Writing a Feature Story...Show Me, Don't just Tell

1. WRITING A FEATURE
STORY
Show me…don’t just tell me
(Ideas from Bobby Hawthorne)
MA. JOAN L. HEMBRA
MT-1/San Sebastian NHS

2. What’s
interesting?
What’s new?
What’s trendy?

3. What is a feature story?
A story not based on “breaking
news.”
Interest to the reader lies in some factor other
than the news value.
 A profile of the school principal.
 A story about the history of the school building is a
feature.
 A story about a fire in the school kitchen is not a feature
but a news story.

4. Characteristics of a Feature
Story
 Meant to entertain
 Is of “human interest”
 Style
 Humor
 Unique of unusual
Reveals something new about people,
things, and events. OR, it revives
memory.

5. 5 Types of Feature Stories
 Experience or Adventure Stories
 Personalities
 Backgrounders
 How to Articles
 Interviews

6. Experience/Adventure Stories
 Tells a story
 First person point of view
 May be a shared experience
If you attend a
conference or
science camp,
share your story.

7. Personalities
 Character Sketch
 Usually Short
 Emphasis on Person

8. Backgrounders
Explain history or background of…
 An event
 A building or place
 An organization

9. How to articles
 “How to do”
 “What to do”
 Describe a process
 Accompany with pictures

11. Interview Stories
 Know your subject, do research
 Introduce yourself
 Prepare questions before the interview
 Take many notes

12. LET’S
REVIE
W

13. Question 1
 A feature story must always be timely.
 True or False?

14. Question 1
 A feature story must always be timely.
 False

15. Question 2
 What are the five types of feature
stories?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

16. Question 2
1. Experience or Adventure Stories
2. Personalities
3. Backgrounders
4. How to Articles
5. Interviews

17. Question 3
 What is the purpose of the feature
story? How is the feature story different
from a regular news story?

18. Question 3
 It entertains!!!!
 Unlike a news story, its purpose is to
serve human interest and entertain the
reader.

19. How to Write the
Story

20. The lead
 When you start your story, you should
transport your reader to that place and
time
 The strength lies in the ability to bring
details in
 Appeal to a sense…or two…or more

21. Appeal to the Senses
 Good description will appeal to the
senses and to emotions
 Doing so will generate empathy
between the reader and the subject
 Sight, sound, touch, taste, smell

22. Choose wisely
 Description can make a point
 Description can also overwhelm, so
make sure you choose the details that
are necessary
 Do not over describe.

23. Consider this:
 The story deals with romantic
obsession. Here is the beginning:
 “She thought he was going to kill her.
He had been angry before, even
punched his hand through a window
once, but he had never threatened her,
never scared her like this.

24. Continued…
 Now he was out of control. He pushed
her into a corner and then shoved her
back down when she tried to escape.
“All I could think was ‘I have to get out
of here.’ I just started crying.”
 That was a month ago. Today, Julie has
ended her relationship with Jim, but he
didn’t give up without a fight.

25. Continued
 “He’d circle my house, leave me little
note, stare at me in class,” Julie said.
“He kind of lost it.”
 Other high school students have similar
stories. Obsessive love is all too real for
many teenagers…

26. The difference
 The detail carries the story along
 The single focus helps give readers an
entry point
 After the specific example, the writer is
able to bring in other people, stats, facts

27. How would you have started?
 A definition of obsession?
 Generalization: “Many students have
been…”?
 Putting in too many dark details?

28. Strip your stories down
 Create a single theme
 Write a single sentence about your story
when you start
 Rebuild those subjects then with that
one sentence in mind
 Find a local angle/connection

29. FEATURE
WRITING
SAMPLES

30. Feature Lead Strategies
Functions of the Feature Lead:
1. To attract or draw the reader into the feature
story
2. To set the tone for the feature story so the
reader may know what to expect ahead.

31. Summary lead
Since its discovery in 1979, AIDS (Acquired Immunity
Deficiency syndrome) has become one of the fastest
killers of the 20th Century. Like ancient leprosy, AIDS
appears to be the most dreaded ailment of our time.

