Active Voice

Good writers prepare thoroughly for interviews, whether they’ll be conducted in person, over the phone, via e-mail, or (increasingly) over a social media channel. But all too often, interviewees don’t realize that they also need to prepare for interviews just as thoroughly as — if not more than — the writer.

Why? Because an interview is a ritualized form of conversation; it is not (or should not be) two simultaneous parallel monologues. We’ve all heard interviews like that — the interviewer has his checklist of questions, the interviewee has her checklist of points to make, and both take turns running down their lists until they’re done. Dreadful stuff, right?

On the other hand, when an interviewer and an interviewee both do their homework in advance, they can focus on talking to each other, which leads to better quotations, more compelling anecdotes, and a stronger connection to readers.

Based on a decade of interviewing a wide variety of people for all kinds of articles — and being interviewed a few times myself along the way — here’s a short list of simple suggestions for how to prepare to be interviewed.

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With the release of iOS 4, Apple’s iPod touch has at last become a true pocket computer. So much so, that I have taken to calling mine an “iPad nano.” When the iPad came out, I seriously considered getting one but ultimately decided against it for two reasons:

• I like the iPod touch’s “pocketability;” by slipping it into my pocket, that’s one less piece of gear I have to hold in my hand or sling over my shoulder (I am a fanatic about traveling light).
• I guessed — correctly, as it turned out — that Apple would quickly begin importing iPad functionality — particularly Bluetooth keyboard support — back to the iPod touch.

Once Bluetooth keyboard support had been officially confirmed for iOS 4, I went out and bought an Apple Wireless Keyboard, the little brother of Apple’s USB-tethered model which I have been using for a couple of years with satisfaction.

I also needed a new iPod touch, because my first-generation device could not be upgraded to iOS 4. Still, the two devices were cheaper than a new laptop.

My goal was to be able to use the combination in the field in place of a laptop, on business trips as well as vacation. After a series of ever more complex tests of the various hard- and software components, last week I took the devices with me to a meeting at which my job was to take detailed notes to prepare a summary.

As a backup, I also recorded the meeting with my trusty Olympus WS-400S pocket digital recorder; in tests I found that using the iPod touch to both record and type drained the battery faster than the anticipated three-hour length of the meeting.

So how did the iPod touch plus Bluetooth keyboard fare?

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Gearing up for a productive summer? If so, your planning will not be complete until your hPDA sports the latest calendar covering the second half of 2010. As always, the calendar template can be downloaded for free on the Active Voice Downloads page, along with the 2010.0 calendar if you still need one for June. Just click on “See the Templates” –> “Organization and Lists.”

Active Voice offers a wide range of wallpapers and hPDA templates as free .png and scalable-vector .pdf graphics that you can download to your desktop and use in your favorite planner or mobile device. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

And while you’re there, why not take a look at some of the other free templates I offer? I have templates for just about all your note-taking needs — plus some you probably hadn’t even thought of. If you don’t see something you need, or have an idea for improving something, feel free to leave me a comment or contact me.

I was just listening to a podcast of a professionally-produced program that is broadcast on radio, and I was surprised to hear excessive amounts of sibilance — that annoying whistling “s” that overpowers all the other consonants and vowels and that, for some people, causes the same reaction as fingernails on a blackboard and makes them want to go after the announcer’ front teeth with an emery board.

Not me, of course. *Ahem.*

During my stint in college radio over 20 years ago in Santa Fe, I had the privilege of working under the tutelage of a veteran program manager, Bill Dunning, whose career had started in the days when AM was king. To this day, I’ve never met anyone with better diction, and even when he wasn’t on the air his every word was as clear and resonant as a Tibetan singing bowl.

Bill was adamant about the proper placement of a studio microphone. Never, ever place it in front of your mouth pointing at your face, he would admonish us. Rather, place it in front of your face, between your eyes, facing down toward your mouth. This has two immediately noticeable effects:

• The microphone picks up the resonance of your voice in your sinuses, which adds depth and texture.
• Sibilants and plosives will blow harmlessly past the microphone, lessening their disproportionate impact.

If you record podcasts for your own business or for a client, remember the advice of an AM radio veteran and put the can between your eyes.

