As someone who regularly has to think about what questions to ask an interview subject I’ve often wondered how those questions appear to the subject themselves. Sometimes when a writer hands in a story I’ve comissioned, I’ll find myself trying to work out what questions they asked from the story they’ve handed in. I know, its almost impossible to do so, but still find myself quizzing over it. Email interviews are the worst, your questions are there, set in stone so to speak, and evoke often very different reactions than if the same questions had been part of a conversation.
So, its a novel experience to be on the receiving end. When I was contacted by A City with Quirk for an interview I thought it might be a bit of fun. The questions that were sent to me, from writer Mark Lawrence, showed someone had done their research, enough so that I felt compelled to put a bit more effort into my responses. What I really enjoyed about it was coming away from the experience feeling that I’d discovered something new! Great questions can force you to consider connections, in this case, between different areas of work, in a way that you haven’t before. I think as an interviewer you’d have to be pretty happy with that!
If you’d like to read the interview you can do so here.
postcards from the north 