The
basic structure of the feature story is divided into three parts:
the lead, the body and the conclusion.
Lead
Any
standard news or magazine-style lead maybe used to begin a feature
story. It should, however, always be written in a reamer appropriate
to the subject. Alight, humorous lead, for example, has no place at
the beginning of a serious article designed to provoke deep and
serious thought in the reader. On the other hand, a ponderous lead
is no way to begin alight or humorous piece.
A simple
summary lead was used to begin the following story:
A
six-month renovating job on a dilapidated 70-year-old house won
praise from a local real estate board for a Delaware Army National
Guard captain.
The
preceding lead is adequate as a starter, but another writer used a
question lead. The question lead is often used to good effect in
feature story writing. Leads like these, when well-phrased, send the
reader along into the body in quest of an answer to such a "way-out"
question:
Ever
hear of a "hurevac"?
It is
a hurricane hideout. The 8,000 acres that constitute the Naval
Auxiliary Air Station Meridian, Miss., are a rolling woodland, and
it would seem they would be unaffected by the hurricane season
hundreds of miles away from Florida. Such, however, is not the
case.
Note
that in feature writing, the lead often consists of more than a
single paragraph. Sometimes the lead runs for several paragraphs.
Take the following feature lead for example:
Fifteen months ago, a young
Greek Cypriot landed in New York and took a job in a Brooklyn
factory devoted to the manufacture of electrical
appliances.
When
he landed, he could speak only a few words of English and that in
a thick accent.
Today
that young man is Private Andreas Kalivakis, serving as an
electrician with the 249th Engineer Detachment, Delaware Army
National Guard. His accent is fast disappearing; his English
vocabulary is excellent and he is the owner of a new certificate
indicating he has passed all the tests required to prove he has
the equivalent of a U.S. high school diploma.
That
lead stands the test for feature story leads; it grasps the reader's
interest immediately and makes the reader want to read more. A
Marine Corps release excited the curiosity of the casual reader with
the following lead, then added a startling transition that prepared
the reader to take pleasure in completing the story:
Okinawa is far from the green
hills of the United States, but an old-fashioned American-style
still is in daily operation there alongside the radio section of
Headquarters Company, Ninth Marine Regiment, Third Marine
Division.
The
still, however, doesn't produce alcoholic beverages - it produces pure, distilled
water.
Often a
lazy journalist - relying on the belief that
soldiers and airmen are naturally interested in articles concerning
their food, pay and equipment
- will hang a dull
lead on stories about those subjects. However, professional writers
will give their best to those stories, because they know these
stories will be read by the greatest number of people and be of
service to them.
Some of the most publicized
military articles have been those highlighting exceptional mess
personnel or menus.
An
important fact to keep in mind when writing about equipment and
weapons is that the reader can soon lose interest in a dull story
about a machine or weapon. The reader is interested in the men and
women in uniform who will handle, install, maintain and operate
those inanimate and
intrinsically dull - pieces of hardware.
The
effect of the machine on the person, and the person on the machine,
must be presented in a way that emphasizes people,
and the writer must make those people into rounded characters who
become real in the reader's mind. In other words, the story must
have human interest.
The
writer of the following feature lead did just that by beginning a
story in the following way:
The
machine, a metal monstrosity, squatted in the center of the metal
floor, circled by a handful of Army engineers: a bemused young
officer, three puzzled soldiers and a knowing old chief.
"I
know what it's supposed to do," the first soldier said, "and I
know where we're supposed to bolt it down, but who's ever going to
operate a Rube Goldberg puzzle like that?"
"You
are, my friend," the old chief said, "and . . .
Body
When you
write the body of a feature story, it is important for you to avoid
monotony. You do this by varying sentence length, however, long
sentences must be clear and easy to understand.
Note the
varied sentence length in the following feature from the
Indianapolis News:
The
first - and last issues of eight
newspapers were published at Ft. Benjamin Harrison the other
day.
But
their brief life span had little relationship to the energy and
interest devoted to their publication. The papers were the last
journalism exercises for 70 servicemen and women, graduating with
a newspaper in one hand, and a diploma from the Defense Media
Institute at Ft. Harrison in the other.
From
all the armed forces, staffers in the "quill and scroll" exercise
got a glimpse into their military future. These military
journalists will go to assignments throughout the world. Many will
find jobs on more permanent newspaper staffs, using what they
learned at Ft. Harrison.
Nine
weeks ago, this basic military journalist class began. Since then
students have spent 209 classroom hours in the Basic Journalism
Department. ...
Another
point to note is the use of quoted material to carry the story
along. Skillfully conducted interviews with articulate experts will
provide the writer with quotations. Such quotations, interspersed
with expository material, help move a story along and maintain a
lively spark throughout. Explanations and readily comprehensible
revelations from authorities in a given field impart an air of
authenticity to writing, particularly in stories about technical
subjects, such as rocketry, instruments, engine improvements, jet
engine overhaul and nuclear propulsion.
