Don’t tell me what your interview subject had for lunch

I have a pet peeve when it comes to many profile articles ( that is, an article that profiles an individual for a magazine or other publication).

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that many writers (way, way too many, if you ask me) have this little habit of deliberately alluding to the interview itself within the story. It removes some of the focus away from the subject of the article and puts attention back on the writer. And sports fans, we all know that it’s not supposed to be about the writer. The article is supposed to be about the person who’s being profiled.

The most obvious, and in my opinion most annoying, way of doing this is to talk about the interview setting itself–the location, the mood, the lighting, etc. The writer might write something like this: “Over a lunch of tofu salad on carb-free bread with a side of couscous and a tiny glass of wheatgrass juice, Grungy Rockstar/Sensitive Actor/Wide-eyed Starlet confided his deepest fear….” Sometimes the writer pounds out something more like this: “Acclaimed Director/Reality TV Star/Trashy Heiress dashed into the organic cupcake shop twenty minutes late, dripping wet and making apologies for her appearance–her chauffeur had bailed at the last minute–before sitting down and removing her Lanvin/Rag and Bone/TJ Maxx jacket and ordering a cranberry-banana scone without the cranberries…”

So. Annoying.

Hell, why don’t you just go ahead and also write, “And I had a tall non-fat pumpkin latte with organic nutmeg sprinkled on top. And then I giggled and batted my eyelashes at Sensitive Musician/Grungy Actor/Bleached-Blonde Starlet and pretended that we were best friends. Because after all, isn’t this story also about how co0l it was that I got to have a meal/snacks/coffee with this person?”

NO! It is not about YOU, fellow writer person! You’re supposed to be writing about this person! Not insinuating little random factoids that don’t actually add to the story except to remove a reader from the story and throw them back into the interview process. No one needs to know about the interview process, unless something really crazy or jaw-droppingly sordid happens. Haven’t you ever heard the old saw about how no one needs to see laws or sausages being made? Interviews are like that. The interview exists so that you can pry information out of your subject and then shape it and sausage-make it into something readable and interesting for other people to digest…er, read.

Women’s magazines tend to have the most egregious examples of this annoying little trend. I’ve rarely noticed it in newspapers, although they are not completely immune (I have to pick on a story in today’s Tennesseean about Olympic gold medal winner Scott Hamilton who apparently likes to chat with reporters over grilled chicken salads. Although I might be willing to give this one a pass, since the rest of the article is fine, plus it does address the issue of Hamilton trying to lose weight and be healthy enough to return to professional ice skating).

Now, I will admit that there may occasionally be a time when a nugget of information about an interview might actually provide something very telling about the interviewee. It might really impart some useful info about Celebrity/Starlet/Who is She Again? to note that she orders complicated food items that aren’t on the menu but expects to receive them anyway.

But really. Most of the time these interviews seem to take place over lunch or coffee, which hello, is where MANY interviews take place. And you don’t read too many articles about bank presidents or biomedical researchers or even sports stars eating ham-and-turkey-on-wheat while talking about what’s going on with them and their industries. I once profiled a really interesting television news anchor. But when you read the story, you didn’t learn that she offered me iced tea in her living room while I fiddled with my tape recorder. So I expect other writers to be a little more creative in describing their subjects, too. Unless you conduct the interview someplace really, really off the wall. Or in a war zone. Then you get a pass. But not for a coffee shop or cafe interview. I know you think it might be a good example of “show, don’t tell” to note that your interview subject slowly stirred non-fat creamer into her coffee, but honestly, it really doesn’t. If she dreamily refers to her habit of rereading “Macbeth” on dark, stormy nights while she stirs said creamer into said coffee, then please, tell me that. But leave out the coffee, ‘kay?

And no, to my knowledge, I have never done anything like this in my writing, athough I am VERY sure I’ve committed plenty of other writing-related sins. And if I ever do slip up and fall into this little habit, you have my permission to call me out on it. You can even invite me out to lunch and write down what I’m eating.  (But please, don’t tell everyone what I’m wearing.)

H1N1, be gone

I got my H1N1 injection today. Hallelujah.

The health department got a limited shipment of vaccine in, and it announced that it would reserve them for high-priority cases today. So, along with a bazillion other mommies, I hauled myself downtown and got in line. My son got the injection, too. And not to brag, but I think he was the bravest kid in the whole room. I am very, very glad that I’ve gotten that taken care of. I really did feel like I was living under the Sword of Damocles, especially after David got so sick. I was having a hard time imagining how I’d wait until the injection form of the vaccine became available

So, whew! Now I can concentrate on work again.

