Writing the Feature Story
Feature articles are
like news articles in that you must gather information for them and you must
remain objective. Also like news
stories, you must write about something that interests your readers. You also
must include attribution in every paragraph, keep your paragraphs and sentences
short (40 words or less) and continue to use good rules of journalism as far as
accuracy and following ethical standards are concerned.
The
big difference between news and feature stories is in their structure. A news
article is structured in the inverted pyramid style and you have at least a
dozen rules regarding how you may and may not begin your lead and when you
should use quotes, etc. With feature articles, most of the structural rules are
removed. You are given almost virtual
freedom in deciding how to start your article, what your first word might be,
how long your lead may be and when you get to your first quote.
Where
the news story has the inverted pyramid structure, the feature story is more of
a typical English paper structure: There
is a beginning (the lead), middle (the body of the story) and an end (the
conclusion). In addition, the purpose of
the feature story is to entertain. It is designed to profile, humanize, add
color, educate or illuminate. But its main function is to entertain, while the
main function of the news story is to inform.
A feature is NOT meant to deliver
the news or to inform. While a feature
may examine something that is newsworthy, it is not a hard news story. Instead of answering the “What happened?”
question, the feature story usually answers the “Who it happened to?” question
or the “Why something happened?” question or the “Why the reader should care?”
question about something newsworthy that is happening. This is a story that takes another look at
the news. It is a story that looks at newsworthy events through an individual’s
eyes. For example, the news story would be how the reconstruction of Iraq is
going. The feature story would be about a pair of brothers who fought in the
war. Or it could be on the man who is in charge of America’s attempt to
reconstruct Iraq. The news story would be about a plane crash. The feature
story might look at the history of that particular type of plane. The news
story might be the Veterans Day parade, but the feature story might be a
profile of a particular Veteran or the Veteran’s Services Program.
Types of features include:
•Personality profiles: These
are stories about a person. They are written to bring the reader closer to
someone who is in or out of the news.
These stories are heavy on interviews with the person, the person’s
friends and enemies, and include description that, together, paint a vivid word
picture of the person being profiled.
Since people enjoy reading about other people, personality profiles are
one of the most popular types of features.
•Human interest articles:
These are written to show that someone is unique, different, odd, or to
show that something is practical, emotional or to provide some entertainment
value. These are stories about people
and how they are handling their lives.
Examples would include how to repair your car or how people are
surviving in the South Bay now that all of the aerospace industry jobs have
left town.
•Trend stories: These examine
the people, things or organizations that are having an impact on our society by
setting a trend. These are usually very
popular because people love to read about trendy stuff and feel like they, too,
can be on the cutting edge. Examples
include a look at summer fashions, the language of Generation Xers or the
latest in music.
•In-depth stories: These
require extensive researching, interviewing and writing to convey the
point. They provide a detailed account
of an event that goes beyond the news article or the typical feature article.
These could be investigative pieces that uncover some wrongdoing or
first-person articles examining some happy or sad period in the writer’s
life. Examples include an article on
breast cancer and how it has impacted the lives of several families or even a
small city; how undocumented workers get into this country to work, what they
do once they arrive here and how they survive.
•Backgrounders: These are
also known as analysis pieces. These add
insight and meaning to news events.
These bring the reader up to date by explaining how the country, state,
city, organization or a person got to this point. For example, an analysis of the state’s death
penalty policies that traces the beginnings of the death penalty in this state
that would run around the time of a planned execution is a backgrounder. So is an article explaining why the college
reopened its cafeteria and the process that it went through to do so.
Feature
lead blocks
The
feature story starts with a lead block. A lead block is longer than a summary
lead. The lead block can be several sentences, can tell a short but detailed
story, can describe a scene, can present a humorous take on a situation. The
lead block is designed to draw a reader in, to pique his or her interest. After
the lead block, comes the nut paragraph that reveals to the reader what the
story is about. Next comes the body of the story. Finally, there is the
conclusion. A well-written feature story forces the reader to read every word.
Everything is neatly organized, everything is tightly written; everything
serves the overall angle of the story.
It
is imperative that the feature story be particularly well written because there
is no incentive for the reader to read a feature story. With the news story,
the incentive is to find out what happened. With the feature story, that
incentive does not exist. The job of the feature story is to entertain. The job
of the news story is to inform. The feature story is not timely. The news story
is timely. The two serve different purposes and have different structures. The
only reason a reader would read your feature story is if it's particularly well
written.
