This article was originally published in the Oct 2008 issue (Vol 13, No. 4)

About the Author

David Dick is a familiar face at the UUX SIG. He edited the Newsletter for over ten years and is now the Assistant Manager for the SIG. He is also an STC Associate Fellow and an accomplished swing dancer who is currently taking Lindy Hop lessons.

STC UUX Community Newsletter
Usability Interface

I'd Rather Be Writing - the Man Behind the Words

By David Dick, Assistant Manager of the Usability and User Experience SIG

While researching an article about technical writing and usability, I found a treasure trove of information about usability, information architecture, and content management published by Tom Johnson. Tom is the author of a blog called I'd Rather Be Writing (www.idratherbewriting.com), and podcasts at Technical Writer Voice (www.idratherbewriting.com/podcastindex/), which includes interviews with technical writing and usability luminaries. I thought, "Here is somebody who really understands the Technical Writing profession, but who is he?" Tom is making an important contribution to our profession (and a member of STC), and I wanted to get to know him better. I contacted Tom and asked him if he would be willing to tell his story to Usability Interface and he agreed.

Tell me about yourself.

I'm a versatile writer and like most technical writers, I stumbled into technical writing after working in other fields. I previously taught composition at the university level, and then worked as a copywriter.

Whatever job I worked at, I always pursued some technical accompaniment to make it interesting. I've found that technical writing combines my love for writing, my drive to create, and my fascination with technology.

I also publish podcasts on this site. My podcast, "Tech Writer Voices," used to live at a different domain, but I recently merged it here to idratherbewriting.com, consolidating the sites. In the podcast I interview tech writing luminaries. If you're a tech writer of any sort, be sure to subscribe to the podcast. I usually listen to podcasts while I'm riding to work or working out. You can fit several hours of enjoyable podcast audio into your week, without making any extra time for it.

What motivated you to become involved in podcasts as compared to a newsletter or blog?

I actually do a lot more blogging than podcasting. I have over 600 posts on my site (idratherbewriting.com). But, of course, I also have a lot of podcasts there too. I find the two activities build on each other. What I write about gives me ideas for podcasts, and what I podcast about gives me ideas for writing.

I first started listening to podcasts in 2006 as a strategy to accomplish my New Year's resolution to work out more (it sure is boring running in silence on a treadmill). Listening to podcasts quickly spread into other areas of my life - driving my car, folding huge piles of laundry, shooting baskets, walking across my work's campus, and so on.

Immersed in podcasts, I pitched an article to Intercom on podcasting for their trends issue. As I was writing, I realized I needed to create some podcasts to better understand the recording and publishing process. Those first few podcasts turned into a regular stream of episodes and gave rise to "Tech Writer Voices."

As soon as you start listening to podcasts, you'll notice a dearth of them on the technical communications scene. To date, only three podcasts about tech comm are active: IT Author, DMN Communications, and mine. I wish there were a dozen more. (Of course there are hundreds on other topics, especially technology.) One of my motivations is to fill this void.

I find that audio can be an efficient means of learning. Sure, reading is faster, but you don't always have the ability to read because you may be driving or walking. Listening to podcasts is almost always a multi-tasked activity - you're doing something else while listening.

Also, I love the intimacy of audio, hearing the human voice, especially in conversational exchanges about topics that matter. It's a different feeling from reading words. If you're a lone writer or are otherwise isolated, listening to podcasts can help you feel part of a community.

How do you choose the topics and speakers?

I choose topics and speakers based on what interests me at the time. I don't have a formal structure or schedule. It's similar to writing a blog post. An idea comes to me, I write about it, and hit publish. Only with podcasts, I see an interesting idea somewhere, contact someone to talk about it, and then record the exchange.

Finding topics is never the problem. There's so much to choose from. If I see someone who has published in Intercom, written a book, started an interesting discussion on a listserv, presented at a local STC chapter, posted helpful commentary on a forum, or done something else that catches my eye, I ask if I can interview them for a podcast.

In the two years that I've been podcasting, almost no one has turned me down for a podcast. Being interviewed is often exhilarating.

At any given time, I probably have a dozen blog posts I want to write and podcasts I want to record, but given my time constraints - having a full-time job, a family, and other commitments, it's hard to do it all. I do what I can.

Who you want to interview, and why?

I like to interview people who are passionate about ideas, especially ideas that aren't well known. The notoriety of the person doesn't so much matter to me. However, usually people who are experts in their field have more to say, so they're easier to interview.

You ask thoughtful questions to your guests. How do you typically prepare for an interview, how do you find the speakers, and how do you find the time for all of this?

