Alan Franks writes:
In the very limited amount of teaching or speaking that I've done about writing, I've found myself saying that journalism is possibly the hardest form. People often express surprise at this. The trouble is that the business suffers from the stigma of being a lesser thing than so-called creative writing; as if it should touch its forelock like trade when the merest wisp of an ode floats by. This makes me sad and angry. One of the reasons some hold it in low esteem is that they think ill of its practitioners on moral grounds, which is crude and lazy.
 
Maybe it's ill-advised to compare bits of writing from completely different genres but I can't help thinking that an adequate poem - two or three nicely made quatrains, decent imagery, sense of purpose - has no right to be considered automatically superior to a clear and forthright article on whatever it may be.

The business of explaining often complex ideas and events in a compelling way is a hell of a skill. It looks easier than it is, precisely because of the clarity it is delivering. The other thing people seem to forget is that it is generally done under the pressure of time. You just can't do as you might with a poem - put it to one side in the hope of some inspiration next month.

Quite a lot of the journalism I've done entails interviewing people. As with any writing, it's great when it' going well and terrible when it isn't.

At its best, I think a newspaper or magazine interview can flash across like a compressed biography, which holds a real value and pleasure in a busy reader's life. At its worst it can seem like a fawning indulgence of its subject, or else an attention-seeking put-down by the writer.

Photograph: Alan Franks by Ruth Gledhill.

There aren't many less lovely sights than a journalist trying to make himself or herself look brighter, more fearless, more interesting than they really are by hitching a lift on the fame of the interviewee.

I still haven't said why I believe journalism is so hard, but actually it's obvious when you think about it. It was a journalist friend of mine who first drew my attention to it, and I could have kicked myself for not having thought of it earlier. I've had a go at saying more about these things in a talk that a lecture society asked me to do this year. Times Online also asked me to put together some tips for journalists interviewing the famous.

The assembled articles of mine gathered together on this website are picked slightly at random. I didn't want to throw too many in - just a bunch with a bit of variation. I'm definitely not saying they're examples of how to do it. In fact I know that if I looked preoperly at some of then now, I would cringe. Most writers I know have this problem to some extent.