Don’t get sick

Should anyone out there be wondering, “Hmmm, should I get the swine flu vaccine?” let me just say one thing:

YES. DO IT. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Otherwise, you may end up like my generally healthy 35-year-old husband, who we’re pretty sure has H1N1. (He’s been exposed at work.) He has been in bed with fevers of 102 (and occasionally higher) for five straight days. It has been awful. He has been miserable, just wretchedly miserable. Neither of us can recall him ever being this sick…and maybe he hasn’t ever been this sick before. I’m hoping to score a same-day appointment tomorrow at the doctor to have him evaluated, because now I’m starting to get all worried about him developing pneumonia.

My son and I are both taking Tamiflu in the hopes of warding off the illness, since we are both high-risk cases (William has asthma, and I am pregnant). But now I am pining for vaccines for us. Neither of us can take the H1N1 FluMist version of the vaccine, or we’d have already done it. Earlier this fall, I had toyed with the idea of signing up for a national clinical trial for pregnant women to receive the H1N1 vaccine in injection form before deciding against it. I figured, “Oh, I’ll just wait ’til the injection is widely available. It’ll only be another month or so. I can wait. Isn’t that what all this Purell is for?” Then David got sick. And the scales fell from my eyes. And I read up on the vaccine for pregnant women on the CDC’s website (Pregnant Women and the Flu). I just don’t want to take any more chances at this point, not after having seen H1N1 up close and especially not in my condition. I’m going to call my OB tomorrow to discuss enrolling in the trial so I can go ahead and get vaccinated. Even the thought of being as sick as my husband AND being pregnant (and oh yes, still having some sickness associated with pregnancy) just makes me want to cry. Loudly.

As for my son, well…I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait ’til the injections are available here in Nashville. And be crazy-vigilant about hand-washing and hand sanitizer use in the meantime. I’m nervous, but I don’t know what else I can do. Hope and pray, I suppose. Try to keep him away from his father as much as possible.

What effect has this whole experience had on my work, you might ask? Well, I had to turn down an assignment on Friday because I simply did not have the time and energy to work on it. It killed me to do it, too, because it was from one of my favorite clients and it focused on a topic that really interests me. But I was just done. I couldn’t do any more than I was already doing.  Caring for a delirious sick husband and an active three-year-old while maintaining a regular workload and also doing some volunteer work and church projects was just enough.

Hopefully we’ll move beyond this soon. As for the rest of you, if you’re in the prime H1N1 target demographics, go take a bath in Purell and then think about where you can get an H1N1 vaccine.

Where to work when you work from home

So as you all know, we’re expecting a baby around here. The only bad thing about the prospect of bringing home that shiny new addition to our family is that my home office is going to have go bye-bye. The Room Currently Known as My Office is going to become a nursery. That causes some problems, of course, seeing as how I work from home.

We’ve got a couple of possibilities we could explore. We could move my office equipment into the computer nook that is built into a corner of our upstairs play room. We could turn our guest room into an office. Or we could make a small office in our (pretty much unused) living room downstairs.

There are downsides to all of those options, of course. Let’s look at the situations:

First, the play room. The play room is my son’s domain. It is full of Legoes, Thomas the Tank Engine gear, dress-up clothes, Fisher-Price Little People sets, Star Wars figures and Lord knows what else. It would be hard for me to interview people by phone with him clanking around four feet away, especially if he’s trying to watch a vitally important episode of “SuperWhy!” or “Dinosaur Train.” I could tune him out while I’m writing, but I’m worried about him pestering me or being noisy when I’m on the phone. I can’t exactly shut him out of his own play room, you know?

Secondly, the guest room. I am the proud owner of my great-grandmother’s beautiful antique bedroom furniture, which currently resides in our guest room. It is by far the nicest–and the most nicely furnished–room in our house.  We do not have anywhere to store the furniture, and I am certainly not willing to get rid of it. There is no room in the guest room for any additional furniture, like a computer station, either.

Thirdly, the living room. We have a mostly unfurnished small living room at the front of our house. We want to eventually buy a love seat and a nice chair and coffee table for it, but we just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. So it houses a set of bookshelves and my son’s Geotrax train set right now. It does not have its own door, so there is no way to shut the room off from the rest of the house. Anyone entering the house could immediately see all the mess that is going to be a part of any home office that I ever have (I’m a realist about myself). And there’ s no way to have a private phone conversation in there, either.

So what should I do?

The strategy that I’m currently thinking of entails moving all my existing office stuff into the computer corner in the play room anyway. There’s room for the desktop computer, monitor, fax machine/printer, files, etc. I’d use that as a primary work station. BUT a good friend has offered a pretty little writing desk to me for next to nothing. I think I could install that downstairs in the living room, and I could set up my laptop and the portable phone down there for interviews during the times when my son is at home. That way, I can let my son stay upstairs in the playroom (with the door shut) while I conduct phone interviews downstairs. I can email the files to myself. Then I can go upstairs when I’m done and print them out or use them at the playroom work station. Like I said earlier, I can usually block out most of the noise from my son when I’m writing, unless he’s really bellowing or something. Or I can write in there when he’s at school or in bed.

