds very well. And, in fact, I sold a fiction short story very soon after the non-fiction for almost as much money. My first professional short story sale.

Lesson learned. Writing non-fiction is a good way to write fiction. May not make sense to you, but in my book, the numbers add up just fine.

Colette Black Bio:

Colette Black lives in the far outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona with her family, 2 dogs, a mischievous cat and the occasional unwanted scorpion. She loves learning new things, vacations, and the color purple. She writes New Adult and Young Adult sci-fi and fantasy novels with kick-butt characters, lots of action, and always a touch of romance. Find her at www.coletteblack.net

Writing for Magazines and Newspapers

November 19, 2015

Jace Killan

Jace Killan Non-fiction writing Starting a Career Successes The Writing Life The Writing Process 1 Comment

The place of my day job interviewed several candidates to assist with marketing a retail antique store and restaurant. After floating through a few self-proclaimed gurus with no real results we became frustrated. Then someone pointed out that Jace was a writer. I hadn’t considered writing in that fashion and at that time knew very little about antiques, but why not give it a go? I liked being referred to as a writer and wanted to prove that I deserved the title, so I wrote a piece and submitted it to a local paper.

Let me pause here to emphasize an important observation. While the piece was well written and fairly entertaining, the paper was overly excited to have content. I’ve noticed that time and time again magazines, periodicals, and papers are looking for content to legitimize their advertising space.

That local paper liked the article so much that they asked if they could run it in their national paper. Now antiques are a bit of a niche, I’ll admit, but still there are enough readers to support a national distribution. Within a month I had received versions of these papers from as far away as Rhode Island and Canada all featuring my article.

So I did it again. This time I was let in on a little secret. This national paper only had a handful of contributors and they were extremely grateful for another. The articles allowed me to mention our store, and have helped with some free press.

I wasn’t compensated for these articles from the papers but the free advertising we received was worth thousands. And because I wasn’t compensated there weren’t any contracts or rights or terms. So I turned around a couple months later and submitted that same first article to several other papers. Now I’ve submitted articles all over. I’ve ran the same article in multiple papers at the same time. In fact, each time I’ve submitted an article to a paper I’ve been thanked and the article has ran in the next installment.

This goes back to my earlier observation: papers are looking for content.

There’s a lot of blogging going on these days, but print articles are still in demand (especially free articles). There are nationalized papers, journals, periodicals that are specific to niches like antiques. Most (I assume all) of these papers maintain their existence through advertising, but they all need someone’s words to print, stories to share. Larry Correia gains continual attention when he writes nonfiction about things like gun control.

It has been good for me in my writing career. Not financially per se but it has given me deadlines to meet, word counts to maintain, and it has gotten my name in front of tens of thousands.

Tracy Hickman once asked me why I write. He answered for me while I was thinking on the question, “To inspire,” he said. Whether fiction or non, contract or free, I write to inspire. Antiquing has become a fun niche where I can do just that.

I live in Arizona with my family, wife and five kids and a little dog. I write fiction, thrillers and soft sci-fi with a little short horror on the side. I’ve got an MBA and work in finance for a biotechnology firm.

I volunteer with the Boy Scouts, play and write music, and enjoy everything outdoors. I’m also a novice photographer.

You can visit my author website at www.jacekillan.com, and you can read some of my works by visiting my Wattpad page.

Finding Your Voice Through Blogging

November 18, 2015

Kim May

Kim May Making Progress as a Writer Narrative Voice Non-fiction writing No Comments

Most of us have heard the adage “You have to write a million words…” in some shape or form. Sometimes that million is what finally makes your writing good, sometimes it’s what makes you a “real writer”, and sometimes it’s what you have to do to find your artistic voice. The last one I actually agree with. I know when I first started writing I was trying too hard to write like my favorite grand masters of sci-fi and fantasy. I had yet to discover who I am as a writer and then become comfortable with that identity. I felt more comfortable and confident trying to emulate someone else.

Somewhere along the line I heard the “all serious professional writers have to have a blog” advice so like any dutiful newbie I started a blog — which I actually still post to occasionally. I did my best to come up with interesting topics and share anything that I’d learned in my journey so far…and I did get a decent amount of hits. After about a year of this I had a moment of enlightenment. I realized that when I let go of pretentiousness and let my words be MY WORDS there was a certain way I tended to phrase things and a certain tone and humor that my posts had in common. The biggest realization was that I didn’t hate it. It needed some polish and refinement perhaps but it didn’t suck.

That’s when I thought back to the “million words to find your voice” adage. Nowhere in the adage does it say that all of those million words have to be fiction. Between the blog, a novel and a handful of short stories I probably wrote close to a million words during that year. In that time I learned to relax and let the words come out; and since I was blogging as me and only me it was easier to allow the words to sound like a conversation I’d have with a friend.

Fast forward to 2014. I’d applied my voice to my fiction for a while and had become comfortable doing that but I hadn’t received any professional feedback so I still didn’t know if I was any good. I wrote five short stories in six weeks for an anthology workshop early that year. At the workshop we received critiques from six esteemed editors. Most of them said they wouldn’t have bought any of the stories because of plot or pacing problems but my voice was never a problem. In fact one of them loved my voice and complemented me on it more than once. Well, craft and structure are relatively easy to fix. That just takes study and practice. I can do that! Voice on the other hand is much harder because your personality is much more fixed.

So if you feel that you haven’t found your voice or your writing group comments that your writing doesn’t sound like you then give this a try. You don’t have to do a public blog like I did. You can keep a diary (digital or physical) and write whatever you want in it. If you want to write about your journey to becoming an amazing writer, do it. If you want to write about the struggles of being a writer while working a full-time day job, do it. If you want to philosophize about unicorn poop, do it. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. What matters is that you say what you want to say the way you would say if you were having a conversation with a friend.

Relax and be yourself.