6. Writing Features

Feature writing generally pays better than news and provides greater opportunities for creative expression. You can pick your subject matter, although if you write regularly for a publication you may find the editor suggests topics for you to follow up. And the deadlines tend to be more lax. In fact, you may have so much freedom with feature writing that one of the biggest problems can be to know where to start and finish your text.

To an extent, your narrative will be dictated by the type of feature you are writing. Most features fall into clearly defined categories – for example, personal profiles, investigations, industry reports and so on – whose style can be assessed by reference to a few back issues of the magazine you are writing for.

Where to start

That still, however, can leave you wondering how to kick off your feature in the absence of a strong news hook.

My first piece of advice would be to look back through your notes and see if there is anything that stands out, such as a statistic, a quote or an anecdote.

Some classic ways to start a feature are:

• Start small then go large. Use an individual example or case study as the introduction to your general subject matter. For example: ‘Fisherman Bill Bundy remembers a time when there were so many cod in the sea you could pick them out with your hands. He gave up fishing this season, affected, along with thousands of others, by a massive crash in stocks that could see the species driven to extinction . . .’
• Start large then go small. Focus on a general trend for your introduction and then back it up with examples. For example: ‘Thousands of fishermen gave up their nets this year following a massive crash in cod stocks. Bill Bundy, one of those affected, remembers when . . .’
• Start with a quote. This practice is greatly over-used and generally frowned upon by editors, and should never be used in news stories. Sometimes, however, a strong quote can provide just enough of a hook to justify its use in a feature intro. For example: “I never expect to see a cod again in my life,” says fisherman Bill Bundy . . .’
• Pose a question. This can be a good way of beginning a feature as long as you answer it. For example: ‘What is the fastest-dwindling fish in the sea? For the answer, look no further than your local chip shop . . .’

Other tips on structure

Once you have worked out how to begin your feature, your next two aims should be to make sure it flows well and that it gets a point across.

This is where some back-of-a-cigarette-packet planning can help. First of all, based on your research, work out what the conclusion of your feature will be. Then, look at all the supporting and contradictory evidence and arrange it in a logical sequence to construct a coherent argument.

Use of quotes

In general, use quotes to support the points you make in the text. For example: ‘Nobody knows if cod stocks will bounce back. “We just do not have enough data on breeding habits,” said one marine biologist . . .’