Information Research and Interview Tips

One-session online workshop, 1 - 1.5 hours per session, live teaching, via Zoom.

The length of the sessions varies depending on the session topic and the questions and discussions that arise. Sessions will be a minimum of one hour.

Only ten places available on this workshop.

7PM Tuesday 18th March 2025

Times shown: Greenwich Mean Time

If you are interested in future dates for this workshop please email: [email protected]

Workshop fee: £25.00

(meeting invite will be sent out a couple of days prior to the workshop)

Workshop Leader

Esther Chilton

Since joining The Writers Bureau as a student many years ago, Esther hasn’t looked back and now writes and tutors full-time. She regularly has articles and short stories published in a variety of newspapers and magazines in the UK and abroad, ranging from The Guardian, to The People’s Friend, to Writing Magazine. As well as winning writing competitions herself, Esther has judged many, including Writers’ Forum magazine’s monthly short story competition. She is currently working with a publisher on a range of non-fiction books on writing.

Workshop Outline

Information research

Whether you’re writing an article, non-fiction book, family history, or fiction, which involves real events and people, you’ll need to get your facts right. Of course there’s Wikipedia but, as it boastfully states, it’s a ‘free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit’. Or you could enlist the help of an AI – but we all know that these are not always reliable. So how can you make sure you can trust the information you read?

We’ll consider different sources, as well as how to maximise your use of google as a research tool and how it’s essential you check, check and recheck your facts.

Interview tips

You might need to interview someone for the piece you’re working on. For example, you may be writing an article about a stately home you have visited. There will be lots of information on its website, and you may have bought the guide book, but it will enhance your article if you interview someone who runs the home or works there. You’ll find out more details that way, often the little-known snippets. Or perhaps the central character in your novel has a particular job, so it could be useful to interview someone in that occupation to find out what it really entails.

The course will look at the different ways you can interview someone, the type of questions to ask to elicit the best answers and how to get the most from the interview.


This workshop is run by Budding Writers in partnership with The Writers Bureau.

By taking part in this workshop you will:

  • meet other writers

  • have time to ask questions as there are only ten participants per group

  • learn how to fact-check your research

  • find out how to get the most out of an interview

  • gain increased self-confidence to take your writing forward on your own.

Tuesday 18th March 2025 at 7.00PM

Workshop fee: £25.00