annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Sugar and Snails
    • Acknowledgements
    • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
      • Birthday blog tour
      • S&S on tour 2022
    • Early endorsements
    • Events >
      • Launch photos
      • Launch party videos
    • in pictures
    • Media
    • If you've read the book
    • Polari
    • Reading group questions
    • Reviews
    • In the media
  • Underneath
    • Endorsements and reviews
    • Launch party and events
    • Pictures
    • Questions for book groups
    • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor
    • What readers say
    • For book groups
    • Interviews, articles and features
    • Matty on the move
    • Who were you in 1990?
    • Asylum lit
    • Matilda Windsor media
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists >
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
      • Reading and reviews >
        • Reviews A to H
        • Reviews I to M
        • Reviews N to Z
        • Nonfiction
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read

About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now drives her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

What constitutes a good question? My Liebster Award  answers on my 100th post

24/3/2014

11 Comments

 
Picture
Whenever the interviewees in my debut author Q&A’s complimented me on my questions, I assumed they were merely being polite. Well, they may well have been, but that hasn’t stopped me musing on what constitutes a good question since beginning to tackle the questions set by Norah Colvin for her Liebster Award nominees.

How do you define a good question? Despite a fair amount of experience of interviewing – as an element of both selection and therapy – in my other life, I find myself having to rethink the matter all over again for my blogging persona, Annecdotist.

From the perspective of a candidate in a job interview, a good question might be the one for which you’ve already prepared a good answer, one that enables you to showcase your skills and talents to good effect. But an interviewer who is genuinely curious is unlikely to be satisfied with a “here’s one I prepared earlier” response. Yes, we shouldn’t be looking to trip up the interviewee, but the interaction will feel more authentic if we are able to create something new in the space between us. So a good question can also be one that takes us by surprise.

One of the things I like about Norah’s questions is how well they reflect (what I know of her and) her interests, her passion for learning most of all. This also made them quite difficult to answer: although obsessed with my own thoughts, none of these are the questions that I routinely ask of myself. So I needed to give myself time to consider my responses, to do justice to the spirit in which the questions were asked. Hence the interval between receiving the award and posting my answers. So here are Norah’s questions along with my responses in italics. I’d love to know what you think.

PictureNorah poses good questions
1.    What do you value most in life? Authenticity; ambivalence; fairness; mutual respect. Don’t always manage to practice them.

2.    What activities do you enjoy and why? Reading and writing; walking in the countryside; choral singing and growing (some of) my own food. Why? I might say something pompous about health and well-being in body and spirit, but really these just happen to be things I enjoy.

3.    What is something you wish you had more time for? I’d like to learn more science and history. I’d like to be fluent in half a dozen languages. I’d like to be able to read every book or blog that catches my attention. I’d like to be better at keeping up with friends. Despite this, I don’t think we can do everything (that’s what fiction is for – the chance to live other lives) and I’m reasonably happy with how I portion out my time.

4.    What is one change you would like to make in the world? I’d like to see a shift in emphasis from a culture of greed to one of equality and compassion. I think we could do this by taking care of each other as appropriate at each stage of the life span: all babies to have properly attentive and tuned-in parents so they have a chance of growing up secure; free healthy meals for all kids in school; all adults – including mothers – to have the opportunity for meaningful employment, regardless of their abilities/disabilities; the option of assisted suicide when life has become a liability.

5.    What is something you would like to change about yourself? I’d like to be more laid-back, but I’m wired to be uptight and fearful – but generally, I’m fairly adapted to the way I’m evolving and am not looking for a radical change of direction. Unless it’s becoming a published novelist.

6.    What surprises you most about your life – something good in your life that you hadn’t expected, dreamed of or thought possible? It has to be taking part in choral concerts of major classical works along with some pretty decent singers and a full orchestra. It’s a real emotional hit, especially for someone who can’t pitch, read music or keep to a rhythm. (Well, maybe I’m progressing towards these things.) Achieving this is partly down to overcoming my fear enough to give myself the opportunity; partly because of a charismatic choir leader who genuinely believes in music for everyone who has created an extremely supportive culture in which we can all express and develop our skills, however limited.

7.    What ‘big’ question do you often ponder? The fact that our species has invested so much energy and creativity in the technology of warfare and so little in strategies for living in peace with our neighbours. (And right now, each of these questions posed by Norah seem rather large.)

8.    What sorts of things amuse you? It’s taken a long time to get here, but I now appreciate my husband’s dreadful punning jokes. And I quite like dark humour exemplified by the ditty Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from The Life of Brian. (I wonder when we’ll get to sing this in the choir?)

9.    What do you like to collect? Slugs from the garden, but I think they get reincarnated when my back’s turned.

10.  If you could talk with anyone and ask them to explain their ideas and/or actions, who would it be, and why? I’d ask the women who doled out white feathers to men out of uniform in the First World War why they thought they had the right. If I couldn’t time travel, I’d ask our Prime Minister, David Cameron, why he isn’t ashamed that a rich country like ours has spawned so many food banks. And I’d keep badgering them till they gave me a sensible answer.

11.  What is something you can’t do without? My glasses: without them, everything more than an arm’s-length away is a terrible blur. For my writing, voice-activated software, since my arms don’t work so well whether I can see them or not.

12.  What is something important you learned about life, and how did you learn it? That, unlike a work of fiction, we can’t scrub out the bits that don’t work and start again. Although I say I’ve learnt this lesson, I keep forgetting and having to learn it all over again.

