Feature Writing

The Art of Telling Stories

 What’s a feature?
• Features are told in a less hurried and
generally more creative way.
• Features almost never begin with the
most important information like inverted
pyramid stories.
• More stories are written in a feature
style today.
 Kinds of features
• Trend stories report on changes that
happen gradually over time.
– It’s often a good idea to personalize the
leads of these stories.
 Kinds of features cont.
• Profiles tell the story of a person or
persons.
• Human interest stories in some way
tell us more about what it means to be
human. They have little impact;
sometimes profiles can be human
interest stories.
 Related terms
• A sidebar accompanies a hard news
story and is written in a feature style.
• A followup runs a day or more after the
main news story and reports on results
of earlier developments.
 Do readers like inverted pyramid
stories?

• Surveys say they don’t, often

commenting reading them feels like
“work.” They tolerate the inverted
pyramid because it delivers the news
quickly.
 What do high school readers want?

• They want interesting, real stories about

people they know. They also like
controversy and interesting issues.
 Do high school students get this kind of
writing very often?

• Not very often. Most papers and

yearbooks ignore thousands of story-
telling chances every year.
 Typical high school writing

• Exhibit A: Laura Orr has been named

Student of the Month. Laura is a senior
and last week was named the most
valuable player on the state championship
volleyball team.
Her favorite activities include water skiing,
tennis, reading and watching movies.
 Typical high school writing

• Exhibit B: In a teenager’s life, one thing

is always true: The need for money is
the same. Some teens can get money
by working in stores or by doing odd
jobs, but perhaps the most popular way
to earn fast money is through baby
sitting . . .
 Typical high school writing

• Exhibit C: February is Black History

Month, and the school will again
participate in a wide variety of activities
commemorating the many contributions
blacks have made to the United States
and the world.
 How do you write compelling features?

• Abandon the inverted pyramid and use

features leads and style.
 Feature writing hint #1

• Focus on a single person for your lead.

– Tell the story through one person’s eyes;
this requires good reporting.
 Feature writing hint #2

• Focus on an incident or anecdote.

– Retell a specific moment or scene for your
lead. Show, don’t tell.
 Feature writing hint #3

• Try a startling statement or dialogue or

other devices.
 Feature writing hint #4

• Describe a setting as a way of

establishing the theme of a piece
 Improved feature leads

• Exhibit A: Laura Orr never set out to be the All-

American girl. It just turned out that way.
She plays volleyball because it clears her mind, she said.
She’s not sure why she’s so good at it.
“I enjoy it so I work at it a little hard, I guess,” she said.
Her parents have always stressed academics, so it’s no
surprise she’s an honor roll student. “They’ve never
really pushed me, but I understand their expectations,”
she said. (focus on an individual, somewhat of a
startling statement)
 Improved feature leads

• Exhibit B: It took only a second.

• Sophomore Clyde Zeigler turned his back on Josh long
enough for the mischievous 8-year-old to open the
backyard gates, allowing the three black Labradors to
escape into the neighborhood.
• “I really panicked,” Clyde said. “The last thing Mr.
Nelson, Josh’s father, told me was to make certain the
dogs didn’t get out of the yard, and just like that they
were gone. I chased them down for an hour.
• Welcome to the wonderful world of baby-sitting.
(startling statement combined with an anecdote)
 Improved feature leads
• Exhibit C: History teacher and coach Dennis Sims
remembers his high school days all too well, and the
memories aren’t good ones.
• “Although I lived only a mile from school, I was forced to
attend an all-black school,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to
mingle with the white kids even though I’d played with many
of them all my life.”
• He said remembers how members of his family were denied
basic rights such as voting and recalls the night a band of
thugs lynched a young black man for talking to a white girl.
• “ I grew up in a segregated community that treated us
harshly,” he said. “Thank God that’s all changed.”
• As evidence, the school will again participate in
February’s Black History Month, and Sims will be in
charge of the annual event. (focus on an individual
combined with an anecdote)
 Body of the story

• The billboard or so-what graph

– This comes after the feature lead. (Feature
leads can be several paragraphs.)
– It tells what the story is about.
 Billboard example

• In the black sand in front of his bare feet a shirtless man named Jaidev
is tidying up a capital P, as in Phoenix. Squatting on his heels, he
carefully removes what looks like a giant aluminum cookie cutter, then
flicks away stray bits of sand with a stick.
• Next he dusts the sand with graphite powder and covers it with a box
made of molded clay and sand. Molten pig iron is poured in through a
hole. When the iron cools, the box comes off, revealing a 200-pound
masterpiece entitled “Phoenix Sanitary Sewer.”
• To his government, Jaidev is a small but vital part of India’s drive to
increase exports and earn foreign exchange. To some of his
competitors in the U.S., however, he is part of a network engaged in
unfair competition. U.S. foundries claim India is dumping manhole
covers.
 Feature body
• Keep related material together
• Divide piece into sections. Each section
tells a different part of the story.
• End stories in memorable ways. Often
it’s a good to use a quote. This is called
a clincher.