Feature writing

Dr. Stephen ByersMarquette University

We start with a blank page

Everyone starts at the same place – with

nothing

A feature story is two things

1) A story, with all that entails

2) For a specific audience

The audience

Who will be reading your story?

The idea

What’s your story about?

Think about what you want

your story to say

In the beginning . . .

Write your article’s beginning as soon as you can.

This gives you a guide to the rest of the article, and gives you a touchstone for the remainder of your writing. See if when you get an idea you have enough to write a beginning.

How will you approach the story?

Plan, plan, plan

Issue Story

Issue Story

Next is research

Interviewing, studying, reading

Research means

• Using the Internet• Publications• Asking people• Walking around• Thinking

The basics

• Who• What• When• Where • Why• How

When do you know that you’ve got enough

research?

Points to think about

• Purpose of story• Narrator’s point of view• Dramatic question (or questions)• Choice of content• Clarity of Voice• Pacing• Soundtrack• Quality of images• Grammar and language

Points to keep in mind

• How is multimedia different from your written effort?

• How do you make it worth watching or clicking on?

• Are there different approaches you could use?

• Are you being fair to everyone – the characters, the audience, the story?

What type of story?• Personal? • Impersonal?

POV defines central premise of story

• It defines how YOU want a story to be told

First person works in video

Viewers identify with the narrator

Not always for printThe choice of narrator makes a

difference in the story we’re telling

But sometimes it obscures emotion

Show, don’t tell

Be able to describe your story in a single sentence

Describe your story in a sentence

Story arc

Story arc

Build in tension to hold your viewers

andreaders

Will they get

together?

Simple to show emotion

Not so simple

Be sensitive to everyone

• Our emotions• The audience’s emotions• Most important, the

subject’s emotions