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Features Writing Techniques
Feature Story vs. News Story
Hard news stories move briskly through the five W's and the H, packing in just enough
detail to give readers a clear picture of the news. Immediacy is everything in hard news.
In features, the immediacy of the event is secondary. It's replaced by reader
interest. Bare facts are surrounded by elaboration, interpretation, mood, context,
detailed description, emotion, irony and humor.
The goal of a feature story is to communicate the truth -- not fiction -- in a
different way than a hard news story.
Writing Process
Story Ideas
Feature story ideas come from everywhere -- from your editor, personal observation,
conversations overheard in the dining facility, etc.
Once you have a story idea, decide exactly what focus you want to emphasize.
Your focus is the angle you want for the story.
Remember your audience -- who you're writing for when writing features.
Collecting the Information
Always do background research for your story, if possible. You must have a clear idea of
your subject before you set the interview.
Plan your questions Always collect more information than you need. It's better
than not enough. Capture the emotion. People want to know how your subject
feels about why he/she does something. Use all your senses. See, hear, smell,
touch, taste. Make notes of how people move, dress, speak, etc. Observe. Train
yourself to notice everything.
Write the story
• Use descriptive verbs and nouns instead of adverbs and adjectives.
• Use only the best quotes. The quotes must SAY or SHOW something.
• Be specific in description. Create a detailed picture the reader can SEE.
Revise and rewrite
Write the story, then polish it. Test your story by asking "What is this story about?" Your
lead and focus transition should answer that question.
Feature Writing Techniques
Figurative language helps recreate scenes or sensations. It's how a writer shows vs. tells
the story. Devices include:
• Metaphor -- An implied comparison between two unlike things. (EXAMPLE: To
the soldiers in his unit, Jacobs walks on water."
• Simile -- A stated comparison between two unlike things. (EXAMPLE: The
borders in Israel shift almost as often as the sands in the Judean Hills.)
• Personification-- Giving life-like characteristics to something lifeless.
• Hyperbole -- Emphasizing something by deliberately overstating or understating
it.
• Good feature stories contain anecdotes, description, attributive verbs and direct
quotes.
Journalism: Feature News vs. Hard News Writing with Dale Rice [Audio]
Also check out these podcasts with Dale Rice…
Episode 28 – Journalism as a Career, an Interview with Dale Rice
Episode 34 – Dale Rice on News Writing
Episode 35 – Dale Rice, Writing on Deadline
November 2009
MEGHAN: Howdy and Welcome back to “Write Right,” Today we are talking with Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies here at Texas A&M, about the difference in hard news and feature news writing.
What is feature writing and how is it different from hard news?
DALE RICE: Well in general I’d say in journalism you can basically say that true stories fall into two categories. They fall into the hard news category, or they fall into the feature category. The hard news are those stories that are covering the events that are taking place out there. Feature stories are much more either playing off that or are fun, amusing, or life revealing kinds of stories. Good examples of feature kinds of writing: music, the arts, movies, food, entertainment of all kinds, fashion. These are all things that people have a great deal of interest in but may not be the most pressing issues of the day. And so you turn around and look for ways to write stories about those things that are interesting, fun, engaging.
MEGHAN: Okay, well when you write a feature story don’t you go about it in a much different way?
DALE RICE: Of course both stories are going to have all of the basic facts. There’s no doubt about that. But the basic news story, you’re going to concentrate on getting those essential facts high in the story and being very direct with people and getting to the point quickly and clearly. In the feature story, you have an opportunity to have far more varied writing styles. And it’s not just that you can play with one particular style but there’s dozens of writing styles that you can use in feature writing, and it gives you a chance to, I think, have more of an individual voice as a writer. It gives you the opportunity to play with language much more. And, one other aspect of feature writing is that the vast majority of features are not written on a daily deadline. You have more time, not only to work on the language but to work on the story form as well and to look at the way in which you’re constructing a story, and where in the story do you want to reveal the key components? Do you want to save things for mid-way through or even important details for the end? You have that kind of opportunity in story construction to say ‘ah, I might not want to reveal all, I might want to keep this almost like a mystery and reveal the most important thing right at the end.’
MEGHAN: Now, an intro for a feature story can be much different than a hard news story?
DALE RICE: Yeah for the feature stories, you can get a lot more into anecdotal writing and descriptive writing and spend a lot more time setting the scene than you would do in a hard news story. So that’s a bit of the reason that you have so many different approaches that you can take in a feature story. You can really hone in on somebody’s appearance, somebody’s personality, the kinds of things that really wouldn’t come to play in a news story, right? I mean really how the person looks, or how the person acts, or what they’re personal situation is, seldom contributes to what’s happening in the news story, unless of course they’re a serial killer that’s caught and then you’d go after all of that sort of thing, or a victim. But, for the most part when you have people who are involved in government, for example, discussing the big issues of the day, what they’re wearing to the press conference is just not important. But in a feature story that whole appearance thing might in fact be the first three or four paragraphs of your story as you try and give every little detail about how somebody is appearing and acting during, for example, a news conference. So if you were writing a feature story about the same event you would take a very very different approach to it.