It’s not ideal, but I can’t really think of anything better to do. Thoughts?

Is it a good career choice?

One of my tried-and-trusted sources for info on freelance writing is Allena Tapia’s About.com page about freelancing. In a new item, Allena answers the question “Is freelance writing a good career choice for a mother who wants to work at home with her children?” and she does an admirable job at laying out the pros and cons. And I can say, as someone who’s been freelancing regularly for several years, there are definitely pros and cons, and anyone who’s considering a career as a freelance writer should probably carefully consider them before taking the plunge, especially if the plunge entails quitting a full-time job.

My initial reaction to the question, however, was, “Well, are you actually a writer? Or are you just looking for something you think you can do at home, and writing seems easy enough?” Because here’s the deal: writing is not like selling Pampered Chef products or scrapbooking supplies. It’s a skill, one that needs to be honed with plenty of practice. The average person can’t just pick it up, just like that, after a couple of orientation sessions and some tips from the experts. Many of us who are freelancers are actual trained writers, with extensive backgrounds in professional writing. We have degrees, experience, clip files, writing seminars, professional memberships. We take this seriously. We’re not just doing it because we don’t want Johnny and Susie to go to daycare all day. Personally, I am freelancing for a couple of major reasons, including 1) I’m a professional journalist with years of experience to draw from, and it’s logical for me to continue my career in writing and 2) I have one young child and another one on the way, and it’s wonderful to have the chance, the opportunity, to not have to work away from them in an office full-time during this time in his/their lives. I can schedule interviews and writing sessions during preschool and around visits to the pediatrician. I contribute to our family income, and I am keeping my writing and reporting skills, not to mention my clip file and resume, current.

Now, I’m not saying that you can’t start out with zero experience  and work your way up. You certainly can, and lots of people do. But if you are not truly dedicated to not just becoming a writer but to writing and to working on improving your writing, then this is not the career move for you. If you’re just settling on “freelance writing” because it doesn’t require you to have any special degrees or training or background, well, try again. Find something that does match your skill set, or your background. Or if you are bound and determined to become a freelance writer, then, by God, work at it. Take it seriously. Because I do. And lots of my colleagues do, too.

Okay. I’ll hop off my soapbox now. After all, I have a new assignment to tackle…

Laboring on Labor Day

Happy Labor Day, folks. Let’s see a show of hands. Raise your hand if you’re actually working today.

Let’s see…you there, is your hand up or down? Down? Okay. Is that one over there…no? Mmmmm, looks like it’s just….

Me.

‘S okay, though. For years, I actually got Labor Day as a paid holiday. Now that I’m my own boss, I have to accept that I might have to work at weird times. And actually, I got a lot done today and feel pretty good about it. And that’s made it worthwhile for me.

And now that I’ve gotten so much done, I’m off to investigate the goodies that my husband brought home from the grocery store. Do I smell watermelon?

Surviving…

So I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts on other people’s writing-related blogs lately, and many of them encourage writers and would-be writers not to forget about marketing themselves, even when they have plenty of work. You never know when the work you have is going to dry up, the (very reasonable) rationale goes, and it’s better to be proactive about selling your talents and finding new work to establish and maintain a steady flow of assignments. And income.

I wholeheartedly agree. It definitely pays to be proactive. It’s definitely worth your time to carve out some time to send out new query letters, to check back in with old clients, make phone calls, to improve your website, write on your blog, brush up on your skills, and look for new opportunities. When I do it, I’m usually pleased by the good results. And when I don’t do it, I’m not too surprised by the not-so-great results.

The trouble for me lately is that I just haven’t had the energy to do any of that. You see, I’m pregnant with my second child, and if you’ve ever been pregnant, you can probably imagine what the last couple of months have been like for me. So I’ve been able to manage my existing work pretty well, but I just can’t imagine trying to take on any more work right now. The good thing about writing is that at least I can do it while I’m sitting down. And another good thing about freelancing is that the person on the other end of the phone doesn’t have to know I’m still in my pajamas, green-faced from nausea. I know that in a few months, I’ll be wishing I had made more effort, but frankly, the last couple of months have been all about survival for me. The thought of attempting to do anything more was likely to drive me into the fetal position (if I wasn’t already there!).

I guess I’m just trying to reassure myself that this, too, will pass. And I’ll feel more like being proactive again soon.

Fixed again!

Weirdly—or, given that it might actually be useful to someone, perhaps not so weirdly—the post on this blog that regularly gets the most hits is one that I wrote back in late December about my brother fixing our toilet. It’s called Fixed! and it discusses my overall uselessness when it comes to household repairs.

