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OVERVIEW

Lost or garbled information is a terrible waste. Especially if it’s the information you gathered from an interview and must now write into your User Document. Here’s how to prevent that waste.

THE SITUATION

You had an interview with a Subject Matter Expert (SME, someone who has the information that you need) for your product. He/she told you all that you needed to know. However, by the time you got to write the material into the User Document, you have forgotten much of what was discussed. Your notes only help a bit. This loss or garbling the information from the SME that you need for your writing is the “Interview-Writing Disconnect.”

SOLUTION

The solution is divided into three components: Preparation Before the Interview, Actions During, and Following the Interview.

TIP: If possible, schedule the interview as close to the time that you are going to write that part of the User Document. The longer you wait between the interview and the writing, the more difficult it will be to recall the content.

Before the Interview

* Your guiding principle is to Be Prepared. You should have read what you can about the product, its environment, who will use it, and what they (usually) want to do with the product.

Know as much as you can before the interview. The more you know about the product, the better off you will be in the interview.

* Specify the goals of the interview. Share this information with the SME. Do this in an e-mail before the interview.

* Ask the SME if you can (audio; video is too obtrusive) record the interview. Get a recorder (preferably a digital recorder) and make sure it is set up to function properly during the interview.

* Gather any other materials you will need for the interview.

* Set up your recorder, etc quickly when the meeting begins.

* (You might want to practice taking legible notes…I sure need to)

THE HARDEST PART

Leave your ego at the door. (This is really hard.) Don’t make signs that indicate that you understand something that you do not. Ask questions, get the explanation that you need. Here is something to tell the SME:

“If I ask what sounds like a stupid question, bear in mind that I am acting based on the knowledge that our User has.”

DURING THE INTERVIEW

Record the interview (if permitted).

Start with some overview questions, such as:

* What is this portion of the product (topic) called?

* How does this topic fit in to the product?

* What is this (portion of the product) used for?

* When would someone use this (unless it is “obvious”)?

* What has to be set up before the User can use this part of the product?

* Any other conditions about when this would be used, or when it would be avoided?

After you have the background information, then move on to the actual operation of the part of the product. Ask any questions that you have prepared and any others that come up in the interview.

Remember, if you do not understand something, ask.

Ask some summary questions. Review the steps that you took, saying them out loud in your own words (especially if you are recording the session). Have the SME correct any mistakes that you make.

Ask if there is any related information to this topic. Are there any tips or traps using this part of the product?

MORE ABOUT RECORDING INFORMATION

If the SME points to a part of the product (such as a window in a piece of software, or the control panel of a barbecue) then say out loud what the SME is pointing to. Say something like “we are looking at the main address book window” or “we are looking at the main burner control.” This will enable you to link what is happening in the interview with the audio tape.

If the SME performs an operation, say what it is. “You just entered the new person’s name, and the ‘New Card’ window appeared.” Or “You just turned the burner control to the ‘Light’ position, and now the igniter is clicking, and there’s the flame.”

Take notes as well as you can. But do not let any of your activity get in the way of the interview. It’s not a good idea to keep stopping the SME while you catch up with your note taking. You will have the audio recording to fall back on.

The SME might provide handouts for the interview. If you are allowed to, take notes on the handouts. The goal is to link your audio recording and notes and handouts together. For example, if the SME provides a screen print for a software product, you should link your notes, audio recording and the handout together by reading the title of the handout aloud. Do it as unobtrusively as possible.

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

As soon as possible after the interview, you must go over your notes and handouts. If possible, this should be done within minutes of the end of the interview. Find a quiet place (perhaps you have access to the interview room after the interview) and go over your notes.

Review your notes and add clarification to them. When you add the material to the notes do it with enough detail so that someone who was not at the meeting will be able to understand it. That person is you in even a day or two!

As soon as you can get to it, take the expanded notes and write them into a draft of that part of the User Document. That should be within a day or two of the interview, if possible. Every minute’s delay adds to the disconnect between what you learned in the meeting and what you write.

Let your draft sit for a day or so, then review and revise it for clarity and completeness. Consider sending the reviewed and revised version of the draft to the SME for comments. (You only want comments on the material, not on grammar.)

Schedule time for this writing, even if you are juggling several writing projects. The time you save in not having to recall the information at a later date will be a good investment.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You can avoid or reduce the effects of the Interview-Writing Disconnect by being prepared before the interview, asking questions and taking effective notes during the interview, and reviewing and writing the material as soon after the interview as possible.

