WHAT IS FEATURE AND FEATURE STORY

 What is a feature?

A newspaper feature is an article which finds its impact outside or beyond the realm of the straight news story’s basic and unvarnished (with nothing added) who-what-where-when-why and how.

The justification, strength and very identity of the feature lie in its presentation of the imagination — not, however, in departing from or stretching the truth (not being completely honest), but in piercing the peculiar and particular truths that strike people’s curiosity, sympathy, scepticism, humour or amazement.

The feature story

Feature stories are ‘soft news’ — the candy. A feature assignment is often considered a writer’s reward for handling routine news well. The implication is that feature writing is easy. Actually, it makes more demands on writing ability than the straight news story, because it has no specific format.

Feature stories can be news stories. Features can be investigative. Features can be in-depth. Features can be for fun. The subject can be anything: places — a community, a farm, a business; topics — education, science, the economy, religion, philosophy; events — parades, programmes, concerts; people — well-known or unknown; animals — unusual or ordinary; objects — art or products. In other words, features can be about anything you want to write about.

Common denominators

Most features draw on some element of human interest -- drama, pathos (the power of a description to produce feelings of sadness and sympathy), empathy (the ability to understand another person’s feelings, experience), humour; something that involves the reader emotionally.

Another common denominator is that good feature stories are particularly well-written, filled with solid information and detail, sparkling and creative. The reason for such qualities is simple: You can spend more time crafting the feature because it usually isn’t as timely as a hard-news story.

Features have different kind of news value

Don’t assume that a feature story doesn’t have a news value — it’s just a different kind of news value. For instance, instead of reporting the facts of a hotel fire in which four persons died and 16 were injured, you might focus on one of the survivors and tell the story from his point of view. Or you could tell the story through the eyes of the firefighters who carried out the dead and administered first aid to the injured. You can create images and evoke emotions that you can’t with the straight fire story.

News feature

Most common is the news feature, generally developed around a timely event — something with immediacy (the quality in something that makes it seem as if it is happening now, close to you and is therefore important, urgent) and significance to the audience. The news feature can be more personal than a straight news story. Considerably more human interest is brought to the story — through direct quotes, description and perhaps emotion. At the core, though, is news. Often such features are written as sidebars to straight news stories.

Writing the feature

Structure: A feature is seldom written in the traditional inverted-pyramid pattern. The main point, always in the lead of a news story, may be withheld until the end as a climax. Or the feature may be written in a narrative fashion, much like a good joke or anecdote.

Organise carefully. First decide what the theme is. Then carefully outline the subpoints so they will support the theme. The good feature requires as much organisation as the straight news story, for the feature has to flow smoothly. News stories can be cut without severely damaging the sense, but generally all the parts of a feature story must be kept intact if it is to succeed. A good test is to cut paragraphs from the body of a feature. If the story doesn’t suffer from the cut, then the paragraphs probably aren’t necessary. In the well-planned story, every paragraph -- every sentence — should add to the total effect.

Leads: The lead must attract immediate attention and pull the reader into the story. Leads can vary in style and content. You can use description, narration, dialogue, questions, unusual statements, call to action, comparison-contrast.

Transition: No matter how good the lead is, you need a solid transition into the body of the feature. It makes the reader want to continue. And it promises some kind of reward or satisfaction. The reward can be entertainment, information or self-awareness — but has to be something of value to the reader.

Body: Sound knowledge of the subject, coupled with good writing skills, will let you take the reader through a variety of experiences. You should use the standard writing devices of crisp dialogue, documentable but vivid (of memories, a description producing very clear pictures in your mind) fact and detail, careful observation, suspense and, if appropriate, plot.

Conclusions: The conclusion should give the reader a sense of satisfaction. You need to tie the conclusion to the lead so the story has unity. Often you can do this through a short, tight summary. Occasionally, you can conclude with an anecdote or a quote that sums up the substance of the story.