Generating Story Ideas

The following exercises are designed to help you think like a journalist, to take a news event and create multiple possible angles to accompany – or even replace – the main event coverage.

1		A. The county fair is coming to town next week. Come up with as many angles as you can corresponding to the 10 feature story types. 1. Personality profile: 2. Human-interest story: 3. Color story: 4. Backgrounder: 5. Trend story: 6. Reaction piece: 7. Flashback: 8. How-to: 9. Consumer guide: 10. Personal narrative:
2		B. On July 4, 2005, many journalists covered NASA's "Deep Impact" space probe, launched to strike a passing comet and provide an analysis of the aftermath of the collision. Come up with as many angles as you can corresponding to the 10 feature story types. 1. Personality profile: 2. Human-interest story: 3. Color story: 4. Backgrounder: 5. Trend story: 6. Reaction piece: 7. Flashback: 8. How-to: 9. Consumer guide: 10. Personal narrative:
3		C. Imagine that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has just announced his retirement. Brainstorm feature sidebars that might accompany the hard-news story on his departure. 1. Personality profile: 2. Human-interest story: 3. Color story: 4. Backgrounder: 5. Trend story: 6. Reaction piece: 7. Flashback: 8. How-to: 9. Consumer guide: 10. Personal narrative:
4		D. Take a look at today's edition of your local newspaper or your favorite news Web site. Identify the lead news story and describe it briefly. Then propose 10 angles for feature stories you could write for tomorrow's newspaper that are related to the lead news topic. (Not all the types below may apply.) 1. Personality profile: 2. Human-interest story: 3. Color story: 4. Backgrounder: 5. Trend story: 6. Reaction piece: 7. Flashback: 8. How-to: 9. Consumer guide: 10. Personal narrative:
5		E. Read "Murderer Caught in Texas 15 Years After Escape" in The Morgue section of your textbook. Imagine you are a reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader and your editor has asked you to write a feature related to the story. Come up with as many angles as you can corresponding to the 10 feature story types. (Not all may apply.) 1. Personality profile: 2. Human-interest story: 3. Color story: 4. Backgrounder: 5. Trend story: 6. Reaction piece: 7. Flashback: 8. How-to: 9. Consumer guide: 10. Personal narrative: