“I've been burned before.”
I'll be honest, when I first got this assignment I wasn't sure who I wanted to interview. But when Dan suggested a person from the Fiction department, everything became clear. Professor Brian Costello is not only my inspiration for changing my major to fiction writing, but he is also a fine example of “who” and “what” a fiction writer is. Over night my choice was made. Brian, author of The Enchanters vs Sprawlburg Springs, was my choice.
Okay, I'll admit it, I was afraid. All I had to do was walk up to Professor Costello after class and ask a simple question. All I had to say was “Hey, can I interview you for a class?” To which he could only respond “Yeah, sure” or “No, fuck off.” So there was no reason to be scared, right? “What could possibly go wrong?” I kept saying to myself. We were in the hall discussing the class when the question spilled out of my mouth: “Oh-hey, completely unrelated note, can I interview you for my Journalism class?” His answer as you might have guessed, was “Yes.”
I didn't notice initially, but I had already made my first mistake and the interview hadn't even begun. Brian asked that I call him after 11am on wednesday, so I assumed that we would over the phone set up a place and time to meet. The next day when I phoned Brian I discovered my mistake. Brian had thought the interview was to be done over the phone, not in person. Not the biggest problem to have. All I had to do was scramble around the house to find my notebook, print out my question list, and then find a nice quiet place. All with Brian on hold. So I learned my first lessons of interviewing: Be clear when setting a date and always have your stuff ready whenever talking to the interviewee.
After my things were gathered and I had found a quiet place, I did my best to begin the interview. It started off a bit awkward, for me at least. “Are you ready to begin?” I asked him after a bit of pleasant chatter. I couldn't think of anything more catchy. I had some basic questions ready for him since this was my first interview, I decided to keep it as simple as possible. My approach was simple- get him to talk. All I wanted to say was the question, then hear what he has to say. I was hoping the quieter I was, the more he felt it necessary to talk and divulge information. I got lucky, because my plan worked pretty well.
The Questions:
1: “When did you start writing?”
2: “What authors inspired you?”
3: “Were there any defining inspirational pieces?”
4: “How did you start teaching?”
5: “Worst day as a teacher?”
6: “Best Moments of writing?”
I was blown away at the power of these six questions. Something so simple fired off a conversation that lasted a good 25 to thirty minutes. He spoke faster than I could write for the most part, and I remember wishing I had a tape recorder. Brian responded to my first question quite forwardly, and he seemed to gain momentum as the words rolled on. “I started in high school, wrote mostly comedic stories for friends..” which lead to “..I was the editor of an opinion column at a Central Florida College.” Brian would later reveal that he was initially at in college to earn a law degree. But after deciding “There was already enough pricks in the world” he started to pursue his passion. This is when things got really exciting for me. The unexpected happened, this already cool professor got “fucking cool.” Apparently he joined a band in college, started playing the drums, and toured the states with his band, eventually ending up in Chicago. I never expected this. Some teachers are in bands. Most everyone these days can play an instrument of some sort. But this was a guy willing to become a rockstar, and in my eyes, he was one.
I was forced to bite my tongue as things got more interesting, and intense. He got his job teaching through a friend here at Columbia, which is what lead to the publishing of his book. Over the years he had been slowly piecing together a pretty fine fiction novel. After 10 years it was finally completed, only he had no idea how to get it published. Thanks to some help from his friend, he was able to use the novel as his thesis here at Columbia. After earning a teaching degree he decided to stay in Chicago. This lead to the question “What was your worst day as a teacher?” to which he responded very promptly “It was more of a frustration thing. I took place in the no child left behind program, went to a classroom outside Chicago and basically it was very disheartening. Most of these kids were too messed up to understand why they were there. I did what I could but felt this was a strong and disheartening reflection on the whole Bush Presidency.” I nodded my head as he went on expressing his feelings, doing my best to stay quiet and let him talk.
For me that was the most difficult part about all this. Not responding to his words. I wanted nothing more than to slam my fists down and shout “Oh man, I love those bands too. I agree, the Bush administration had a lot of flaws. Yeah, I love that author too!” But I couldn't, because the quieter I was, the more he seemed to want to talk. If I could do it all over again, three things would change. One- it would be done in person. I felt I was missing a lot of the emotion he was putting into what he was saying. How a person expresses themselves physically can greatly help convey their message. Two- I would use a tape recorder. There was simply too much to write, and I wasn't equipped well enough to scratch down every last word. Three- I would have set the interview time up a little better. Everything else went according to plan. His willingness to talk was the biggest surprise during the interview. Which slightly modified my point of view of journalism. Not all journalism is about pulling teeth and getting a dirty gritty story It can be just sitting down with someone you admire, and hearing their story.
After enough time had passed, and I counted three pages of notes, I decided to end the interview. I felt enough of my professors time had been wasted, and that I had what was required. I remember feeling very satisfied when I said “Well thanks, this was pretty great. Enlightening.” Then he asked for permission to review the final product. I was happy to offer it to him. He then said something I took to heart, and will never forget. “Thanks 'cause... I've been burned before.” I hadn't really thought of it before this, but journalists have a decent amount of power. We have the potential to say whatever we like about whoever we're interviewing and it has a good chance of getting published. It's a scarey thought that we 'could' ruin a persons career over a few miss-interpretable words.
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