Most freelancers have a love/hate relationship with interviews. They love doing them, but hate the tedious transcription process that follows.
Personally, I enjoy transcribing. It’s just the type of mindless task I can do when I don’t feel like writing but want to be productive. And since I type close to 100 wpm, transcription makes me feel very productive!
Fellow writer Mary asked me in an earlier post if I had any tips for transcribing. I’ve used all of these techniques at some point in my career, so hopefully Mary and other freelancers will find them helpful.
1. Get the right tools.
When I used an analog tape recorder, it featured a dial for variable playback speeds, a conveniently-placed pause button and a “forward/reverse scan” option. I confess, I haven’t figured out how to properly rewind and fast forward on my new digital model, so I download the files onto my PC and use Windows Media Player. Not quite as convenient, but it works. I drool over the start/stop foot pedal professional transcriptionists use, proving that the “right tool for the job” makes life so much easier.
2. Don’t transcribe it all.
Because of my typing speed, I find it easier to just transcribe everything. “Re-living” the conversation in this way helps me form my articles. But if you’re looking to save time, or only need a handful of supporting quotes for your story, keep an eye on your tape counter, on an analog recorder, or the timer on a digital model, and jot down the number when your subject says something quotable. Then you can easily fast forward to get the material you need in a snap.
3. Edit as you go.
This not only makes transcription faster, it makes it less tedious because you are actually thinking about your article as you type. As you listen to the interview, type only the parts you’ll need. Fast forwarding through large chunks of text saves time and energy. Warning: Whenever I try this, I inevitably skip a section that, in retrospect, I decide would be perfect for the article and have to go through the entire interview again to find the quote I need. But I’m throwing it out there because it might work for someone.
4. Take a touch typing course.
It amazes me that many professionals still write by means of “hunt and peck.” This may work for articles, as you can probably type about as fast as you can compose the words, and it allows you to re-write as you go.
But there’s no advantage to slow transcription. If interviews and transcription is a large part of your job as a freelancer, take a touch-typing course or invest in Mavis Beacon software. I still cite my typing class as THE most valuable course I ever took in high school. By that time, I already knew how to write. Although good English teachers helped me hone my skills, they didn’t get me anywhere I couldn’t have gotten on my own. But hours of typing on those big heavy—not even electric!—typewriters, paper over my hands so I couldn’t see the keys, gave me what is perhaps my biggest money-making skill.
5. Don’t transcribe.
Hate transcription with a passion? Not every interview needs to be recorded. Learn shorthand, either the real kind or your own version, and take handwritten notes with only the information you need. This is also a great skill to have in a pinch, in the event of equipment failure or if you find yourself in the midst of a great story without your trusty recorder. I learned it the hard way, on the street as a cub reporter for a local weekly, because I couldn’t afford a tape recorder. I still take notes by hand at paintball games, rather than risking my pricey, high-tech Olympus WM-800.
Oh, your other choice if you don’t want to transcribe is simply to hire someone to do it for you. And yes, I’m available.
Showing posts with label reporter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reporter. Show all posts
Lament for a Missing Notebook
I have a collection of notebooks that I use for on-the-scene reporting, as a back-up to my digital voice recorder, and for paintball events where I don't want to carry something else that uses batteries and can get broken, wet, or lost on the field.
I got hooked on Moleskine notebooks a few years ago. These sturdy little leather journals include an inner pocket for business cards, an elastic band to hold the book closed, an attached bookmark, and was the writer's notebook of choice for Hemingway. I loved the insert in the notebook which told the story of how Hemingway used the book. (Yes, that's what sold me on it. Really.)
The book includes a place to write your name: "In case of loss, return to_____" and a line that reads, "As a reward: $___." I always write "Good Karma" in that spot. Fortunately, I've never lost one (well, not permanently) but I like the idea that my notes could have a dollar value assigned to them if I desired.
Then I discovered similar notebooks, not leather, for about half the price in bright colors. I came to associate different color notebooks with different times of the year or different eras in my writing life. Plus, what's cooler than a chick in digital camouflage who pulls out a bright pink notebook to write down the Commander's name during a big scenario paintball game?
I remember my first trip to Salt Lake City in October 2006. I was visiting two paintball companies, fierce competitors. I signed a "non-disclosure agreement" for one company and took pages and pages of off-the-record notes in my little blue notebook.
The next day, I visited their competitor. When I got back to my friend's house that night, (who happened to work for the first company) I couldn't find my notebook. I thought I left it on my friend's desk at work, I could even see it there in my mind's eye, but a fear nagged at me that I had left it at the competitor's facility. I didn't sleep that night.
Then again, I purposely take notes in my own version of shorthand, practically illegible to anyone but me. My husband loves teasing me about it. "How can a writer have such awful handwriting?" he asks. But there's a reason for it, beyond expediency.
Anyway, when we arrived at the office very early the next morning, there was my notebook, right where I left it, on my friend's desk! Since then, I'm even more careful with my notebooks. Usually.
Late Friday night, lying in bed, I wrote a post for this blog in one of my notebooks. I didn't feel like booting up the computer. Now I can't find the book. It may be in my car, but it's 30 degrees outside, 10:30 at night, and I'm not wearing shoes.
I added a few links to some job resources for writers and a few good web sites.
Hopefully, I'll put up "the missing post" tomorrow. I hope it's worth the wait.
I got hooked on Moleskine notebooks a few years ago. These sturdy little leather journals include an inner pocket for business cards, an elastic band to hold the book closed, an attached bookmark, and was the writer's notebook of choice for Hemingway. I loved the insert in the notebook which told the story of how Hemingway used the book. (Yes, that's what sold me on it. Really.)
The book includes a place to write your name: "In case of loss, return to_____" and a line that reads, "As a reward: $___." I always write "Good Karma" in that spot. Fortunately, I've never lost one (well, not permanently) but I like the idea that my notes could have a dollar value assigned to them if I desired.
Then I discovered similar notebooks, not leather, for about half the price in bright colors. I came to associate different color notebooks with different times of the year or different eras in my writing life. Plus, what's cooler than a chick in digital camouflage who pulls out a bright pink notebook to write down the Commander's name during a big scenario paintball game?
I remember my first trip to Salt Lake City in October 2006. I was visiting two paintball companies, fierce competitors. I signed a "non-disclosure agreement" for one company and took pages and pages of off-the-record notes in my little blue notebook.
The next day, I visited their competitor. When I got back to my friend's house that night, (who happened to work for the first company) I couldn't find my notebook. I thought I left it on my friend's desk at work, I could even see it there in my mind's eye, but a fear nagged at me that I had left it at the competitor's facility. I didn't sleep that night.
Then again, I purposely take notes in my own version of shorthand, practically illegible to anyone but me. My husband loves teasing me about it. "How can a writer have such awful handwriting?" he asks. But there's a reason for it, beyond expediency.
Anyway, when we arrived at the office very early the next morning, there was my notebook, right where I left it, on my friend's desk! Since then, I'm even more careful with my notebooks. Usually.
Late Friday night, lying in bed, I wrote a post for this blog in one of my notebooks. I didn't feel like booting up the computer. Now I can't find the book. It may be in my car, but it's 30 degrees outside, 10:30 at night, and I'm not wearing shoes.
I added a few links to some job resources for writers and a few good web sites.
Hopefully, I'll put up "the missing post" tomorrow. I hope it's worth the wait.
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