There was a time when you needed to relocate if you wanted to become a successful writer. In essence you went where the work was.

The Internet has opened a whole new world for writers. The idea of telecommuting has become a welcome component to the mechanism of freelance.

Today you can sit in a kitchen in Iowa and write for a publication based in the heart of New York. You can write for a firm in Australia from the comfort of your home office in Ontario. You can also write for clients from any point on the globe while wearing your sweats.

There is still a need for local writers to cover local events, but freelancers tap into the human experience and pass that information along in a way that can defy time zones.

The truth is there is a growing acceptance of freelance writers for both print and cyber content. I suppose one of the primary reasons has to do with the cost-effective nature of relying on freelance writing. As publishing businesses have worked to streamline operations they have come to rely more on freelancers who can provide copy on an ‘as needed’ basis. For the freelancer this provides a sense of personal freedom and income. The benefit for the publisher is in not paying a full time writer when their may not be enough work to warrant their employment.

More Reasons to Hire a Freelance Writer

1) You don’t have to pay freelancers overtime.

2) You don’t have to pay freelancers sick leave.

3) You don’t have to provide benefits to freelancers.

4) You can pay a freelance writer well and still pay less than a full-time counterpart.

5) Most freelancers are eager to please and will likely provide their best work. If they don’t, you have the satisfaction of knowing there are many other freelancers available.

Reasons to Become a Freelance Writer

1) You set your own hours.

2) You can always refuse to work with a hard to please client.

3) You can work as much or little as you want.

4) A happy client not only returns, but they often bring referrals.

5) If you need time off, you only need to ask yourself.

The possibilities for a freelance writer seem to expand each day. The need for content from writers is huge and even the start of a part-time freelance business may provide a better income than you could have imagined. There’s no doubt that it’s hard work, but it’s also doing something you already love to do.

The comma is the most frequently used internal mark of punctuation. Of all the marks of punctuation, it has the widest variety of uses.

Using commas with dates, addresses, greetings, names, and large numbers

* Commas are used with full dates (month, day, and year) but omitted with partial dates (month and year):

1. Gas has been first used by the Germans on October 14, 1914, when they fired a prototype of modern tear gas from artillery near Pyres. &ndash Paul Fussel

2. In June 1985 Beth Henley was working on her fifth play.

Exception: No comma is used to separate parts of a date that begins with the day.

The atomic bomb was first dropped on 6 August 1945.

* Commas are required between most of the elements in place names and addresses:

1. Miami, Dade County, Florida

2. Writing Lab, University of California, Riverside

Exception: # Do not use comma to separate street number from the name of the street:

15 Amsterdam Avenue

# Do not use comma to separate a state from zip code:

5625 Waverly Avenue, La Jolla, California 92037

* In complete sentence, a comma must follow the last element of place name, addresses, or dates:

1. He shot himself twice, once in the chest and then in the head, in a police station in Washington, D.C., with the cops looking on. &ndash Red Smith

2. July 4, 1776, was the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.

* Commas are used to set off the names of someone directly addressed in the sentence:

A few years ago, Mr. Taplow, I spoke to you about the possibility of a summer job.

* Commas are used after the greeting in a friendly or informal letter, and after the closing of the letter of any kind:

Dear Mary,

Sincerely,

Yours truly,

* Commas are used to set off titles or degrees after a person’s name:

Barbara Kane, M.D., delivered the commencement address.

Exception: But Jr., Sr. may be written without commas:

Sammy Davis Jr. started his singing career at age four.

* The comma is used after the last part of a proper name when the last part comes first:

Lunt, George D.

* Commas are used to mark groups of three digits in large numbers, counting from the right:

Antarctica is 5,400,000 square miles of ice-covered land.

Using commas with conjunctions

* The comma is used before a conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet) linking two independent clauses.

Canadians watch America closely, but most Americans know little about Canada.

Exception: Some very brief independent clauses may not require a comma.

1. We dickered and then we made a deal. &ndash Red Smith

2. I have seen the future and now I’m tired of it. &ndash Gerald Nachman

* If one or both independent clauses have internal punctuation (especially commas), a writer might choose to separate two clauses with a semicolon and a coordinating conjunction so that the reader can easily see the main division of the sentence.

Genetically, we are nearly identical to mankind fifty thousand years ago; and some of us delight in the continuity represented by this, while others may be appalled. &ndash Edward Hoagland

* Comma alone should be used between two independent clauses (comma splice):

“I plan to travel to England”, my friend said happily. “I want to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace.”