It's all about picking someone knowledgeable on a topic. As long as the interviewee has knowledge of something, it's easy to get them talking. Often your preparation can be minimal - perhaps you read an article they wrote or clicked through a PowerPoint presentation they gave. The more you know about the topic, the better questions you can ask. But I typically don't spend more than an hour preparing for any interview. If you know how to make conversations with others, interviewing comes naturally.

As for the time, though, I seem to go in cycles. Sometimes I get really into podcasting and will record shows every week. And then I'll go through periods where I won't podcast for a month or more. I don't mean to be so up and down -- I'm hoping to establish a more regular schedule. It doesn't necessarily take more time to record and publish a podcast than it does to write a long post.

The trick to finding time to record and publish podcasts is to constantly be listening to podcasts. It's nearly impossible to find motivation to create podcasts if you're not immersed in podcasts already. The same goes with blogging. If you don't read blogs, it's hard to write blog posts. Fiction writers will tell you the same: reading good books is a precursor to writing them.

As you immerse yourself in the medium you want to produce, ideas come to you effortlessly. Your muse speaks louder. You naturally find time to do what you want to do, and it's no longer a goal, but a part of what you naturally do simply because you want to do it.

Where are the funny stories about learning disasters?

I had a major podcasting disaster last week when I attempted to record a podcast with two interaction designers and a product manager who worked on a new website. I wanted to learn about all the design decisions, compromises, and reasoning behind the site.

Two of the three participants canceled and rescheduled several times. The fourth time they canceled, I finally decided to just interview the third alone, who was available. It turns out English was his second language, so his responses were punctuated with pauses and fumbling. Worse, he didn't have much to say about the questions I asked. In the end, I decided not to publish the podcast, but instead to write an article about the new site.

I learned several things from this experience. First, getting groups together is infinitely more difficult than inserting yourself into the schedule of a single person. Second, if the interviewee isn't an expert about a specific topic, the interview probably won't go well.

Who was your favorite interview and why?

My favorite interview was with Paul Pehrson about Flare. Paul works near me, and one day after work I asked him to come over so I could interview him. It was my first attempt to interview someone without providing him or her questions beforehand. I was blown away by his articulate responses.

I learned, at that moment, that interviews are much better this way. Intelligent interviewees can handle extemporaneous responses well. From that interview on, I've never given people specific questions beforehand. I believe that interviews should move in a free-form direction, based on the responses one gives.

Who was your least favorite interview?

Without being specific about names, the interviewee had a prominent position, and I felt honored for the opportunity to interview her. I wanted her to prepare well, so I gave her the 10 questions I planned to ask (this was before I converted to my free-form interviewing format).

During the interview, I found myself yawning. Her answers, frankly, were boring. Worse, they were long, and I felt trapped into asking my pre-submitted questions. Due to her position, she couldn't actually say anything controversial, I assumed. And I didn't throw her any hardball questions -- I purposely left them out of my submitted questions for fear she'd turn down the interview.

I also learned a lot from that interview. First, people in high-up positions sometimes give worse interviews because they can't afford to reveal their honest opinions about controversial issues. Second, never refrain from asking hardball questions. You do yourself and your listeners a disservice when you omit these.

You say that you spend more time blogging than podcasting, why? How are they different? Is one more fun than the other?

I never intended to go into podcasting, but I've always enjoyed writing. At the end of the day, if I've written something I feel good about, it fulfills me creatively. The same isn't true for audio. With audio, I enjoy connecting with another person. And I like the convenience of learning while doing something else, such as driving or exercising.

But my long-term intention is to write. I enjoy the time to compose my thoughts and arrange my words in narrative structures. Audio feels more ephemeral. The podcasts I did last year feel outdated. The same isn't true for posts I write.

Is one more fun than the other? I've found that interviewing people for podcasts at conferences is a lot of fun - usually more valuable than listening to them actually give their presentation, or live blogging it. Now that the entire STC Summit in Atlanta will be recorded (which includes 200+ sessions), I'm wondering if people won't just spend the entire year listening to the sessions they missed. Perhaps the need for a technical communications podcast will gradually die out. I'm not sure.

Writing is usually more rewarding for me. I like it when I start out with one idea and end up somewhere else. Writing is a tool for thinking, and a good post or essay should make you see the world differently afterwards. In that sense, writing provides more of an inner adventure. You discover how you think about the world. In contrast, podcasts are more external - you discover how someone else thinks about the world. There's certainly a need for both activities, and they tend to fit together well.

What topics and people do you intend to podcast in the future?