Active Voice announces its move from Baltimore to Annapolis, Maryland. I’ll continue to offer the same range of quality writing and editing services to clients in the DC-Baltimore region (and beyond); I’ll just be doing so from downtown Annapolis, just down the street from State Circle (I can see the State House dome when I run out to the corner mailbox). My e-mail address remains the same, but my phone number has changed; see the footer.

I’m hoping to start adding some Annapolis clients soon, so keep an eye on my Clients page over the next few months as I settle in and get to know my new base of operations. In addition to exploring the great dining and shopping options in the heart of Annapolis, my wife and I are also looking forward to visiting the St. John’s College campus (I attended the Santa Fe campus for a year, way back when), checking out the new museum on the Naval Academy campus, and attending lots of plays and hearing lots of music. Recommendations for can’t-miss venues are most welcome!

“Do you consider yourself an artist or a craftsperson?”

Have you ever participated in a creative writing class in which the instructor began with this question? It’s happened to me more than once. The question bugs me, because I believe it assumes a false dichotomy. All writing is a blend of art and craft.

A more useful distinction, I’d argue, is between imagination and skill. British playwright Tom Stoppard had this to say about those two qualities:

“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.”

Stoppard’s wit is dry, certainly, but his point is well taken. Good writing finds an appropriate balance between both qualities. Whether a piece of writing is also a piece of art is for others to debate; the writer need simply be concerned about whether he or she has demonstrated the requisite skill and imagination for the task at hand. If so, then the writer can be satisfied — and so can the client.

Image: iStockPhoto.com

When I converted my freelance business files to a combination of Rollabind and Levenger’s Circa four years ago, I decided to store my Jotz notebooks disc-down in my filing cabinet, identified by their color-coded finger rings. When it came time to convert my inactive records to Circa, I opted for a hanging folder hack, identified by ordinary hanging-folder tabs.

But what if you store Circa notebooks on a bookshelf, spine out like an ordinary book? Here’s a quick and inexpensive solution that might solve your problem.

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I recently had the pleasure of being the subject of a weekly interview for Write Out Loud, a blog for and about writers by Baltimore-based freelance writer Ami Spencer. Ami asked me to discuss how an academically-trained archivist ended up with a freelancing career, the benefits of participating in local writing organizations like the Baltimore chapter of the MWA, how I find clients, and my biggest vice (writing-wise, that is).

The interview went live today. You can find it here. Thanks again, Ami! It was fun.

When your message has to capture and hold your reader’s attention, two of the most important tools at your disposal are the strong lede and the attention-grabbing headline.

But to work, they have to tell the same story.

Consider the following powerful lede in a press release from the Yale School of Medicine:

“Eliminating cancer stem cells (CSCs) within a tumor could hold the key to successful treatments for ovarian cancer, which has been notoriously difficult to detect and treat.”

The headline for this release on the Yale University Office of Public Affairs website reads: “Disarming Specialized Stem Cells Might Combat Deadly Ovarian Cancer.”

But over on Futurity, a science press-release aggregator, the same story leads with this headline: “Stem cells linked to deadly ovarian cancer.”

Whoops.

Futurity editors, you can probably expect to be getting a call from the Yale OPA pretty soon . . .

If Santa brings you a brand new iPhone or iPod touch this Christmas, why not deck its halls with these free 2010 calendar wallpapers, compliments of Active Voice Writing & Editorial Services?

Designed using the same fonts, colors, and icon styles as your iPhone, you’ll forget that these handy calendars didn’t come installed.

You can download the calendar wallpapers here. And while you’re there, check out some of the the other free downloadable wallpapers and productivity templates that I’ve designed for writers, freelancers, and creatives in all fields.

To install the iPhone wallpapers, simply download and drop them in your “Pictures” folder on your computer. The next time you sync your iPhone or iPod touch, iTunes will automatically copy the wallpapers over. Then, launch the Photos app to set the appropriate calendar as your wallpaper. That’s all there is to it! The next time you wake your computer from sleep, the Active Voice 2010 calendar wallpaper will be in place, ready for use.

Active Voice offers iPhone wallpapers as free .png graphics that you can download to your desktop and use in your favorite planner. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike License.