13.  What is your earliest memory? I distinctly remember standing on the steps leading up to the front door of our house, replying “two in August” to a passerby who’d asked my age. However, this being one of the stories my mother liked to tell about me, and knowing what I do about the fallibility of autobiographical memories, especially those from early childhood, I doubt its authenticity, and regard it as my mother’s memory, not mine.

How’s that for my 100th blog post? I’ll be announcing my website nominees and the questions I’d like them to answer quite soon. In the meantime, what do you consider a good question? And how would you respond to any of the above?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
11 Comments
Norah Colvin link
25/3/2014 05:20:42 am

Wow! Anne, you have blown me away with your responses. I apologise that all my questions required big answers. I really didn't mean to make everyone work so hard to answer them; but for me the results have been amazing. I am very appreciative that you, and the other respondents have taken the task so seriously. I guess, for me, that means that they were good questions; though I didn't think about the question of what makes a good question as deeply as you have. I asked questions that I thought would help me get to know each of you a little better. There are so many points in your answers which lead to further comments and questions we might have to have further conversations about these. I love your response about collections! Brilliant! But your response to the big question is also one that I puzzle over frequently. It fits beautifully with the change you would make in the world.
Thank you for joining in and sharing the depth of your responses.

Reply
Caroline link
28/3/2014 06:00:12 am

Hi Anne
I really enjoyed reading your different take (to mine) on Norah's questions. Some very interesting similarities, as well as differences. I can understand your enjoyment at participating in the choir. I miss mine and plan to join one as soon as I get better organised.
It appears that you really enjoyed exploring these questions. I did too. I wonder what Norah will make of the complete nominees' collection when they are done.
Keep on blogging and a great 100th post!
Caroline.

Reply
Annecdotist
31/3/2014 01:46:38 am

Thanks, Caroline. I'm also enjoying exploring the similarities and differences. Hope you find your choir – it's such a wonderful thing to be part of, isn't it?

Annecdotist
25/3/2014 08:57:37 am

I think we always have a choice as to how deeply we want to answer questions. And I wouldn't have replied unless I'd wanted to. Your curiosity is inspiring and I look forward to continuing the discussion in various ways.

Reply
Charli Mills link
26/3/2014 05:33:10 pm

Those are terrific answers to Norah's questions! While I don't completely understand the reference to the white feathers, I found that statement deeply profound--the idea of asking a past group why they felt they had the right. It makes me wonder what someone generations from now might look at us and ask the same thing. It's a thought-provoking perspective. I can tell you are a good interviewer, just by your answers.

Reply
Annecdotist
27/3/2014 10:03:10 am

Thank you, Charli, and welcome to my blog.
Regarding the white feathers, I think we do need to be careful judging previous generations by our own standards, especially as women at that time had so little autonomy and were therefore highly dependent on the men to protect them. If they believed that going to war was part of that protective role, then I suppose they'd do whatever they could to encourage men to join in or, in this case, shame them by handing out the white feathers to those who they thought weren't doing their duty. But they couldn't know each man's individual reasons for not being in uniform, nor could they have any idea of the conditions in the trenches, and the women did have less passive-aggressive ways of contributing to the war effort (if that was what they thought was right) which would also require from them some of the courage they seem to think the men lacked.
You make a great point about future generations looking back and questioning our decisions as a society. I hope they do, assuming this will be in a progressive way which, I suppose, is a BIG assumption.
Congratulations on your double award – enjoyed your answers too and hope your nominees also pay the complement forward

Reply
Charli Mills link
27/3/2014 01:49:33 pm

Ah, now I understand the white feathers. I hadn't heard that story before, but I still see examples of women's passive-aggressive behaviors in attempts to control situations, outcomes or others. Just as in literary analysis of historic writing, we may bring our own standards in an attempt to understand, but it is still only one perspective (and not the prevailing one of its time). This is why I like to read and interact with writers--it draws me out of my self-perspective to the world through the eyes of others. Thanks for the discussion and the congratulations. I do hope it continues to pay forward!

Reply
Clare O'Dea link
27/3/2014 01:12:13 pm

Fanstastic 100th post. Such deep and thoughtful answers to these questions. You strike me as a very compassionate person.
Got anything planted yet for the summer? Ground still a bit too cold here.

Reply
Annecdotist
28/3/2014 03:00:26 am

Thank you, Clare. I remember you coming my 50th! I did think of adding compassion to my list of things I value but don't see myself as very good at it – glad it did come across to you here.
We had some sunny weather a couple of weeks ago and I've planted my first a lot of potatoes but then it turned cold again. But nothing like last winter or your winters in Switzerland.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
27/3/2014 07:36:04 pm

Hi Anne (and Charli),
I am so pleased that Charli asked about the white feathers. I wondered too and, fortunately, made the correct assumption. There is so much in each of your answers, and the answers of others to these questions, that I wish to interrogate each of them further. However I restrained myself from posting the myriad of further questions I would like to ask as it would be unfair to expect further responses from any of you. If each of us asks a few, as Charli did, it keeps the conversation going!!

Reply
Annecdotist
28/3/2014 03:04:33 am

Thanks for coming back, Charli and Norah, and great to keep the conversation going. I very much appreciate your interest.
Sorry I wasn't clear about the white feathers: don't know that much about it myself really and presuming it was specific to Britain, and sometimes forget how international the blogging community is – one of the great things about it, of course.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My latest novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    Candles
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom