For you creatures of habit, sorry this entry is late, but I'm at Archon in St. Louis (actually Collinsville, IL) waiting for it to start and prepping my networking skills, my manuscript excerpts, and my wardrobe for three days of being an author looking for a publisher.
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I almost have the plot synopses to Whose Hearts are Mountains completed. The process has given me insights into the plot, including some delightful twists (actually, they're rather grim) at the end. Now I need to further develop my main characters.
I'm going to try a technique case managers and social workers use in interviewing their clients -- the open-ended question. To explain open questions, it works best if I explain closed ended questions as well. A closed ended question is the typical question we ask every day:
Me: What is your name?
Character: I am called Daniel.
Me: Where are you from?
Daniel: A commune called Hearts are Mountains.
Me: Where is that?
Daniel: In the Owahee Desert.
What's wrong with this picture? First, it will take forever to ask all these questions and have them answered. Second, the person interviewed will feel literally interrogated with rapid-fire questions. Third, I'm not getting Daniel's story, only facts.
If I want to get Daniel's story, I have to ask open questions. These generally start with "Tell me about" or "Could you tell me about" or "Tell me more about" -- I'm not being funny; these are all good leads. The key to open questions is 1) there are no words that close the question (who, what, where, why, how, how often, how many, how much); 2) because they set up a story, the questioner learns a lot more about the interviewee than they would otherwise.
So open questions work with Daniel as follows:
Me: tell me about yourself.
Daniel: I am called Daniel, and I live in the commune called Hearts are Mountains in the Owahee Desert.
Me: Could you tell me a little more about yourself?
Daniel: Okay. It's a strange story. I feel comfortable telling it to you, because you're the author.
Me: Thank you.
Daniel:
When i am talking to my clients i do use open ended statements and questions. This allows the person to give a resopnse that is more honest. A lot of clients want to tell me what they think i want to hear. Open ended allows them to express themself freely. Although when i am talking to providers or guardians i ask specific questions that i expect an answer to. I will continue to ask until i receive an answer.In my job it depends on who I am talking to base on the type of questions that i ask.
ReplyDeleteThis is Lanetta.