Writing Personality Profiles

Writing Personality Profiles

Profile writing is fun. Where else can an ordinary person like yourself end up interviewing French actresses, powerful politicians, and other exciting, beautiful people? Such assignments give you a backstage pass, a ticket to go places few of us would otherwise see and to glimpse lifestyles others only envy.

(Tom Callahan in Garrison, 2004).

Here’s my thoughts on how to write a great personality profile:

1. Identify a newsworthy or interesting interviewee.

Remember what makes a person newsworthy: prominence, perseverance, oddity, achievement, experience, vocation/avocation, anniversary.

Do your homework. Never go into an interview until you have already done some research on the interviewee. Sumner and Miller suggest “shadowing” your subject, if possible. This will help you determine a good angle, an appropriate interview location, and some good starting point questions.

Your homework also can include doing brief interviews with friends and associates of the interviewee. They may provide you with some interesting anecdotes and angles. We call this getting “color.”

2. Interview the person in his or her most natural environment.

Be an observer. Look around. What elements or features of this environment tell you something about the individual? How does he or she interact with items or objects and how does this interaction reveal important information about the interviewee?

Garrison writes: Detailed observations and thorough understanding of the individual will help you create a better, more complete picture of this person in your mind, and consequently, in the minds of your readers….Your job as a profile writer is not only to dig out the facts and lay them out, it is to evoke the world in which that person lives. Evoke that person to make people in some way understand what it is like to be that person.”

3. Ask the right questions.

Once you have made the interviewee comfortable with your presence and have establish some rapport, ask the right questions—questions that will generate stories, accounts, and anecdotes. Be sure and listen—important details can be missed if you don’t listen. You will have your chance to follow up, but first be patient.

Sumner and Miller suggest a strategy that includes sprinkling in 10 questions that will help reveal the interviewee’s deeper side (they suggest using these sparingly):

·      Recall a major turning point in your life and how it affected you.

·      Walk me through a typical day.

·      Describe what, in the past year, has given you the most pleasure.

·      What was the best piece of advice you ever received?

·      If someone were making a film of your life, what part would you want to omit?

·      What have you learned from your biggest failure?

·      Just for fun, let’s say someone gave you a great deal of money and told you that you had to splurge on something for yourself, what would you buy?

·      What tops your “bucket list”?

·      What do you like/dislike about yourself?

·      Fast forward a decade. Where are you? What are you doing? What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?

Consider the likelihood that you may have to interview the individual more than once.

While I’m not into formulaic writing, the profile does have a basic structure. Consider the following 5 major parts (as suggested by Garrison):

1.     Lead paragraph, typically an anecdotal or highly descriptive lead.

2.     “News peg” or “nut graph” outlining spot developments of significance.

3.     Subject’s current successes and accomplishments.

4.     Biographical chronology (only if necessary).

5.     Ending or conclusion, often connecting to the lead.

Things to do:

Focus on what makes the person interesting to readers right now; find the right angle. Use anecdotes and narratives.

Make sure the reader can “see” and “hear” the interviewee. Garrison suggests including physical characteristics such as mannerisms, appearance, and dress.

Check with the editor to see if he/she wants a Q&A format.

Things to avoid:

Avoid a “portrait” that is overly complimentary and does not show the person’s imperfections or humanness. Don’t be a cheerleader and don’t write overly pumped up portraits.

Don’t overwrite and be careful with quotes. Young writers have a tendency to use too many direct quotes. Sometimes paraphrasing is better and can often facilitate transitions. Remember, quotes are liking cooking with spices. Using them only as necessary to give flavor and aroma. Too many spices can overpower an otherwise nice dish.

Don’t overuse detail. Too much detail has the same effect as too many quotes. Use those details and descriptions that will help the reader “see” and “hear” the interviewee. Overuse of detail can get in the way of the story and will leave the reader wondering, “why did the writer tell me that?”

Avoid clichés and stereotypes. They announce to the world that you are a rookie writer. They also dilute the effectiveness of what you write.

Don’t fall into the trap of writing a chronology of the interviewee’s life.

Sources

Garrison, B. (2004). Professional Feature Writing (5^th Ed). New York: Routledge.

Sumner, D. E. & Miller, H. G. (2009). Feature and Magazine Writing. Action, Angle, and Anecdotes. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Due: Feb. 9 @ 5 p.m.)

Find an interesting individual whose life or experiences would be of interest to the BYU community. Write a 1,000 to 1,500-word profile of that individual.