{"id":80,"date":"2023-12-06T22:55:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T22:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/introtojournalism\/chapter\/chapter-10-feature-stories\/"},"modified":"2024-09-30T15:05:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T15:05:50","slug":"chapter-10-feature-stories","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/introtojournalism\/chapter\/chapter-10-feature-stories\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 10: Feature Stories\u00a0","rendered":"Chapter 10: Feature Stories\u00a0"},"content":{"raw":"
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Feature Writing<\/span><\/h2>\n[caption id=\"attachment_75\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"]\"Two Feature stories are often chocolate stories that are fun to read and to write.[\/caption]\n\nFilmmaker Andrew Stanton (\"Toy Story,\" \"WALL-E\") gave a <\/span>TED Talk in 2011<\/a> about storytelling. He told the audience: \u201cStorytelling is joke telling. It\u2019s knowing your punchline. Your ending. Knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nStorytelling is a crucial tool used in feature stories. Feature stories<\/strong> are news stories with a storytelling focus. They are still full of verified facts and information, but they often include more narrative and anecdotes and human elements. They are still objective and written in the third person.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nLike news stories, feature stories need to tell the reader something new. Stanton summed it up nicely in his TED Talk:\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\u201cMake me care. Emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically. In the beginning, make a promise to your audience that this story will lead somewhere that\u2019s worth their time.\u201d\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nFeature stories are your chocolate news. They are written in the same manner as news stories with leads, nut grafs and fact-based endings. But they are often more fun to consume. They are more likely to have alternative leads, but the newsworthiness is always paramount.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nFeature stories allow for more narrative writing and descriptions, but good feature writers know that their readers might still leave if the story drags. In feature stories, like with news stories, you need to be stingy with your words, sentences and paragraphs. Every word should enhance the story to keep readers engaged.\n\n<\/div>\n
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Feature Characteristics<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nWriting expert Roy Peter Clark delves into <\/span>feature stories<\/a> in a 2004 article for Poynter.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\u201cReaders like stories, even news stories, written in 'feature style,' \" Clark writes. \u201cAnd since the invention of the human-interest story, the feature has had the beneficial effect of expanding the universe of newspaper readers while enriching our definition of news.\u201d\n\nClark goes on to list possible characteristics of a feature story:\n