The last thing you want to do if you are writing a story about a person is to interview that person. Literally.

Whether you are writing a profile (that is, a concise biographical sketch) or a story about the exploits of an individual, you should envision your reporting as being like a dart board. At the center is the person you are writing about. The outer circle represents all the written material you can gather about him or her.

The other circles can be thought of as the people who know something about the person. Interview those who know the least first, working your way closer to those who are associates, friends or relatives. Finally you reach your target.

The objective is not to sneak up on the targeted person; rather it is to gather all the information you can, so that you are fully prepared to conduct an informed final interview.

Like most of us, reporters generally don?t have photographic memories. They?ve learned an axiom: elapsed time equals lapsed memory.

After covering a fast-moving event or doing an interview, a reporter frequently finds a place of solitude: a corner of a room, a park bench, an automobile. There the reporter reviews notes taken a few minutes earlier and fills in gaps. Frequently when first writing quotations in a notebook, a reporter leaves out some words due to haste. While fresh, recollections of visual reporting are jotted down later on: What did the scene look like? What was the person or persons wearing? Did they have any noteworthy mannerisms?

I used to put three asterisks beside my best quotes, two beside good ones and one beside those that were worth considering. When it came time to write the story, this process made the reconstruction easier, particularly if you amassed several pages of notes over the course of the day, as usually was the case.

Two other reasons why I reconstructed my notes as soon as possible after covering a news event or conducting an interview: (1) I used shorthand symbols for certain common words; (2) my handwriting is so atrocious that even I can?t read it two hours after hasty note taking.

It?s almost always helpful to step back from your reporting and organize your notebook, along with your thoughts. Putting details into your notebook also puts the story into perspective in your mind.