Work From Home Couple

When I first started writing for magazines and newspapers, I couldn’t rely on Google to led me to a quick answer. The Internet wasn’t even a thought in the minds of most of the general public. When I needed an answer, I had two choices: Go to the library or call someone. I usually picked up the phone and made a call.

Today, though, I run into a growing number of writers — well, I run into them online, at writing groups and on message boards — who seem terrified of the phone. In fact, I’ve found several freelancers who only take on stories that they can do entirely by scouring Google.

This makes me a bit nervous. First of all, it leads to too much recycled and superficial stories spreading across the Internet. Secondly, it’s lazy. A reporter’s job is to call people. You can’t call yourself a real freelance writer if you never take on stories that require you to call anyone. If you’re not interviewing people, you miss out on the fun anecdotes, the wonderfully witty quotes or the telling examples that make up real journalism. If you’re only writing stories that you can glean from a 15-minute Google search, you’re not a journalist, you’re a hack.

I recently read an exchange on a freelance-writing message board from a “journalist” who couldn’t quite understand part of an assignment letter she’d received from her editor. The journalist had send the editor an e-mail, but hadn’t heard back. Someone suggested she simply pick up the phone and call. She explained that she’d rather not; She preferred to interview people and talk with people by e-mail.

Again, this is terrible! When you interview people by e-mail, the results are usually wooden replies. When you talk to someone by phone, you get so much more. You get their tone of voice. You can tell if a question ticks them off or if it makes them nervous. By giving an interview subject time to think over an answer for hours, you get the safest, dullest possible response. Of course, interviewing someone in person is even better. But that’s a subject for another post.

Don’t be afraid to pick up that phone. It’s good for the reporting industry and good for you, too, as a writer.