A Guide to Writing Excellent Trivia Questions

“You asked a Barbra Streisand question! Where the heck did THAT come from?”

The funny thing about trivia questions is, everyone thinks they’re so easy to come up with. So did I- when I first started in this business. Then I realized something strange: after a couple of months of churning out a steady stream of my best trivia questions (we all have them in our heads), I found that’d I’d plain run out! Poof! Suddenly, I found myself staring at a blank MS Word document, which had to be filled with 50 trivia questions for each event I did.

Oh, and by the way, all the questions have to be fun. And they can’t be too easy, and they can’t be too hard. And they have to be relevant and fully customized for each audience.

Not so easy, is it?

I quickly discovered that I need to devise a system for churning out a high volume of creative, original trivia questions on a regular basis. One answer, as my fellow quiz night hosts and trivia enthusiasts will attest, is this: keep your antennae up!

From the moment I wake up, my eyes and ears are open to potential trivia. If I’m like other New Yorkers, in addition to the random happenings that occur during the course of each day I am constantly having songs, memories, cravings and other fleeting sensations run through my mind. The only difference is, I’ve trained myself to be aware of them as they happen.

I used to carry around a piece of paper and a pen to scribble down the totally random lyric, forgotten toys or candy bars, chance celebrity sightings or anything else that was outside of my normal train of thought or daily life path; these days I jot them down in my iphone, to be quickly forgotten the moment I hit “Done” and not to be thought of again until I’m ready to write trivia later that week or day (or hour).

Another great way I glean trivia that’s outside of my usual genres or interests is to peruse the online news sites. Whenever I’m writing trivia, I always cruise over to CNN.com or NYTimes.com, and look at all of the nice headlines grouped together by subject. Not only is this a great way to collect some current events questions, but I find that it really helps drive my creative engine to see something I normally wouldn’t have thought about.

For example, I’m not a huge sports fan, so I’ll naturally skim the bottom of CNN.com under “Sports” and look for a headline that grabs me. That means nothing to me. However, now I’m thinking about people who’ve come out of retirement; Cher? Garth Brooks? Barbra? Ah, let’s go with Barbra- what’s a good Barbra Streisand Question? How about “Who holds the record for the most top ten albums of any female recording artist?” That’s a good trivia question.

What are some other ways one could generate some fresh & thoughtful trivia questions?