Part 1: Gathering the elements
Feature writing is designed to sustain engagement from start to finish. News articles and research papers follow a strict ordering of information, but the goal here is to both inform and entertain.
Let’s say you want to do a feature about a little-known medical condition or a new cultural trend. This seed of an idea needs a solid foundation of research to grow from. Even if your topic has been covered before, there will always be something new to say. You just need to find it.
Yet without characters to animate that central idea, all you’ve got is an abstract concept. Stories are told through people: real lives that can humanise an idea. Finding the right people to interview requires a mix of more research, networking, and a bit of luck.
Try to conduct your interviews in person (or by video). You need to gather enough information and detail so that the reader can not only picture them but relate to them.
To keep your characters from seeming one-dimensional, you need to combine basic biographical info (age, job, where they’re from) with insights into the challenges they’ve faced or the vulnerabilities they’ve struggled with. The more stories they share, the better.
Here’s a checklist of the details that will help each interviewee stand out as a distinct character: What do they look like? What are they wearing? What do they sound like? What’s it like to spend time with them? Why are we hearing from them? Why should we care?
Transcribe the interview yourself. This can be so laborious that it’s tempting to use a transcription app (or to just get someone else to do it) but it’s important to take note of any revealing nuances that won’t be apparent in pure text.
Once you’ve transcribed your interviews, it’s time to comb through the material. Use different colors to divide the highlights into three categories: must use, might use, and relevant information that you’ll incorporate in your own words (outside of quotes).
Think of the interviews as micro-stories that will fit together to tell one macro story. You’re using multiple perspectives to illuminate the overarching idea in different ways.
But most important is the narrative structure. This is what will unite everything as a cohesive whole. Next, let’s take a look at how to do exactly that...
Part 2: Putting the pieces together
Your mission is to capture the reader’s interest from the outset. Think of them as the director of your story. Whatever you describe, they should be able to see it clearly in their mind.
You might start with a question, an attention-grabbing statement, or an evocative scene. Features in The New Yorker, for example, typically start by establishing some context: the when and/or the where is evoked with just enough detail to pull us towards the why.
“On the bottom floor of the United States Capitol’s new underground visitors’ center, there is a secure room where the House Intelligence Committee maintains highly classified files.” Lawrence Wright, ‘The 28 Pages’, The New Yorker
Once you’ve piqued the reader’s interest, portion out key facts to keep pulling them in further. You don’t want to dump all the information in one go or make the same points over and over. This will only kill the narrative flow.
How would you sum up your research for a friend who’s busy and not particularly interested? By this point, you will have absorbed enough expertise to give the average person a crash course on the subject. I.e. “I’ve done the legwork so you don’t have to. Here’s what you should know.”
Use quotes wisely. They’re not just there to back up the overall idea; they must pack a punch. A great quote expresses an insight that nobody else but that person could give. It should not be a general platitude, an obvious statement, or information repeated elsewhere in the story.
Quotes should take up about one-third of a feature. Anything more or less than that can make for an unbalanced reading experience.
Whenever you introduce a new quote source, draw from the sensory details of the interview and/or the anecdotes they shared to set a new scene (as long as it’s relevant). This maintains momentum and makes the reader feel like they’re getting good value for their time investment.
Your conclusion should mark a natural ending to the story. It shouldn’t feel abrupt or cheesy.
Aim to end on a strong quote that gives the piece a feeling of finality, e.g. someone reflecting on the significance of the subject or looking ahead to what must change in the future.
Life is messy; you can’t tie everything up in a bow. But you do want to leave the reader with something to think about. Conjuring an enduring image that summarises the story’s big idea would be ideal.
Bottom line: feature writing is all about telling a story that will engage, inform, and entertain. Once you’ve gathered the ingredients – an idea, solid research, strong quotes, evocative detail – the trick is to order information in a way that just about anyone can understand (and enjoy).