FEATURE The secret of being boring is to tell everything. - Voltaire.

FEATURE

The secret of being boring is to tell everything.

- Voltaire

The World of Features

Definition of a feature story…

Quotables…

“Who the hell really understands what a feature is? I’ve worked for over a decade as a feature editor, and I’m not sure I could define the word ‘feature’ for a freshman journalism class. You can nail down a news or sports or business story—but grabbing the essence of a feature is like wrestling a squid; It’ll soon depart in a cloud of ink. Good editors just know. Don’t ask me how. They just do.”

-Richard Cheverton,The OC Register

Quotables…

“Features is the news below the surface; features is the shadow truths we don’t always recognize, but that effect us all the same; features is the mysterious world on the other side of the mountain and all the amazing people and places and things that we need to know about, even if we don’t know it yet.”

-Abraham Aamidor,reporter, author, journalism professor

Quotables…

“The feature writer’s aim is the dramatist’s aim: make ‘em laugh; make ‘em weep.”

-Maryy J.J. Rimm,

The Elements of Journalism

Quotables…

“The news writer tells you the bridge fell in and how many cars fell off. The feature writer tells you what it was like to have been there: ‘When Joe Smith began to walk across the bridge, it began to tremble, and he grabbed the railing’—that sort of detail.”

-Jules Loh,

AP feature writer

Quotables…

“This, I think, is the very essessence of feature writing. You have to be passionately interested in everything. You have to want to learn about frogs or cancer or assassins, everything there is to know. You have to know five times as much as you’re every going to use in the story. The only really essential quality of a writer is crazed curiosity.”

-Cynthia Gorney,The Washington Post

Quotables…

“It is hard news that catches the readers. Features hold them.”

-Lord Northcliffe,

British newspaper tycoon

Diversity of Topics

Lifestyles Health Science and technology Entertainment Food Homes and gardens

The Top 10 Popular Types of Feature Stories

10. Personal Narrative


9. Consumer Guide


8. How-To


7. Flash-back


6. Reaction Piece


5. Trend


4. Backgrounder


3. Color


2. Human Interest


1. Personality Profile

FEATURE The secret of being boring is to tell everything. - Voltaire.

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