Guest voices: How to manage transcription
What to do when you have hours of recordings to get through
It’s time for this month’s Guest Voices slot in the newsletter. We’re on the look out for diverse and different takes, advice, tips and projects. If you have an idea there is a link to a Google form at the end of the newsletter.
We recently once again waded into the debate over whether you need shorthand. But even those of us who can take quick notes may rely on recordings when we’re doing longer interviews or big features. Freelance journalist Solape Alatise has some top tips to help you meet that deadline when you have hours of interviews to listen back to. You can find her on Twitter as @solapealatise
Top tips for managing transcription overload
What do you do when you have an interview heavy feature to write, with each interview being nothing less than 30 minutes, and a tight deadline looming? Feeling overwhelmed would be anybody’s knee jerk reaction.
The truth and conclusion of the matter is that there is no way you are going to be able to fully transcribe all the interviews and write up the feature in time. It’s funny how you often think clearest under pressure.
There is an eight step strategy that works like a charm, which will enable you to get what you need from the transcriptions and write a piece that your editor will hopefully call “brilliant!”
Step one
Listen back to the transcriptions, fast-forwarding to the questions you ask, noting down the questions and the time they were asked on the recording. This creates a reference library enabling you to go back to the bits you will end up transcribing later.
Step two
Go back to the brief you were given initially by your editor or the pitch you initially sent. Refresh your memory and make sure you fully understand the angle of the feature so you deliver on it.
Step three
Chose two or three key questions from each interview, aided by your reference library, that addressed the angle right on the nose. At times interviews can continue long after you already have what you need, so concentrating on only what’s necessary will save you a lot of time.
Step four
Scroll through the recordings to the appropriate times and transcribe the two or three pars attached to the most important questions. Remember that even whilst transcribing the important bits you don’t need every single word, just the most powerful remarks within context. The sound bites if you will. You can always go back for more because you have the time stamps for each question.
Step five
Draw out and note down similarities and differences in what the interviewees are saying to help with the structure of the feature. You often find when conducting multiple interviews that you naturally do this in your head but you will forget this after the interview dust settles.
Step six
Bite the bullet and start writing your introduction. Your introduction should go straight to the heart of the matter, that being the angle you have been commissioned to write about. Set the tone from the very beginning so that your reader is hooked and you leave them with something memorable when the read is over.
Step seven
Order the similarities and differences presented by your interviewees on the subject in a way that will flow for the reader. Use them to help you write your paragraph openers.
Step eight
Write the body of the feature and the conclusion. The first draft may be a little rough but at least it exists, ready for you to tweak and change where necessary. It is also good practice to leave the feature a couple of hours or even a day or two before coming back to edit. This helps you look at it as though someone else wrote it, you’ll be less attached to the first draft.
It isn’t easy for freelancers to balance the deserts of no work suddenly followed by the waterfalls of it, but mastering interview transcription makes it so much easier. Especially if you aren’t at the stage yet where you can pay someone to do it or pay for software that does it. You have to start somewhere. Happy transcribing!
Let us know what you think? Have you ever had problems transcribing? Come and share your thoughts in our Facebook Community.
If you would like to pitch to our Guest Voices slot in the newsletter, the form is here. We pay on submission.
What’s coming up
We have our Guest Webinar with Lacuna Voices founder Punteha van Terheyden on Launching an Online Publication webinar on Wednesday 6th October at 1pm. To grab your place, click below. Recordings and bursary places available.
Our four-week online course run through Journalism.co.uk is back in November. It’s really flexible and you can complete in your own time but have the opportunity to get lots of guidance and feedback from Lily and Emma on getting started, finding work, pitching and branding. You can find out more at this link.
Triumph of the week
FFJ co-founder Emma Wilkinson won the Medical Journalist’s Association Freelance of the Year 2021.
That feeling when…
You have too many email addresses for different purposes/bits of work and it’s all getting a tad complicated...
We love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!