Magazine Writing - Confessional Interviews

Confessional Interview possibilities:
Emotional
Medical
Accidental
Reader has a reaction to it

The person has to be super committed to doing it, not necessarily confessing to a crime, it's more about true life experiences and must be extraordinary. They are ghost written, so written in the first person as if it's the person who it happened to is writing it. It's in the victim's voice so it will use slang terms and have sporadic pauses. They can also be written according to the 'house style' which is set by the publication. All the points need to be precise - for example exact dates, exact times - must ask the key questions and delve deep into the issue to use as some sort of set up to the story - ask how they felt about it, how does it feel now, what did you do or say?

Confessionals differ from each publication
Women's magazines will not be pegged to a news story, so that means it wont be something thats happening currently in the news at the time of publication, for example floods. It needs to be of human interest, things along the lines of 'my battle with...' and they are preferred / need to have happy endings.

We want to avoid people that are too vulnerable because they need to have the strength to actually address and talk about the problem, if they can't handle it then your story falls apart. You obviously don't want a hoax, people with mental health problems, or just people that are liars - that's why you must check every thing and then double check.

Newspaper confessionals will be pegged to a news event - for example my home flooded and then I found bones buried in the grounds.

How do we find confessionals? 

- Look for 'victims'
- Medical problems
- Social
- Support groups
- Charity
- Internet
- Phonebook

Case studies
- Good turn phrase
- Great pictures / collects
- Attractive / ugly
- Happy ending
- Open, heartful and honest, making them more relate-able because they're realistic.

The subject is very important, the interviewee must be engaging and well spoken, otherwise it's going to be boring and sound pretty bad. If they're well spoken then it just enriches the whole story because of the way it's told, especially if it's told with eloquence.