However
he or she chooses to explain technical subjects, the writer should
always remember the need to translate technical terms into lay
language for the sake of the general audience. When this is not
possible, the writer must define the technical terms.
When you
write a feature on a technical subject, use the following points to
help you plan and organize the body of your material:
Make
paragraph beginnings forceful to impel the reader through the
story.
Use
technical terms sparingly, and include informal definitions as you
go along.
Dress
up difficult or dull passages with human interest
items.
Quote
authorities as necessary to make the reader feel the facts are
authentic.
Simplify facts by the use of
analogy.
Break
down statistical material into figures the reader can
comprehend.
Compare scientific concepts and
technology to objects with which the reader is
familiar.
Weave
the necessary background into the story for unity and
coherence.
For
example, assume you are describing some microtubing used in a
weapons system. If you tell the readers it is three one-thousandths
of an inch in diameter, they will have trouble visualizing it. Tell
them it compares in size to a human hair and they can visualize its
size immediately.
In
another story, you can point out that a new jet aircraft carries
more than 17,000 gallons of fuel. This is an impressive figure, but
it does not mean much to the average reader. It would be more
meaningful for you to tell the reader that the same amount of
gasoline could power his car for the next 20 years.
Whenever
possible, avoid generalizations. Use figures to backup any broad
claims you may make. Do not merely say that the average soldier uses
too much water in the field. Add force and emphasis to the statement
with understandable figures. Tell the reader the average soldier
drinks from three to four quarts of water a day: five
gallons of water daily merely to shave, brush his teeth and wash his
hands. Cleaning and food preparation in the mess hall takes an
additional five to eight gallons per soldier member. In
addition, soldiers use up to 10 gallons of water
when taking a shower. Then tell the reader why this is
important: because during the annual training period, the Army
POLEX, drop by drop, by distills every ounce that is used on
post.
READ
To
become a better writer: Read. Studying feature techniques, the
writer should not overlook the finest training material of all -
the published work of other feature writers. When you
discover a piece in
a newspaper or magazine that particularly interests you, you should
read it again and analyze the devices the author used to make the
work interesting, informative, entertaining or gripping. With a
little adaptation and practice you can make the same techniques your
own.
One
thing you will probably discover is that when a story leaves you
with a satisfying aftertaste, it is often because it was good enough
to hold your interest to the end
- and because the
ending was a piece of artistic writing in itself.
The Conclusion
The
conclusion of all good feature stories terminates the article in a
positive manner. As in the lead, the writer is limited only by the
ability in composing a conclusion.
One
device frequently used is to summarize the key points of the story.
Another way to end a story is to present a new fact, generally a
fact that highlights the importance of the subject of the article.
No matter how you do it, though, the ending should leave the reader
satisfied that the time spent reading the piece was time well-spent.
If you provided a tantalizing lead and a well-constructed body that
held the reader's interest, you owe to the story and the reader an
equally well-written conclusion.
As
mentioned earlier in this chapter, the feature lead example about
USS Norfolk intercepting the Russian missile-loaded freighter
sums up the action and puts the story in a new light by using a
different twist. Consider the following excerpt:
Eventually, on orders from
Moscow, canvas was rolled back on all eight 70-foot missiles. In
six hours, governments had been contacted, orders issued and
received, proving photographs taken, and not a shot was
fired.
Suddenly the meeting was
news - as much so as if it had been a
major naval engagement
- but not a shot was
fired. The dull patrol of USS Norfolk had been broken, and
momentarily the endless watches became meaningful. Its mission had
been accomplished.
The
next day, Norfolk returned to its station on the now
familiar patrol and observed a famous armistice on Veterans Day,
November 1962, itself the new veteran maintaining the armistice in
a new kind of war.
Not a
shot had been fired. The "war" in Cuba was still
cold.
A choice
quote from an interview often makes a good ending for a feature
story. The following example is how a Navy journalist concluded a
story about a group of circuit-riding Navy dentists and technicians
conducting a people-to-people dental program in Africa:
"We'reglad to get out with the
African people," said Nicholl (a chief dental technician). "The
fact that there's an element of danger in it is overshadowed by
the thanks of the people we're helping. We've never left a village
or hamlet without a barrage of cheering and clapping from our
patients."
The
story on the new piece of machinery ended with the following
paragraphs:
Sure,
they had hated it to begin with, that monstrous machine, but now
it was their monstrous machine. Constant association and the care
they had lavished on it had made it their baby. The ugly monster
had become an object of beauty to them, a delicate thing to be
protected.
A
passing journalist, new on board, stopped to drink in its
loveliness. He looked as though he might be going to touch her.
"Keep your cotton-pickin' hands off the baby," Quinlon snarled,
and the other two baby-tenders curled their lips at
the journalis until he shuffled away.