You
should also know that the reader gives you about 100 words within which to make
an impression. In a news story, the reader makes a decision to read a story or
abandon it within the first three seconds. With a feature story you've got 100
words before the reader decides, so make those words great.
This
is why the feature introductions or lead blocks MUST be particularly well written.
You’ve got to put every ounce of creativity and sparkle you’ve got into your
feature leads or else the reader simply will not read them. This does NOT mean
that you can make things up or be subjective. This is still journalism and
subjectivity, lying or making things up is not allowed. But you can be creative
with the word pictures you draw for the readers. You can be creative with how
you start your stories.
Getting started
Since
the lead block is the most important part of the feature story, it must be
great. Here are some examples of typical feature leads. The most common feature
lead is the descriptive lead.
•Descriptive leads
You literally describe
a scene so the reader feels like he or she is there. The description should be
colorful and interesting so that it arouses the reader’s interest. Here are
some examples:
It’s Thursday morning and the back
room of the restaurant is filled with men dressed in business suits holding
earnest conversations over eggs and pancakes.
While the eating and talking
continues, pamphlets are handed out among the 30 middle-aged, Caucasian men in
attendance. A sex-education book is passed around. As the men look at it, many
of them grimace, some of them cry out, “Oh No!” and all of them shake their
heads negatively.
The leader of the group then stands
up and delivers a prayer while the others bow their heads in reverence.
The Decency in Education Committee
of Lee County is holding its weekly meeting.
Another example:
It
hit the bridge with a deafening roar and then there was silence. There was no
sound at all, those who watched said later, as the Air Florida 737 jetliner
glided into the river, skidded across the gray ice and sank slowly into the
freezing waters.
•Shocking leads
These leads
immediately capture the reader's attention. Here are some examples:
Not
long after Pat and Fred Grounds moved into their new home, they noticed they
weren’t getting any mail.
First they thought the mail hadn’t
been forwarded. Then they were told they had no mail.
Only after more than a week and many
phone calls did the post office tell them the truth: Their mail carrier was
afraid of catching AIDS from them.
Another example:
It
was one of those split-second things. A family outing, a bump in the road, a
gunshot. A toddler is dead.
•Direct address leads
This is where you
literally speak to the reader. An example:
To
the types of matter you learned about in high school—solid, liquid, gas—add
another: a frozen gas that exists nowhere in the universe except a Colorado lab
where scientists are making it.
•Suspenseful leads
These arouse the
reader’s curiosity, create suspense or raise a question in the reader’s mind.
By hinting at some mysterious development explained in a later paragraph, this
type of lead compels the reader to finish the story:
Don’t
try to tell Kent Owen that crime doesn’t pay. It could be saving his life.
Another example:
As
a Highland Springs all-state safety, he wore No. 5.
As a Virginia Tech freshman
defensive back, he wore No. 22.
Last month, Harold Banks became No.
81.
(The first story
explained that Owen, who was HIV positive, had resorted to illegal means to get
the drug AZT to save his life. The second story explained the shooting death of
the football star, with 81 meaning that he was the 81st person murdered in his
city.)
•Ironic leads
Closely related to the
shockers, these present a startling or an ironic contrast. Notice the details
in these that will arouse the reader’s curiosity.
Amanda
Frale and Brianne Roseler went searching for shells and lost treasure at the
beach, but found only dead fish and trash. So the 7-year-old cousins wrote a
letter to the mayor, their grandfather.
Another example:
Otters
are cute. They’re playful. They sustain the Monterey Bay area’s ceramic
figurine industry.
They’re also necrophiliacs and
spouse abusers. Teen mothers routinely abandon their babies, leaving them to
die while engaging in other practices that might draw serious frowns.
In what could be a blow to their
tourist appeal, the first comprehensive study of the endangered California sea
otters reveals a dark side we’d probably rather not know.
Get
the idea? These are NOT news leads. You’ve got to be descriptive. You’ve got to
be detailed. You’ve got to grab the reader’s attention. I hope you’ve also noticed that many of these
leads focus on ONE person doing something.
That’s the best way to tell the story —by focusing on one person and
then broadening it out to tell the story of others.