32. Narrative lead
I met Mother Teresa of the Missionaries of Charities
(MC) for the first time when Lola came to Manila to
give her blessings to my aunt, Evelyn Yap, who was
joining the congregation. Lola and I were introduced by
my aunt to her. Mother Teresa had that presence and
charisma which awed Lola and me. Though I had
managed to kiss her hand in respect and to mutter,
“How are you, Mother?”, I was fidgeting in my place
because of the way she looked at me. Her eyes seemed
to penetrate my whole being as if she could see my soul.
Life Among the Poorest of the Poor
by Gilbert Y. Tan
MOD Magazine
November 24, 1978 issue

33. Descriptive lead
You can describe a lady Dolefilite in many ways. She
can be the lady in casual t-shirt and slacks, white cap
and rubber shoes, neatly tucked hair and a pineapply-
sweet smile. She can be the suntanned lady in
ridiculously-funny goggles, wearing three sets of
blouses and pants and in her hand, a sun-ripened
pineapple fruit. She can be one whose face is slightly
brushed with rouge, wearing RTW coordinates, and a
master of the keyboard. Yes, she can be any lady
employed here in Dolefil.
Woman Power in Dolefil
by Gilbert Y. Tan
Dolefil Tambuli
3rd Quarter 1978 issue

34. Oh, Lord, help me this day to keep my big mouth shut.
Inday Badiday (a.k.a. Ate Luds) doesn’t remember now
who gave her the tableau containing that little prayer
(“Ewan ko kung kaaway o kaibigan ko’) but that’s beside the
point. The tableau stands on her headboard and it’s the first
thing Inday sees when she wakes up every morning. Sa
totoo lang, Inday has been trying, during the past many
years, to observe that prayer – to no avail.
The Intriguing World of Inday Badiday
by Ricky Lo
Star Studded
Epigram lead

35. Question lead
Saan ka ba takot? Takot ka ba sa dilim? Sa
masisikip na lugar? Sa daga? Sa Ipis? Saan ka ba
takot?
Do you spend a good deal of time fretting about your
looks, wishing you could swap faces with some very
handsome person you admire? If you do, stop pitying
yourself – and start pitying the handsome people you
envy. They are the ones who are apt to to be hurt in
life by their looks. Be Glad You’re not Beautiful
by James F. Bender
Reader’s Digest Bedside Reader

36. Direct Address lead
Sa buhay mo, marami ka ng naranasan. Mga
karanasan na ginusto mo o hindi ginusto. Sa mga
karanasang ito, natanong mo ang iyong sarili kung ang
Panginoon ba ay natutulog o hindi.

37. Pedaling home. Angry. Feelings hurt. A car coming next to
him, moving slowly, keeping pace with him. A woman in
the front passenger seat rolling down her window, asking
for directions. Telling her. The woman not seeming to
listen. The car stopping. Braking his bike. The woman
jumping out of the car, grabbing him. The man unlocking
the trunk, throwing him in. The trunk lid banging shut.
Darkness. Screaming. Pounding. Not enough air. Passing
out.
Long Lost (Novel)
David Morrell
Staccato/Suspense lead

38. October 23, 1993. Early dawn. New Diamond Lodge,
Davao City.
Combination Leads
Thirty two students lay asleep. Tired from a six-day
field trip to key cities in Northern Mindanao. Perhaps
dreaming of going home for a week’s vacation before a
new semester begins. Then suddenly . . .
FLAMES! Spreading across the newly-painted ceiling
and walls. The sleepers felt the heat, some started to
choke. Others awoke to open the hot locks on the doors
and found the hallway clouded by heavy smoke.
Creeping on the waxed wooden floor that started to
sizzle, they groped their way to a locked main gate.

39. MOTIFS
Once upon a time there was a little girl who seemed to have
been born under a very unlucky star. She was born small and
weak, a sickly baby. Again and again she would shake with
convulsions and fix her eyes in a dying stare. One night, soon
after she was born, she fell so ill, burning with fevers and shaky
with chills, that her mother rushed her to church and had her
baptized in a hurry, late in the night.
“My baby won’t live,” cried the poor mother.
The baby was christened Nora.
Golden Guy
by Quijano de Manila (Nick Joaquin)
Nora Aunor and Other Profiles

40. Endings
Then somebody tapped my shoulder. It was the mother
the child. She was so thankful and grateful to me. She
said I was a great help to her. What she never knew was
that it was she, her baby, them the poor – who had given
me help. They brought light to my eyes which were
partially blinded by the vanities of life. They had
deflated the balloon that carried me high up where only
illusions existed, thus brought me back to reality. I
whispered a prayer of gratitude to God for giving me
such a wonderful experience.
Life Among the Poorest of the Poor
by Gilbert Y. Tan
MOD Magazine
November 24, 1978 issue

41. Let’s try it out
Find an angle for the following subjects:
 Student Council has had a busy year
 She was a popular and excellent teacher
 Computers made a big difference in school
this year
 Students are obsessed with social media
 Spelling problems caused by social media

42. Now let’s talk writing
 Write the way you think
 Go to the Thesaurus when you get
stuck and know there is a better word
out there
 Write to communicate
 Tell a story
 Don’t leave out necessary elements

43. Your Task
 You will be writing for the next 20
minutes (no stopping) on one of the
topics provided.
 You need to have a specific angle
 You need to write it like a journalism
article
 Do not edit as you go…simply focus on
telling the story