Feature Writing Brainstorm

1. Who is your main subject?

Father

2. Supporting interviews (who else do you need to talk to, minimum 2 other people)?

 mother, mother's friend with same experience

3. What is the topic or potential topic?
 Dealing with baby while being at poor economic times.
4. Which angle from above will you write the story?
First-hand experience — a story based on the first hand account of a unique experience.
5. Then to help you get going faster, come up with 20 questions that you can ask your main subject. Type these in your blog.

1.  How old were you when you had your first baby?

2. When were you at your poorest times?

3.  Why were you at your poorest time?

4. How did taking care of a baby/ toddler complicate things?

5. Who helped you babysit the baby/ take care of the baby?

6.  How much could you afford at the time?

7.  What factors really saved/ helped you during this time?

8.  What got you back to middle-class economy?

9. What did you do in order to prevent having low economy situation?

10. How did it feel to be in this situation? Were you worried?

11.  What are some other situations that sprouted from this issue?

12. What was the lifestyle you had during that time compared to now?

13. How did it feel dealing with a baby for the first time?

14. What are some situations where the baby ended up in trouble that were unexpected?

15. What were some difficult issues involving parenting? ( finding cheap daycare, buying crib)

16. What have you learned during this experience?

17. How does this experience compare with the current experience of dealing with the second baby?

18. What could you change about your first experience dealing with a baby during poor times?

19.  How did being a father change your life?

20. Any other info.?

6. Once you complete that portion, you need to come up with 5-10 questions you need to ask your supporting interviews. Type these into your blog. You may need different questions for each supporting subject.

Mother

1. How did dealing with a baby complicate things or would've complicated things?

2.  What did you do to counteract the economy situation?

3. How did it feel to be in this situation? Were you worried?

4. How did this situation arise? What was going on during your business/occupation?

5. What were some situations that arose from the big issue being the baby dealing while being broke?

6. Any other info.?

Mother's friend:

1. How old were you when you first experienced being a parent?

2.  How did having children change your previous life (life before having children)? 

3.  How did it feel being a parent and taking care of your children? Was it easy taking care of a child?

4. What are/were the difficulties of taking care of a child?

5. What were some factors that made parenting easier/ harder?

6. Any other information you would like to add?


7. You will need to do a little research on the topic you expect to interview your main subject about. Take a little time and do some google searching - find at least 5 new things about the intended topic you should know before you interview your main subject. List those on your blog.

• toddlers and babies can get really fussy and problematic
• 
  
• most of the time parents do not know yet how to take care of their of their baby, hence parenting tips and books
• parenthood really changes your life to where your previous life won't appear anymore
• Help is always wanted during first year of parenting
• Parenting stress is very common to first year parents

8. Write when you plan to conduct the interview(s)?
During this week to Thanksgiving break.
9. Where you will interview them (some interviews are better to do in the persons environment, while others should be done in public places, ALL interviews should be done in person)?
I will do them in the person's environment. Because grandmother is in Malaysia, I can try to skype call her. If not, I will have to resort to emailing or switching to a different supporting source.
10. How will you record the information? (taking notes is ideal, and if you want to record the conversation you MUST get permission. You can do both if they will allow you to record, this is a really strong technique that you could use.)
Using a phone to record, or a camera. I know that my parents are always home during 5:00-6:00pm, so I can record them.