The Nut Paragraph
After
you’ve written your feature lead block, you must write a nut paragraph. The nut paragraph tells what the reader what
the story is about. Since your lead block is not designed to tell what the
story is about, the nut paragraph serves this function. Think of the nut paragraph as the lead of a
news story, in that it serves the same purpose: It tells the reader what the
story is about.
In
addition to that, here are a couple of feature techniques you should know:
1. Weaving a thread. To hold the feature story together, it’s vital
that you think about weaving a thread throughout the story. The thread holds
the story together, just like threads hold fabric together. A thread can be a
person you keep going back to or a theme you keep going back to. For example,
let’s say you’re writing a feature story about community college students who
take online classes. You begin the story
describing one of the students, Mary Smith, at her computer, taking a quiz. You
then broaden the story and give facts and figures about how this is fast becoming
a popular mode of education for students, then you quote some experts, then you
quote Smith again. Then you quote some
other students, then you quote some more experts, then you quote Smith again. Then you quote some more students, experts,
then end with Smith. In this case, Smith’s experiences are the thread you have
woven throughout the story. Smith’s
story holds the overall story together. Get it?
2. Bookends. Just like bookends hold books on a shelf
together, bookends in your story hold the story together. Also like bookends on
a shelf, bookends in a story appear ONLY at the beginning and at the end. Therefore, they are NOT like the thread,
which appears throughout the story.
A typical bookend would be a lyric from a song.
Perhaps you’ve interviewed a rock star or a poet. You might want to begin the
story with a stanza from a poem the artist has written and end it with a
different stanza from the same poem. Get the idea? The bookends only appear at
the beginning and at the end of the story.
STEPS TO TAKE WHEN WRITING THE FEATURE ARTICLE
1. Choose the
theme or the angle for the article
Your
article must have a purpose that is not too broad and is not too narrow. Each section of the article must revolve
around the theme. Try to narrow it down as much as possible. You do not want to
write a feature on cancer, for example. But you would write about how cancer
has impacted an El Camino student or about the latest drugs being used to
combat cancer. Once the theme is determined, all writing, research and
interviewing must support it.
2. Write a lead
or a lead block that forces the reader into your story
Make
sure the lead is interesting and that it grabs the reader and pulls him or her
into the article. If your lead fails to do its job of grabbing the reader’s
attention, then all is lost. Concentrate
your efforts on making the lead interesting and compelling.
The
lead can be as long as you want it to be and you may start off with any words
that you want. I would recommend,
however, that you write no more than 100 words for your lead because it is
within these 100 words that the reader decides whether to stay with or to leave
your article.
Types of leads to
avoid:
Question leads: Avoid
these because they give the reader the option of answering a yes or a no
question. If they give the wrong answer, then they will quit reading. You NEVER
want to do anything that lets the reader decide to stop reading your article,
so avoid question leads.
Quote leads: Avoid
these unless the quote is truly outstanding AND it stands on its own and does
not require any additional explanation.
3. Include the
nut paragraph immediately after the lead or lead block
The
nut paragraph is the paragraph that tells the reader what the story is
about. You must include it immediately
after the lead block so the reader knows what he or she is reading about and
why.
4. Provide
background information
If
you need to include any background information or any references to news
stories that are connected to the feature, you need to do so high up in the
story. This gives readers perspective
and it also lets them know why you are writing this article. Usually, all you will need is a paragraph or
two of background. Just make sure it is
toward the top of the story.
5. Write clear,
concise sentences
Follow
the rules of grammar. Write interesting,
clear and concise sentences. Keep it
simple. Keep it focused. Make sure that your sentences make sense.
6. Use a thread
It
is best to try to weave a thread throughout the story that connects the
beginning to the middle and the end.
This thread can be a person or an event, but it is really helpful to
have one to hold the story together.
7. Use
transitions throughout the article
Transitions
hold the story together. Transitions
make the story flow smoothly from one quote to the next and from one idea to
another. Transitions keep the reader
from being jarred. Whenever a reader is
jarred, it gives her or him an opportunity to leave the story. You want to force the reader into reading
your entire story because it flows so smoothly and is so interesting. Transitions can be a word, a phrase, a
sentence or a paragraph. Usually they
occur at the beginning or at the end of sentences. And, usually, they are in every paragraph of
a feature article.
