Interview People

The best way to learn about people is to talk with them. No duh, I know. But we often don't really think about it.

When you learn about people, you will find two things: there are some truly remarkable stories out there, and there are some incredibly common stories out there. As a writer, you should have both of them, and you should also know which ones are which. And trust me, it's easy to find out.

Interview people. Ask them questions. Find out what they have to say. Notice the patterns. How many people have the same story? How many stories are truly unique? How many people think their stories are truly unique?

If you ever work on a cash register, you have to ask the same questions to a whole bunch of people. What are the responses to 'would you like a bag for your items?' You will find a lot of people saying "No, save a plastic tree." If you can't find a barcode or price tag, a whole lot of people think it is absolutely hilarious to say, "If there's no price, then it must be free."

You may not think of this as an interview, but it is. It's also a survey, since you are asking the exact same questions to every person. And there is no kind of data collection like scientific data collection. It's so simple and pure. No extenuating circumstances (or at least as few as possible), just question and answer, and you get to sort the results.

As I said earlier, you will find which experiences are very common and which ones are unique. This is useful when you start writing your story. When you have a character tell a cashier to save a plastic tree, you will strike a familiar chord with a large number of people. When you tell the story of a farmer's son who went on a lifelong quest for knowledge, you will know that it is truly remarkable and inspiring.

Interview people. You just can't know the world until you experience it as much as you can, through as many eyes as possible.