Writing Profiles that Breathe

When working with people as story topics, a sure sign of a rookie writer is the tendency to tell the reader things instead of showing them. While sometimes telling is the only way to communicate the necessary elements of the story, if you can find a way to show the readers what you want them to understand you will create a much more subtle and professional piece of work.

The opportunity to show your readers most often presents itself when you are focusing your story on a person or people. If you use dialogue and description to show readers the subject’s personality, you can really inject life into the profile. For example, if you are interviewing a hard-working middle-class father of three, do not tell readers that the man loves his wife, cares for his dog and would do anything for his children; try something like this:

John Doe sat in the porch rocker with his arm around his wife, gently massaging her shoulder. His other hand scratched Mojo, his dog, around the ears.

“I told Jane that a few extra hours on nights and weekends ain’t nothin’ if it means Jody can go to college,” John said. “Then maybe she won’t have to work as hard or as long as I do to make ends meet.”

Taking the time to paint a picture of your subjects and get them to tell their own story really pays off in the end. One of the primary ways to engage readers is getting them to relate to your story. By showing them what John is doing and letting him tell his own story, he becomes real to them and they become emotionally involved.

When printing an interview, some bloggers prefer to print it in a question and answer format. While this is a perfectly acceptable (and easy) style, it is decidedly less engaging than taking the time to write up a quality feature profile on your subject.

Back in September, Shoemoney posted a series of pictures showing the evolution of his office space (and himself). It was a great pictoral and if I was going to rewrite it as a portrait, would you be more likely to stick around to read:

Me: Jeremy, what was your first office like?
Jeremy: I started with a little table/cubicle at Wells Fargo.
Me: Did you always know you you’d be the internet mogul you are today?
Jeremy: Yeah. Sooner or later I would run out of jobs to get fired from for working on my own websites.

OR

To look at the pictures, you’d think that Jeremy Schoemaker has always had a bit of a weight contest going with his computer monitors. Back in 2002 when Jeremy was your standard overweight IT guy, he had a hulking CRT monitor to match. Well-liked and much-needed, he lumbered about Wells Fargo dreaming of the internet empire he knew he would run someday.

Those quotes aren’t real, so don’t sue me, please. The point is, the first format can get very dry very fast, no matter how witty your subject may be. With the feature profile format of the second piece, you have the opportunity to tell a lot more about the subject. in that short paragraph I emphasize Jeremy’s weight to show that it was a big deal to him, I make it clear that he was a solid IT guy and I also show Jeremy’s wish to be an entrepreneur. And I do all of that without just listing qualities.

If you have never written a profile for your blog, you really ought to consider it. Not only does it switch things up a bit, but it allows you to spotlight topics that may be outside your realm of expertise. The question and answer format is the easiest way to write up an interview. However, if you want to capture interest and engage your readers, a profile allows you to thoroughly establish your subject’s character and show off your writing abilities.

Written by Sara Christensen from Pajama Professional
Posted on November 14th, 2007 and filed under Blogging, Writing
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