* When a conjunction adverb joins the independent clauses in a compound sentence, it is preceded by a semicolon:

Petra was absent on Friday; consequently, she missed the chemistry test.

* The use of a comma to join coordinate clauses is more common in novels, stories, and some types of journalistic writing than it is in serious expository prose. Although it is hard to make general statements here, it is safe to say this practice is the exception, not the rule. The comma is used by most writers to join coordinate clauses in the following situation:

# When the series of sentences takes the form of a climax:

1. I came, I saw, I conquered.

2. The leaves are turning to gold, squirrels are fattening, hunting time is near.

# When the statements form an antithesis, or are arranged in the “it was not merely this, it was mainly that” formula:

1. It was more than an annoyance, it was a pang. &ndash Winston S. Churchill

2. To allow the Mahdi to enter Khartoum would not merely mean to return the whole of the Sudan to barbarism, it would be a menace to the safety of Egypt herself. &ndash Lyton Strachey

In article anatomy I like to teach that there are several key components. Of course these can be stretched varied and thrown out altogether, but not until you’re an expert at writing content-rich articles. One key component of a clear article is, of course, the lead paragraph. Second in importance only to the headline itself, the lead graf (paragraph for short) has to be engaging, informative and lead the reader to believe you’re the one with all of the great advice they’ve been looking for.

Write a good lead-in and your readers will be anxious to act on whatever advice you share in the article itself and if they do find value in your advice in the article &ndash they’ll be very hungry for me of your expertise. Hence, more sign-ups to your e-mail newsletter &ndash or better yet, more sales of your products and services.

So here are a few ideas for writing engaging lead paragraphs for your target audience:

A problem: Try to identify with a huge challenge or issue your audience is facing. Most likely you’re facing it too. So expose your experiences with this problem. You’ll endear yourself to your audience, cementing your status as the authority in your industry. Here’s an example of a problem lead:

Mistakes. We all make them and no one wants to admit to them. We’re all faced with the question, how do we recover after we make the occasional slip-up? When it comes to e-mail marketing there’s a huge debate over whether to ‘fess up or to make like an ostrich and stick our heads in the sand. I’ll offer my solution in four words: Own up to it.

A statistic: You’ll have to check your specific industry publications for these stats. Even if you see something in the mainstream news, you can always put a twist on it that relates specifically to your industry. Here’s an example of this kind of lead/identifier paragraph:

What’s that sound? You know - that slipping sound you keep hearing. If you’re still writing your marketing pieces in-house, you’re hearing the sound of market share slowly slipping away from your business. Here’s why: A recent survey shows 72% of your col leagues outsource so that they can focus on serving their customers and reducing costs.

The news: You can tailor national and even international news to meet your needs with your identifier paragraph. For instance, I just used the SARS epidemic to display the benefits of teleseminars. Too much of a stretch? You be the judge:

Picture this: The task of setting up a conference has fallen to two marketing managers in Beijing. One tests the market and discovers his company’s client base is ready for teleseminars. Our other marketing manager decides to follow the same road as the many managers before her and sets up a live conference at a hotel in downtown Beijing. The story of the SARS epidemic breaks just days before their events. Which manager gets to keep his or her job?

Note: In the example above I also used another extremely effective writing technique called “painting the picture.” This is used throughout writing whether it’s commercial or creative. Setting a scene for your readers is a wonderful tool for persuasion. You’re in control, you can paint the option most beneficial to you as the best option and the one that isn’t so beneficial as the worst option.

Your readers will think you’re great because you’re not telling them what to do, you’re just presenting them with information they can use. But in the end you’ve persuaded them to use your products or services - if you paint the picture correctly.

During my last semester of college I had a few hours that I got to fill with elective classes. I had heard good things about the professor who taught Creative Writing and so I signed up for the class without too much thought about the content of the class or what it would require of me. Little did I know when I signed up that the Creative Writing class would be one of the hardest of my entire college experience.

I entered the class on the first day of the semester and was surrounded by what appeared to be all English and Art double majors. I tried to shake the fact that I was surrounded by people who write excessive amounts of poetry and gripping short stories for fun, but I just couldn’t do it. In my mind all I could think about was the inevitable failures that were to come as I glanced at the syllabus of assignments for the months ahead. I even calculated my credits for graduation on the evening after that first class to see if there was any way that I could graduate without taking Creative Writing class.

