A Freelancer’s Guide to Interviewing (in 2024) — Part 1

Alicia de los Reyes
7 min readMar 22, 2024

I have been talking to people for more than a decade. Here are my best tips.

Photograph of an antique black rotary phone with a long cord on a white background.
Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

So, maybe you have written a few articles and want to incorporate some expert opinions into your next one, or maybe you’re curious about writing a profile. Maybe you’ve been assigned a story and told to find some sources.

Fourteen years ago, I found myself going on my first “official” interviews for assignments for my MFA program. I was terrified. I am good at talking to people — I love it — but I had no idea what the rules were, how to reach out and ask someone to be interviewed, and what to actually do once I got there. Did I need a recorder? Ack!

I gathered tips from two good friends who both happened to be excellent journalists (Jennie Latson and Larry Clow). I also picked up good info from my professors. However, more than a decade after I got started interviewing, some things have changed. Here’s an up-to-date guide to getting started with interviews in 2024.

Some things are the same

A good rule of thumb you might have learned in journalism school (or English class) is to have three sources. I find that three is still a good number for me to aim for. It’s good if the sources have different viewpoints (for example, a shop owner and a customer, or…

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Alicia de los Reyes
Alicia de los Reyes

Written by Alicia de los Reyes

Freelance writer who loves to make stuff 🧵🧶 Stories about crafts/fiber arts/art/history/women/related | aliciadelosreyes.com

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