Finding information to serve your story

Thanks to the Internet, we are glutted by information

We are glutted by opinion

And it’s not always clear what is reliable and credible

And what is actually just a weird list of things about cats.

The best creative writing—nonfiction and fiction—relies not only on imagination and wordsmithing, but also on research (this includes fantasy writers too):

“I use a “total immersion” method. Since I do not know going what particular nuggets I may need during the course of writing a novel, I try to learn as much as possible about the subject in question (the medieval world, in the case of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, or the antebellum river and the steamboat era in the case of FEVRE DREAM) by reading everything I can get my hands on.” —George RR Martin

Methods of Gathering Information:

Interviewing

Reading (online and otherwise)

Immersion reporting

“Journalism is kind of like dating. You have to be yourself but less. When I interview someone, I become smaller than him. I slouch down, and sometimes I get a bad neck. I look at him and I listen. Intension is important too, because your intentions come through.

—Mike Sager, Esquire contributing writer

Or at least some version of your self

Whenever possible, conduct an interview in person so that you, the writer, also have access to the elements of characterization: appearance, nuance, the person’s environment.

Avoid email interviews except for factual information

A telephone interview, like an email interview, may provide information and even quotes you can use, but it deprives you of any visual information.

Beneath a big tent hastily erected on a roof behind the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, a collection of modern gladiators gathers behind a portable stage, twenty-two broken noses and sets of cauliflower ears standing in a reverent semicircle around a familiar pug — the former bar bouncer, hotel bellhop, and personal fitness trainer who has, over the past decade, helped to turn the Ultimate Fighting Championship into a $1 billion business with fans across the globe.

—Meet Dana White, the King of Mixed Martial Arts, Esquire Magazine, by Mike Sager

“An assistant greets me and asks me to wait in the living room, which is suspended seemingly right over the crashing waves of the Pacific…after a few minutes, the assistant leads me up to the star’s bedroom. According toå Lawrence-Bullard, the bed originally belonged to Natacha Rambova, who was the wife of Rudolph Valentino. —Cher profile by Krista Smith, Vanity Fair, December 2010

Don’t hesitate to ask: you will be surprised how many people are willing to talk to you

Send a clear (typo-free) email requesting an interview that states your needs.

Dear Councilor X,

I am writing a story on the City Council’s decision to ban nude bicyclists. You spoke against this decision based on your history as a nude bicyclist. I’d love to hear more about this. Is there a convenient time this week for an interview?

Read up on the subject or person

Ask the person you’ll be interviewing to send you any info ahead of time he or she wants you to know.

Have questions ready to go

Familiarize yourself with other articles on your topic/person

Crowd-source questions: Ask people you know what questions they have for the person/ on the topic.

The best way to have a spontaneous conversation is to have your questions prepared.

Open-ended questions are:

Flexible

Exploratory

Can reveal more than the source realizes

Closed-Ended questions are:

Designed to pull specific information

Can be yes or no

May often be information you really need!

Confusing questions can create confusing answers.

Make sure you understand what the person is saying. Ask them to repeat if you don’t.

Type up your notes right away while they are fresh in your mind. Look for great quotes.

As with fiction, “great quotes” (or great dialogue) says more than it says and conveys emotion, reaction, rather than information:

Compare:

“We will vote on the nude bicyclist amendment on Thursday.”

“I’m planning to stand up for every nude bicyclist in the city—naked is beautiful and I’ll vote naked if I have to.”

Information you gather can be presented as “direct quotation” as we just saw

As summarized information

As paraphrased information

As with any type of writing, your information needs to be attributed

Dynamic writing uses a variety of these techniques.

If you are listening when you interview, you may hear things you need clarified. Ask those questions. Make the source explain.

Ask for additional sources to talk to, additional information. This will lead to stronger stories and additional stories.

Takes notes, and tape record if you are not confident yet with your note-taking.

Consider the types of information we encountered in “Devil’s Bait” and “Fourth State of Matter.”

Documents

Books

Newspaper articles

Read widely; use selectively; quote from documents in the same way you would from people: for impact, not information.

Immersion simply means attending or being present at an event in order to gather, again, the type of ambient details that help amplify your writing with vivid description

Immersion can also mean actually participating in an activity (think of Jamison at the Morgellon conference)

At its most heightened, “immersion” can mean “embedding,” actually being a part of the action (as, for example, with war correspondents)

We will be returning to these after our arts assignments

In the meantime, work on the information gathering portion

Conduct an interview, do online research, find sources that may help with your writing of the piece

Google, sure, but Google’s limitations are (hopefully) obvious by now. You can’t rely on Wikipedia or About.com or any of the high-ranking popular sites for credible information.

Look for expert sites: organizations, agencies, educational outfits that provide information on your topic.

Or use news sites to create lists of sources.

Journalism Tool Box (has links to a variety of sources on numerous topics)

Pro Publica (an amazing resource for statistics and other topics)

Reporter.org (can direct you to a variety of organizations that cover particular topics)

And, yes, our own library website (because specialized search engines are better and less junky than the regular Internet)