Because I needed the credits, and quite honestly because I was intrigued by my classmates, I entered the classroom on the second day of class and on each day that Creative Writing met for the entire semester. It proved to be the most challenging classroom of my education. Each time I entered it was with a mixture of fear and excitement. I felt fear because I knew that each day things were required of me in Creative Writing that I had never experienced before, yet I was excited because I had so rarely been challenged to think, really think, before.

The first half of the semester Creative Writing was focused entirely on poetry. I spent many late nights and many tear filled afternoons working on writing poems. It didn’t come easily for me like it did for all of my classmates. Poetry was what naturally came from their mouths everytime they talked. I was certainly not used to making my words sound beautiful or intentional. The goal of our poetry section in Creative Writing was to come up with ten polished poems that each met different requirements.

After the torture of poetry we moved on to writing short stories and scripts. This half of Creative Writing class proved no less challenging for me. I struggled every day until the last assignment had been turned in.

In the end, Creative Writing was not only the most difficult class I had ever taken, it was also my favorite.

You’ve just completed a writing course. Perhaps recently graduated from college. Maybe your career has finally ended, and now that you’ve reached retirement you’re free to pursue your long-awaited dream of writing a book. You can’t wait to rush to the computer and finally get started on this long-held dream.

Slow down or you’ll find yourself in the clutches of that dread disease, Writer’s Block.

You don’t want to join the many hopefuls who sit and stare, their typing fingers paralyzed as they face a blank computer screen…their grand ideas shattered by the forbidding glower of that empty screen.

To avoid placing yourself in that position, you have some major decisions to make: What is it you want to write? How do you want to present your thoughts? Will fiction or nonfiction work best? All of that sounds rather elementary, doesn’t it?

It is, but these are essential exercises if you want to become a proficient writer and avoid an author’s greatest nemesis - writer’s block. As I state in my latest book The Writer Within You, careful planning is the best “medication” to help you avoid that frightening disease.

Fiction or Nonfiction?

As you begin developing your idea, a key consideration is whether you choose to write fiction or nonfiction. You have something you hope to pass on to your readers, probably something very specific taken from the deep well of your life experience, family history or career. The latter is very popular among retired writers who are reluctant to sever all connections with their former careers.

Among the questions you must ask yourself is whether your writing tends to be more journalistic or more fanciful in style. Can it best be presented in a strictly factual context or will a fictitious setting better serve what you choose to write?

If you are leaning toward fiction, can you flesh out a first-rate plot? Do you have the sensitivity and the insight to fine tune characters and settings? Are you able to create dialogue that reflects the nature of your characters and their relationships to others in the book? If the answers are both honest and positive, then you can decide among the many subgenres of fiction. Will you write a novel, a mystery, a series of short stories?

When you embark on the nonfiction route, the decisions you face differ somewhat. It is important to determine whether the topic you choose is timely and whether there is a substantial audience interested in that topic. Make sure your knowledge of the subject is fully up to date. Many retirees, for example, don’t stop to think that the world they knew in their working years has progressed to new levels.

Head to the library or to the Web. Do your research carefully. Make no assumptions that you are fully knowledgeable on a specific topic. Always remember that the key to writing successful nonfiction is content. To a publisher or to a reader looking for information, your understanding of the subject and your ability to explain it is of far greater consequence than the style in which you write.

Searching for Ideas

Many people have only a general idea of what they want to write about. Some are more fortunate and are eager to tackle a specific subject or issue. Possibilities abound everywhere. Start by looking right within your own home or within your circle of friends and acquaintances.

Perhaps you have a unique sibling…or even a unique relationship with a sibling. That can be the nucleus of a fascinating book or article. You may have some special ideas about parenting, developed during your years of raising a family. Have you experienced the trauma of a serious illness in the family? How did you and the other members cope? Your home and your family can generate a number of different ideas. Look carefully, and you will discover them.

Similarly, the workplace can offer endless possibilities. Trade journals are hungry for informative content. From the technical side of your job to interactions with fellow workers, from ethical workplace issues to managerial skills, all of these and more are grist for your writing mill.

Hobbies, sports and other pastimes are excellent subjects to consider if you are particularly knowledgeable about one of them.. You can place articles in the many magazines that are devoted exclusively to these subjects if you choose not to write a complete book.

Whether you are twenty-some, a baby boomer or a senior, your life has been filled with endless numbers of interesting events and contacts that can provide excellent starting points for writing either fiction or nonfiction. You’ve visited unique locations, met unusual characters, attended fascinating events…all of these are there for the calling. Summon up those memories, and get your computer’s keyboard chattering away.