MEGHAN: In hard news you are expected to grab the reader with a captivating lead and deliver the facts as quickly and clearly as possible. In a feature story you get the opportunity to use description and detail to entice your reader. Your interviews can be more in-depth and can focus on how people feel about an issue rather than just what happened. In Dale Rice’s Media Writing I and II students get the opportunity to practice writing both feature and hard news stories. In our next episode, Dale Rice will discuss ways to approach sensitive or difficult interviews. Thanks for listening to this episode or “Write Right,” we’ll see you next time.
Hard News Vs. Feature Stories
Hard news articles are written so the reader can stop reading at any time, and still come away
with the whole story. This is very different from an essay, which presumes that the audience will
stick around to the end, and can therefore build to a finish. There is no need to put a
"conclusion" on a news story. Each individual reader will "end" the story whenever he or she
gets bored. A particularly interested reader will keep reading to the end.
The Headline: Convey the general message in as many words as will fit (usually quite a small
space). A headline should be informational, and can be clever, as long as the cleverness does not
interfere with the information or earn groans from readers.
The Lead: The lead, or the first sentence of the story, is arguably the most important part
of the article. Based on the content of that first sentence, a reader will either look deeper
into the story, or move on to the next one.
Therefore, how you craft your lead is very important. There are some basic rules one can
follow:
• The who, what, when, where, how, why lead.
• Basically, just like it sounds. This lead tries to answer the 5 w's and one h in one
sentence.
A 15-minute operation involving a forklift, 20 firefighters, seven police officers and
one scared pig ended a two-hour traffic delay on Interstate 94 Sunday morning.
• Experimental leads. If you answer the "5 w's and one h" on the second or third
sentences, you can be more creative with the first. The results can flounder and die,
or have a great impact. Some examples for the pig story:
o Tailgate the pig lay snoring in the middle of Interstate
94, oblivious to the fire trucks and squad cars that had
gathered around him.
o Geoffrey Saint never could have imagined what he'd meet in
the middle of Interstate 94 during his drive to church
Sunday morning.Journalism Example
Feature Story vs. News Story
Hard news stories move briskly through the five W's and the H, packing in just enough
detail to give readers a clear picture of the news. Immediacy is everything in hard news.
In features, the immediacy of the event is secondary. It's replaced by reader
interest. Bare facts are surrounded by elaboration, interpretation, mood, context,
detailed description, emotion, irony and humor.
The goal of a feature story is to communicate the truth -- not fiction -- in a
different way than a hard news story.
Writing Process
Story Ideas
Feature story ideas come from everywhere -- from your editor, personal observation,
conversations overheard in the dining facility, etc.
Once you have a story idea, decide exactly what focus you want to emphasize.
Your focus is the angle you want for the story.
Remember your audience -- who you're writing for when writing features.
Collecting the Information
Always do background research for your story, if possible. You must have a clear idea of
your subject before you set the interview.
Plan your questions Always collect more information than you need. It's better
than not enough. Capture the emotion. People want to know how your subject
feels about why he/she does something. Use all your senses. See, hear, smell,
touch, taste. Make notes of how people move, dress, speak, etc. Observe. Train
yourself to notice everything.
Write the story
• Use descriptive verbs and nouns instead of adverbs and adjectives.
• Use only the best quotes. The quotes must SAY or SHOW something.
• Be specific in description. Create a detailed picture the reader can SEE.
Revise and rewrite
Write the story, then polish it. Test your story by asking "What is this story about?" Your
lead and focus transition should answer that question.
Feature Writing Techniques
Figurative language helps recreate scenes or sensations. It's how a writer shows vs. tells
the story. Devices include:
• Metaphor -- An implied comparison between two unlike things. (EXAMPLE: To
the soldiers in his unit, Jacobs walks on water."
• Simile -- A stated comparison between two unlike things. (EXAMPLE: The
borders in Israel shift almost as often as the sands in the Judean Hills.)
• Personification-- Giving life-like characteristics to something lifeless.
• Hyperbole -- Emphasizing something by deliberately overstating or understating
it.
• Good feature stories contain anecdotes, description, attributive verbs and direct
quotes.
Journalism: Feature News vs. Hard News Writing with Dale Rice [Audio]
Also check out these podcasts with Dale Rice…
Episode 28 – Journalism as a Career, an Interview with Dale Rice
Episode 34 – Dale Rice on News Writing
Episode 35 – Dale Rice, Writing on Deadline
November 2009
MEGHAN: Howdy and Welcome back to “Write Right,” Today we are talking with Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies here at Texas A&M, about the difference in hard news and feature news writing.
