• Personalizing the news with stories that educate and entertain. Feature stories often focus on issues that are less timely and more personal: trends, relationships, entertainment.
• They include topics, treatments, styles and structures you won't find in standard news stories.
• Hard news vs. soft news: What do these terms mean?

• Lifestyles
• Health
• Science and technology
• Entertainment
• Food
• Homes and gardens

• Personality profile
• Human-interest story
• Color story
• Backgrounder
• Trend story
• Reaction piece
• Flashback
• How-to
• Consumer guide
• Personal narrative

GENERATING STORY IDEAS

There are great stories everywhere, just waiting to be discovered. The four best angles: How to save time....How to save money....How to be loved....How to make money.

Where to Find Those Great (But Elusive) Story Ideas

• Start compiling a list: Look for ideas everywhere; then jot them down.
• Organize your ideas by topic (people, places, trends) or by treatment (profiles, photo stories, how-to guides).
• The best places to look for ideas:
  • your publication's archives
  • your competitors
  • TV, magazines, newspapers, Web sites
  • news releases
  • reader suggestions
  • brainstorming

• Eight ways to assess a story idea before you try selling it to an editor.

• See if it's been done.
• Focus your angle.
• Talk to your editor.
• Do your research.
• Plan the package.
• Write the story.

• Some stories require a livelier, looser, more literary voice.
• "The New Journalism" pioneered by Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese in the 1960s. Reporters began borrowing literary techniques from novelists.
• Today, feature writers still rely on literary techniques you won't find in standard news stories.

• Helpful tips for successful feature writing
• Using syntax and phrasing
• Using voice and tense
• Using detail and description
• Using other dramatic techniques

FEATURE STORY STRUCTURES

• Using traditional text to convey information.
• The inverted pyramid is rarely used in feature stories. While it's an efficient way to organize facts in a news story, it is NOT an engaging way to organize ideas in a feature.

• Using colorful, creative layouts that are easy to produce and appeal to readers' short attention spans.
• Suggestions for using a more visual approach.

• Profiles are more than a who-what-when-where-why rehash of facts.
• A good profile:
  • reveals feelings;
  • exposes attitudes;
  • captures habits and mannerisms; and
  • entertains as well as informs.

• Solicit your subject's support.
• Interview and observe.
• Find your focus.
• Follow up with further interviews and research.
• Structure your story.

• Tips on working with photographers.
• Ways to paint a better portrait: capturing details, re-creating scenes, and adding quotes and dialogue.
• Checklist of questions to ask yourself when reporting and writing profiles.

• Special stories that allow reporters to reach beyond the routine.
• Most provide in-depth examination of people and issues.
• They are creative, ambitious and unique.
• They often become special sections or multi-part series.

• How do I find time for enterprise?
• Expert advice on reporting and writing enterprise stories.

• In a free society, some journalists do more than just explain—they expose.

• that the investigation be the work of the reporter, not a report of an investigation made by someone else;
• that the subject involves something of reasonable importance; and
• that others are attempting to hide these matters from the public.

• Digging up dirt: Advice for investigative reporters.

• Using teamwork and working with the editor, photographer and designer to turn stories into appealing packages.

• Alternatives to narrative text
• Condensing data for readers with short attention spans
• Short-form formats:
  • fast-fact box
  • bio box
  • checklist
  • list
  • quiz
  • step-by-step guide
  • factual index
  • diagram
  • timeline
  • quote collection

• In editorials, columns and reviews, the writer's opinions aren't just allowed, they're encouraged. They're essential.

• Editorials: where publications take a stand
• Columns: where the options are endless
• Writing commentary: Advice for columnists

• Readers need your expert guidance to find the best performances and products.
• Distinction between "critic" and "reviewer."

• Using graphic extras that make reviews more reader-friendly.
• How to write criticism that gets good reviews.