8. Let the body
of the story tell the story
The
body of your article is the part that comes after the nut paragraph and before
the conclusion. This is where you keep
the reader by entertaining and educating or enlightening her or him. You want to try to make the reader FEEL
something with your feature article, so use the body to present all of the
great information and quotes you have gathered.
Make sure that the body of the story is easy (the sentences are clear and
concise and it has transitions) and fun to read. This is the guts of your story, so make it
great.
9. Write a
compelling conclusion
After
you have included all of your information, it is a good idea to kind of wrap
things up in the conclusion. By wrapping
things up, I do not mean for you to write:
“In conclusion, breast cancer is horrible and has a negative impact on
lives.” This is NOT a good
conclusion. A good conclusion takes the
reader back to the beginning of the story and the person you may have begun
your story with or it lets someone make a final statement that sort of sums
things up. It is always best to conclude
your article with a direct quote from someone.
Let the person sum things up.
10. Rewrite it
Even
the best writers need to be rewritten.
It is especially important that you spend the extra time to polish and
rewrite your feature stories because these are more involved and often more
complicated stories than your news stories.
So do not be afraid to do complete rewrites. You may also find that you just need to
rewrite part of the story. The important
thing to remember is that everyone rewrites and that this is expected,
especially with feature stories.
Writing
a profile
A profile is a feature story that
focuses in on one person. That’s why it’s called a profile, because you are
literally writing a short, vivid biography of a person.
The following must be included in the profile story:
• A strong beginning.
• The name and complete identification (job
title, military rank, etc.) of the subject of the profile.
• The theme of the profile.
• The reason for writing the story (this can
also be the news peg).
• Incidents and anecdotes from the subject and
from friends and associates of the subject.
• A physical description of the subject.
• Direct quotes from the subject and other
sources.
• Observations of the subject during the
interview or at work, home, play (describe the subject’s mannerisms, gestures,
etc.).
• A strong ending.
Like
any good feature, a good profile must contain an interesting and attention grabbing
lead or beginning. You should NOT start
off the story by giving the biographical background information for the
subject. Instead, you should start off
by either relaying an interesting anecdote the subject shared with you, a
description of the subject at work or play, or something else that reveals the
subject’s personality and is also attention grabbing and interesting.
Profiles are an important part of
any newspaper because they are stories about people and your readers like to
read about people. With that in mind,
then, make sure that you give the reader a real sense of who this person is and
what makes this person tick. Ultimately,
you want the reader to leave the story feeling as if he or she knows the
profile subject.
To do that, you must use a lot of
direct quotes from the subject. You need
to really dig for personal facts, anecdotes or remembrances. You need to describe the person and his or
her mannerisms. You also need to
remember that people tend to exaggerate or lie about themselves, so you will
need to verify the information they give you with friends, enemies and/or
business associates.
As with any good writing, make sure
that you include transitions that allow the reader to move smoothly from one
paragraph to the next. Also remember
that you need to try to come up with a theme for the subject that you can use
to hold the story together. Finally,
this is a word portrait of a person, so use words that are descriptive and
bring the person to life.
Checklist for profiles
• It’s typed,
double-spaced
• You have not
referred to yourself or to anything you thought or did in the story. For
example, you didn’t write : “She was beautiful….” Or “Then we went to the
restaurant….” We are not interested in what you thought or what you did. This
story is about the subject of the profile, not you.
• You have followed
this formula: Give information, then
give a direct quote, give more information, then give another direct quote,
give more information, direct quote, etc.
• You have made sure
that the quote does not repeat the information given above or below it and you
have made sure that you have included good transitions throughout the story.
• You have written a
descriptive lead that attracts the reader into the story and that paints a word
picture of the person being profiled.
• When first
mentioning the person, you have used the person’s first and last names. From
that point on, use only the person’s last name. So, it’s John Smith at first,
but from then on, it’s just Smith.
• You have not editorialized,
draw conclusions or in any way included your opinion in this story.
• You have not put the
questions you asked into the story because this is not a Q & A interview,
it’s a journalistic story.
• You have used
opinion and reaction in direct quotes and have NOT included facts in direct
quotes.
• You have kept your
paragraphs short. They are no longer than 40 words long.
• You have written
complete, grammatically correct sentences.
• You have finished
the story with your second-best quote.
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