Well, I was only useless at household repairs until today, folks. I discovered that the toilet in our master bathroom wasn’t flushing correctly, and so I hauled out the auger that my brother bought for us and put it to good work. After only three or four tries, I had that toilet flushing again just fine. I was so proud of myself that I hopped around the bathroom for a few minutes, saying “Wahoooo!” And of course, wouldn’t you know it, there was no one else home to share in my newfound sense of accomplishment. Then again, if anyone else had been home, I might not have tried to fix the toilet by myself.

Anyway, here’s what you can learn from this: you, too, can fix basic clogs in your toilet at home. Pitch the flimsy plunger and buy yourself a $10 toilet auger at Home Depot or Ace Hardware. Read the instructions and give it a shot. If I can, anyone can.

Hurry up, September

This month cannot end quickly enough.

I’m not a big fan of hot, muggy August weather to begin with. But to make matters worse, my son isn’t in school during the month of August, which translates into no regular childcare….which translates into a lack of guaranteed kid-free working time for me.

Yesterday morning, for example, I needed to interview a medical researcher for a project I’m working on. We scheduled a phone call for mid-morning. Normally, I’d try to schedule these interviews for the times when my son is either in school or napping. But I needed to do this interview quickly, so we settled on yesterday morning. Knowing my son would be at home..and at loose ends, unfortunately…I turned on the TV and implored him to watch one of his favorite kiddie shows on PBS, like “Sesame Street” or “Arthur.” Unfortunately, he thought it was way more fun to burst into my office while I was on the phone. I waved frantically at him to go back to the playroom, that I was still on the phone. He immediately began to screech and laugh and make a whole heckuva lot of noise. And THEN he started pulling on the back of my hair. I was about ready to kill him. I pleaded with my source to hold on just a minute, then bodily picked my son up and carried him out of the room and told him that I’d be done in a few minutes but that if he bothered me again, there would be consequences.

Luckily, the woman on the other end of the phone had a small child and knows exactly what they’re like. She laughed and commiserated with me for a few minutes, and then we finished up the interview. I was relieved to be finished with it, but I was still very irritated with my child. Granted, he’s three years old, so I can hardly expect him to act like an adult. But he also knows that he’s not supposed to interrupt me when I’m on the phone, and he is old enough to understand that. Believe me, we have had that little conversation more than a few times. Argh. The life of a freelance writer is just so glamorous, isn’t it?

So I’m counting down the days ’til preschool begins, and I’ll have my regular work time back again. Bonus: then I can spend more time with my child when he’s not in school because I’ll already have had time to get my work done.

What’s your major?

Allena Tapia recently conducted a useful discussion on her About.com blog about freelance writing. She asked what major is the best major for a fledgling freelance writer. She asked those of us who make a living by freelancing to weigh in on what advice we’d give to a young person who wanted to follow in our footsteps.

Interestingly, many of the people who responded said they’d recommend an English major. I was an English major myself, once upon a time. My small liberal arts college didn’t have a journalism program, so most of us who wanted to pursue careers in journalism chose a major like English or political science and then worked on the school newspaper and got internships at outside publications. I chose my major based on two things: 1) English was my best subject and I adored it, and 2) I wanted to major in something that would teach me to think critically and write well. Since I didn’ t get the chance to take any formal journalism courses, I learned most of what I knew about journalism from internships and the school paper. But I developed good research and writing skills from writing a regular series of papers for my English classes, from Advanced Essay Writing to Shakespearean Tragedy.

Would I recommend the same course to a young person today? Maybe. I think there’s definitely value in studying a particular subject, like history or English or psychology or international studies, in great detail. You become much more familiar with a particular area of study, which can only help you in a writing career; you actually know something about a particular specialty, not just how to write about it.

Meanwhile, journalism is a wonderful course of study in that you learn a lot about the trade, including the laws that govern it. You also learn how to write and structure an article, and so on. But you don’t necessarily learn a lot about any one subject matter, which I think is useful for developing critical thinking skills. Is it going to hurt someone to major in journalism? Absolutely not, particularly if you’re attending a really good journalism school. It might be the best course of action for some people. And also, it helps in developing important networking connections, which can’t be discounted if you want to pursue a career in journalism. But ultimately, I’m glad I did what I did. And for the record, I went on to get a master’s degree in journalism, had an absolute blast doing it and learned a lot of things that have been meaningful in my career.

And frankly, I wouldn’t advise a young person to plan on being a freelance writer anyway, at least not right off the bat. I’d tell him or her to get a job working in journalism or publishing and get some experience* first. Work hard, work under some good editors, and build up a good clip file. Get some good online experience. Hone your writing skills and develop your resume and contacts. Then go freelance. (*Not that it’s that easy to get a job in journalism these days, but you can be creative.) If you’re a good writer and you’re persistent, that’s what matters in the end.