From interview to story: what I learned from skippers

In June 2026 Holland Sail published Vloot vol Verhalen, a book about the traditional fleet and the people who sail on it. Together with others, I interviewed some of the skippers, wrote up their stories and gathered the images.

It became the third book I contributed to, and the only one for which I got to sit on deck with a recorder.

Turning a conversation into a story sounds simple: you ask questions, you type it up and you're done. In practice, there's a whole craft between an hour of recording and two pages someone enjoys reading. How do you turn an interview into a story?

The short answer: ask small, concrete questions, pay attention to sensory details, write yourself out as the interviewer and be strict about what stays. A good story still sounds like the person who told it, but has a beginning and an ending the conversation itself didn't have.

The story is in the sentence that comes after

What I learned most from those conversations is that the story is rarely in the answer itself. It's in the sentence someone adds spontaneously, once the official version has been told.

My job was mainly to keep listening, even at the moment the conversation seemed finished.

Which questions produce a good story?

Small, concrete questions produce better stories than big ones. Ask a skipper about their best moment on the water and you risk getting a wind direction back.

Big questions produce big, empty answers. "What does sailing mean to you?" is a question for an anthology, not for an interview.

So rather ask something small. What was the first thing you did when you came on board that morning? Who taught you this knot? What do you say to a guest who gets seasick?

How do you bring a story to life with details?

With sensory details: what you smell, hear and feel. A reader doesn't remember a summary, but does remember how something smelled, sounded or felt.

Tar, wet rope, a cup of coffee that only just doesn't tip over on a slanting deck: that's where someone steps into a story. My job was mainly to watch out for when such a detail came by, and then not let go of it.

How do you write up an interview without it turning into minutes?

By writing yourself out and being strict about what stays. The interviewer should disappear from the story. Nobody buys a book about skippers to read how clever the questions were.

I kept the skipper's words as close as possible to how they were spoken, quirks included. A sentence that's been polished too smooth no longer sounds like a person but like a brochure.

At the same time, writing up isn't taking minutes. A conversation jumps back and forth, a story has a beginning and an end. Choosing what goes is the hardest part, and also the most honest.

How do you make text and images work together?

By having them complement each other instead of repeating each other. A photo that shows exactly what's already in the text is a waste of the page.

The best combination is a text that tells what you can't see, next to an image that shows what you can't describe.

What does storytelling have to do with marketing?

Everything, really. Every organisation has people with stories: a founder, a customer, a colleague who has mastered the same craft for twenty years.

Almost every organisation tells those stories in the form of a list of core values. That's a shame, because nobody has ever remembered a core value.

What AI can't do here

These days AI can transcribe an interview in a few minutes, and that saves an afternoon of typing.

What it can't do is ask a follow-up question at the moment someone falls silent halfway through a sentence. That silence is usually the beginning of the story.

As if nobody wrote it down

The best interview feels like a conversation to the other person. The best story reads as if nobody wrote it down. That someone was behind it can safely remain a secret.

You can read more about the book and my role under Books, and who else I've worked for under Client work.

Frequently asked questions

How do you turn an interview into a good story?

Ask small, concrete questions, pay attention to sensory details, write yourself out as the interviewer and be strict about what stays. Keep the interviewee's words as close as possible to how they were spoken.

Which questions do you ask in an interview?

Small, concrete questions, such as what someone did first that morning or who taught them something. Big questions like "what does your work mean to you?" often produce general, empty answers.

Can AI write up an interview?

AI can transcribe a recording quickly, but it can't ask follow-up questions at the right moment or choose what makes the story. That remains the writer's job.