I have an informal list of podcasts I want to create, but I don't look too far into the future. I may see a cool article somewhere and email the person for an interview within the week. That's how I go about it. I don't have a detailed schedule for the next year. But to give you an idea, I want to interview Deborah Shapiro about personalities of technical communicators (based on a discussion on TECHWR-L); Bogo Vatovec about the hybrid role communicators must play (based on his trends panel at the last STC conference); Don Day about the direction of DITA; Susan Wu about tech comm in China (haven't pitched the idea to her yet); some interaction designers at my work about the new mormon.org site they redesigned; next month's presentation at my STC chapter; maybe Alan Houser on tips for submitting a proposal to the STC annual conference; something on screenshots and images in documentation; a podcast on how users read and navigate help material (based on a LinkedIn Answers thread); my presentation to Bringham Young University-Idaho students about the varieties of technical communication (especially visual media); Harry Miller on his "engagement through episodic story" videos; interviews with Barack Obama, Michael Arrington, Dooce, and more. (Just kidding on those last few.)

I also have some strategies that I'm looking to implement.

For example, I recently implemented a rotating co-host show that tries to be similar to This Week in Tech, if you've heard that podcast (twit.tv/twit). Two co-hosts and I get together and talk about the latest tech comm news, which is often posted on Writer River, a social news site about tech comm that I started. Heidi Hansen is a regular co-host, but the third co-host is rotating. Last month it was Charles Jeter. Next month it may be anyone.

One thing I'd like to do is create more sponsored podcasts to generate a side revenue. For example, if organization or vendor X wants to be spotlighted in a podcast, I could do that in exchange for advertising compensation. Advertising would help me better justify the time I spend . My wife keeps trying to instill in me a better business sense, and I need to listen to her. I'd also really like to secure sponsorship from organizations such as the STC, IEEE, and others.

I do intend to increase the regularity of my podcasts. Once a week is my goal, but if I publish four in one week, and none for the rest of the month, that also would be fine.

At one time I tried to encourage every STC chapter to record their presenters, but I've found that turns out to be problematic for a number of reasons. Mainly, a dynamic exchange with an audience is hard to record with just one microphone. Still, a poor recording is better than none, so I still want to grow the idea of chapters recording their presenters.

I definitely want to increase the audio quality of my interviews. After a recent disaster with Skype (Skype's connection kept breaking up), I'm thinking of purchasing some higher end equipment. Of course, as technology advances, it will be easier to capture higher quality VoIP exchanges. I have a lot to learn about audio engineering.

I'd also like to get better as an interviewer. I'd like to make the conversations more natural and freeform, more spontaneous and fun. One thing about tech comm podcasts and blogs is that people don't perceive them as entertainment; they come across more as professional development. As such, the audience is limited. If I can make podcasts more entertaining, it will help grow the audience.

My ultimate goal of an entertaining audio show is to produce something like This American Life, which is a radio show also distributed as a podcast. The way the narrator weaves together stories, music, and various clips is mesmerizing. One day I hope to learn how to do that without spending all week producing it.

What have you learned by conducting your interviews?

In interviewing people, I've learned not to give them specific questions beforehand, just general topics. If you give someone a list of 10 specific questions, they prepare for those questions and expect you to stick with them. I've learned to be more free-form in interviewing.

Interviewing is an art that doesn't have an exact plan. Like a conversation, you ask questions based on the interviewee's responses, not based on the next question on your list. If you ask questions based on the next question on your list, your interview tends to be more stilted and thematically choppy.

What lessons have you learned about creating a successful podcast?

Here's what I've learned about podcasting:

1. Pick topics that you're interested in, rather than trying to guess what others are interested in. Because of the Long Tail (where niche topics find an audience regardless of their granularity), you'll naturally attract an audience that shares your interests.
2. Give the interviewee a general sense of the topics you want to talk about, but don't submit all your questions beforehand. Doing so results in more of a stiff conversation. Instead, be more free-form and conversational. Don't be afraid to pursue tangents.
3. In general, people who have expertise in a topic are easier to interview. They already have a lot to say - so much information is already on their mind. In contrast, if you interview someone who is less knowledgeable, you have your work cut out for you as an interviewer.
4. Don't spend too long in post-production. Sure, you could edit out all the "uhms" and "ahs" and coughs and other noises, but when you're finished, you'll be burned out. You'll remember the 11 hours you spent editing a 1 hour audio file and tell yourself you have no time for podcasting. Listeners often enjoy little imperfections.
5. Immerse yourself in podcasts. This will help keep you motivated to record podcasts, as well as to write blog posts. I keep an iPod hooked onto my belt, right alongside my BlackBerry. Immediate accessibility and ease of downloading makes a huge difference in whether you find time to listen to podcasts. When podcasts are readily available, you'll be surprised how many of them you can consume in a day. It has turned me into an information junkie.