interview this!

[perk]

is/are there word/words to describe something written as an interview rather than making statements as is traditionally done? for example, rather than "i fell, banged my head, and passed out on the floor. my mother found me and took me to the ER. slight concussion, go home and rest and come back if anything changes."

how would a "writer/editor/publisher/?" describe the same information presented as an interview?

what happened to you? fell, banged my head, and passed out on the floor.

then what? my mother found me and took me to the ER.

are you ok? slight concussion, go home and rest and come back if anything changes.

thank you

 

[Hammer]

Sounds like you're writing it as a "Q&A"

 

[Rigor Mortis]

I'm not sure what you're asking, but transcipt might be the word to describe the interview scenario, then written something like:

Q:
A:

or
Bob:
Jane:

 

[deweyfisher]

yeah this would probably be formatted like a transcript, with whatever heading to specify what the purpose of the correspondence is and some kind of back and forth like:

Person 1:
Person 2:

 

[perk]

when i'm writing, the questions only serve as a mechanism for me to present the information. in fact, i'm probably generating the answer before the question since it contains the information i want to convey. i find this useful to focus on what i'm trying to say. if i just write i can easily go on too long or drift off topic and often when i proof it i can't believe where i took myself. so it occurred to me that this might be an established writing technique and if it was it must have one or two words to describe it. on the other hand, maybe a good writer always thinks about what question he's trying to answer but he has no reason to write it down. anyway, thanks for the comments......

 

[Naomasa298]

The problem you will have is that, if the only narrative purpose of the interview is to tell the reader some information, it is likely to still come across as exposition and not be very engaging. Make the interview sound natural and serve other purposes as well, such as characterisation. Better still, don't structure it as an interview at all and write it as a scene, along with character interaction.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm. I've written short "interview-style" skits in the past, but I created scenery and characters too (e.g. a shop with a shopkeeper and customer). They were designed to be absurdist.

Before you write anything, ask yourself why you're writing this. What is the point? Who are they people? Where are they? Even an absurdist mini-plot (like a couple going to buy food at a movie theatre foyer, but the concessions have no food) must make some kind of sense. What do the people want to eat? What movie will they watch? What are their plans for afterwards? Why does the concession stand have no food -- did they run out? Are they restocking? Or do they just enjoy being jerks?

Once you fill in those details around your "A" and "B" (or "Bob" and "Jane"), you'll find the dialogue flows much more naturally. Good luck.