Idea Resources

There are many helpful resources to stimulate your mind, and assist you to zero in on the best choice. Considered the freelancer’s bible by many, Writer’s Digest is an 1175-page compendium, revised annually, that lists 50 categories of consumer magazines and 60 types of trade journals. Whether you are planning an article or a book, it is an invaluable tool to trigger ideas as you range through subjects from Animal Lovers to Women’s Periodicals in the consumer section and from Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations to Veterinary Medicine in the trades.

A number of other helpful directories are available in your library’s reference room, and of course, browsing subjects on the Internet’s major search engines offers you an overwhelming selection of ideas. If that’s not enough to get you started, personalized coaching for your writing is available. You can find some of my fellow book coaches by searching the Web.

So toss aside the excuses and roll up your sleeves for several hours of concentrated research. Be sure to file away every idea that interests you for use now or in the future. The majority of my former students find it impossible to stop once they publish what they write. There’s a very strong likelihood that after your initial exposure to the wonderful world of writing, you’ll be hooked, and want to do it again and again.

On any given day, how many people, events, problems, projects, family issues, things to remember and appointments are running through your mind? A LOT, right? If you’re writing a book, you have to add on top of that a whole other world of characters, events, settings, plots, (if you’re writing fiction) or stories, bullet points, theories and rhetoric (if you’re writing non-fiction). How do you keep track of it all?

Keeping a journal for your book can be a great tool. In it you can keep your outline, character details, plotting charts and anything else that serves as a guide for helping you stay on track. The following is a simple outline of headings for setting up your daily journal pages to help you with the day-to-day writing of your book.

Word Goal

At the top of your page start out with the date of the writing session and set a goal for how many words you will write for the day. Make the number big enough to challenge you, but not too big that you feel overwhelmed if you consistently miss it. You can also keep the word goal in line with what you’re working on that day. If you are re-writing a chapter instead of creating a new one, then your word count for the day will be significantly smaller. (And that’s okay!)

Today’s Work Will Focus On…

Under this heading you will plan out what you want to handle in the session. Are you writing a dialogue where your main character learns someone’s innermost secrets? Are you doing a scene setter that places the reader in the heart of your book? Are you writing a how-to chapter to explain how the reader can put to use the new strategies you’ve given them on how to be a better networker? Doing this also makes the word goal less intimidating because you immediately see what you’re going to do with all those words!

What Problems Might I Encounter?

There WILL be problems–no big deal. Note what they may be so you won’t get tangled up in the problem as you’re sitting in front of the computer screen. Write down each one. Some examples: “How do I get my character to go from living at home to a place nearer to where all the action is happening?” “How do I introduce the character to the guy who will ruin her life?” “How do I shrink my program down to 5 simple steps that people can remember?” Acknowledging problems really helps to lessen their power over your writing. You aren’t scared away from a problem so easily when you know you can come up with a solution.

Possible Solutions Include…

This is where you’ll do a quick brainstorming of how you can solve the problem. You can try out one of the solutions in your writing session. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have a list of things you can try the next day. What’s great about this is that you’re starting to train your mind to look for answers. You’ll find that when you’re writing consistently, you’ll be thinking about ideas and solutions all the time–in your car, in the shower, while you’re taking a walk. This is really where the magic happens. I truly believe that the bulk of books can be worked out in your head–then you have to sit down and get it onto some paper!

Today’s Result and Where It Will Take Me Tomorrow…

At the end of your writing for the day you’ll want to take note of what you accomplished. Maybe the dialogue you wrote today has opened up another avenue you’d like to explore with your character. Or perhaps you’ve noticed a big hole in the research you’ve done for the biography you’re writing and you realize you need to make a few more calls. I like to print out the pages I’ve written so I can really see and feel what I’ve done for the day. It makes me excited to do more. The idea here is to reward yourself for your work and also see that you have more to do. You’re less likely to get writer’s block if you see that you still have plenty more to say for your next session. But if you do happen to get stuck anyway, go to…

Your Fun Page

This is the page where you just dawdle and dream when the writing isn’t quite happening. I had a page with “Acknowledgments” written at the top. Whenever I didn’t feel like writing, I would go to this page and think about who I wanted to thank when the book was finished! It was fun to add names or cross them out depending on my mood! Having such a page helped me stay connected to my vision of being a published author. Your page could have the list of cities for your book tour, or notes on the introduction you would give before your readings. Keep it light, keep it fun. This way, getting to the end of your book will be a pleasure, not a struggle. Isn’t that the way you want it to be?