If you want to cut some leg work off your writing research, convert as many interviews as you can to telephone interviews. Beginning writers try to hoof it all over their city to hook up with experts, but that isn’t necessary. You can learn to be effective by phone and get all the skinny you need for your articles. Eight surprisingly simple tools will get you on your way.
- A portable (read: small ) tape recorder if your budget is stressed. These cost less than $25 and can be bought with a telephone connector. Tell your subject you’re taping the conversation so that you’re sure to report their points accurately.
- Digital recorder if you want to spend the money. It never runs out of tape – most record for a couple of hours, anyway. No hissing.
- Headphones – invest in a quality pair of telephone compatible headphones. You’ll save all kinds of body aches that come from leaning your head over to pin the phone onto your shoulder. Try several brands – I like Plantronics - until you find one that sounds good on both ends of the conversation. Call your friends to test it out. Return it to the store if you have any sound-quality issues and try another. You don’t have to spend hundreds here – about $20 to $25 bucks gets pretty good quality.
- Computer or netbook. This is what I work with. I use my laptop and have taught myself to type very quickly, almost as fast as normal people speak. I seldom miss anything – typing while listening to my sources. If I do miss, I just ask them to go back and repeat what they were saying.
- Pencil and paper – some writers swear by this ageless method. Use a hands free or headset and just take notes.
- Hands free phone, otherwise known as speaker phone (most people don’t like to have a conversation with one of these, they echo like the Grand Canyon) but there are writers who pull it off.
- Call Corder software with a free trial version. Very robust and full featured. One button recording right to your hard drive. Worth a try.
- A phone service that doesn’t charge you for long distance calls. Lots of busy experts will “forget” to return phone calls. If you phone them, you have a better chance of success. Choices include Skype or all inclusive long distance like an AT&T land line for about $40 a month or cellular service with free long distance, from about $29.
Learn to type while people speak – you can create shorthand of your own to reduce the number of characters you have to type. Some established writers hire a transcriptionist, but for me, going over a long transcript that I didn’t set up would be difficult, since I wouldn’t remember where in the conversation key facts came out.
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