What is feature writing and how is it different from hard news?
DALE RICE: Well in general I’d say in journalism you can basically say that true stories fall into two categories. They fall into the hard news category, or they fall into the feature category. The hard news are those stories that are covering the events that are taking place out there. Feature stories are much more either playing off that or are fun, amusing, or life revealing kinds of stories. Good examples of feature kinds of writing: music, the arts, movies, food, entertainment of all kinds, fashion. These are all things that people have a great deal of interest in but may not be the most pressing issues of the day. And so you turn around and look for ways to write stories about those things that are interesting, fun, engaging.
MEGHAN: Okay, well when you write a feature story don’t you go about it in a much different way?
DALE RICE: Of course both stories are going to have all of the basic facts. There’s no doubt about that. But the basic news story, you’re going to concentrate on getting those essential facts high in the story and being very direct with people and getting to the point quickly and clearly. In the feature story, you have an opportunity to have far more varied writing styles. And it’s not just that you can play with one particular style but there’s dozens of writing styles that you can use in feature writing, and it gives you a chance to, I think, have more of an individual voice as a writer. It gives you the opportunity to play with language much more. And, one other aspect of feature writing is that the vast majority of features are not written on a daily deadline. You have more time, not only to work on the language but to work on the story form as well and to look at the way in which you’re constructing a story, and where in the story do you want to reveal the key components? Do you want to save things for mid-way through or even important details for the end? You have that kind of opportunity in story construction to say ‘ah, I might not want to reveal all, I might want to keep this almost like a mystery and reveal the most important thing right at the end.’
MEGHAN: Now, an intro for a feature story can be much different than a hard news story?
DALE RICE: Yeah for the feature stories, you can get a lot more into anecdotal writing and descriptive writing and spend a lot more time setting the scene than you would do in a hard news story. So that’s a bit of the reason that you have so many different approaches that you can take in a feature story. You can really hone in on somebody’s appearance, somebody’s personality, the kinds of things that really wouldn’t come to play in a news story, right? I mean really how the person looks, or how the person acts, or what they’re personal situation is, seldom contributes to what’s happening in the news story, unless of course they’re a serial killer that’s caught and then you’d go after all of that sort of thing, or a victim. But, for the most part when you have people who are involved in government, for example, discussing the big issues of the day, what they’re wearing to the press conference is just not important. But in a feature story that whole appearance thing might in fact be the first three or four paragraphs of your story as you try and give every little detail about how somebody is appearing and acting during, for example, a news conference. So if you were writing a feature story about the same event you would take a very very different approach to it.
MEGHAN: In hard news you are expected to grab the reader with a captivating lead and deliver the facts as quickly and clearly as possible. In a feature story you get the opportunity to use description and detail to entice your reader. Your interviews can be more in-depth and can focus on how people feel about an issue rather than just what happened. In Dale Rice’s Media Writing I and II students get the opportunity to practice writing both feature and hard news stories. In our next episode, Dale Rice will discuss ways to approach sensitive or difficult interviews. Thanks for listening to this episode or “Write Right,” we’ll see you next time.
Hard News Vs. Feature Stories
Hard news articles are written so the reader can stop reading at any time, and still come away
with the whole story. This is very different from an essay, which presumes that the audience will
stick around to the end, and can therefore build to a finish. There is no need to put a
"conclusion" on a news story. Each individual reader will "end" the story whenever he or she
gets bored. A particularly interested reader will keep reading to the end.
The Headline: Convey the general message in as many words as will fit (usually quite a small
space). A headline should be informational, and can be clever, as long as the cleverness does not
interfere with the information or earn groans from readers.
The Lead: The lead, or the first sentence of the story, is arguably the most important part
of the article. Based on the content of that first sentence, a reader will either look deeper
into the story, or move on to the next one.
Therefore, how you craft your lead is very important. There are some basic rules one can
follow:
• The who, what, when, where, how, why lead.
• Basically, just like it sounds. This lead tries to answer the 5 w's and one h in one
sentence.
A 15-minute operation involving a forklift, 20 firefighters, seven police officers and
one scared pig ended a two-hour traffic delay on Interstate 94 Sunday morning.
• Experimental leads. If you answer the "5 w's and one h" on the second or third
sentences, you can be more creative with the first. The results can flounder and die,
or have a great impact. Some examples for the pig story:
o Tailgate the pig lay snoring in the middle of Interstate
94, oblivious to the fire trucks and squad cars that had
gathered around him.
o Geoffrey Saint never could have imagined what he'd meet in
the middle of Interstate 94 during his drive to church
Sunday morning.Journalism Example