F EATURE W RITING IDEAS

F EATURE WRITING IDEAS You should always have at least one or two stories ‘bubbling’ away in the background. If you say you have no ideas it is probably because you do not read widely enough, talk to enough people, or have enough interests! One way out : pick broad subjects that appear to touch the lives of many readers and which your newspaper cover sporadically, eg, religion/family relationships etc

F EATURE WRITING IDEAS Observe people and places around you Talk to people and listen to their conversations Examine local and national concerns Consider an issue from different points of view Divide broader topics into their component parts Pay attention to new projects in your local area Read the personal and classified ads Follow interesting Twitter conversations, is what is trending worthy of a good feature?

F EATURE WRITING IDEAS So these will include issues related to: Food Shelter Love Friendship Ambition Money Possessions And how to obtain all of these sorts of things!

F EATURE WRITING IDEAS A good idea that leads to a good story needs to be discussed, thought through and planned. As a reporter you need to know and understand what elements of the idea will be topical and be of interest and value to your readers at this particular point in time.

F EATURE WRITING SEASONAL FEATURE IDEAS These are a really good way to come up with ideas. What ideas can you come up with for feature ideas based on an anniversary of: 20 years ago years ago – years ago

F EATURE WRITING TURNING YOUR IDEAS INTO FEATURES …or more specifically, features that people want to read. You should be able to answer the following : What’s the story? What do I want the readers to take away from this feature? What’s the point I want to make?

F EATURE WRITING Ask yourself this: “I’m writing a feature on …[insert feature idea]…for …[insert publication] whose readers are…[insert a general description] and what I want them to take away is …[insert what this is].” This should help to establish the approach you take and how relevant it is. We will use this frequently to help us get started on features.

F EATURE WRITING Being clear on what the focus of the piece is going to be will greatly aid the research and the writing of it. Ideas are crucial - they are the lifeblood of a good features desk - but they need to be honed, they need to be credible, newsworthy pieces. YOU need to be clear on what you need to write - often the features editor will just have a vague idea of what they want.

F EATURE WRITING It helps if you think through an editorial brief’s demands: Deadline & length Angle/approach you will take, the tone (is it campaigning/entertaining/informative), What you plan to include - the scope/limits Questions you need answered Questions the editor wants answered Where to go for research When you have established these you can begin to work on the piece.

F EATURE WRITING TASK 1 Write a 600-word feature piece based around a visit you will make to a tourist attraction in the west of Scotland. The piece should include interviews. Deadline: Thursday October 8, 2015 at 4.30pm (there will be some time to work on this in class on Thursday October 2, 2015)

F EATURE WRITING TASK 2 “I’m writing a feature on …[insert feature idea]…for …[insert publication] whose readers are…[insert a general description] and what I want them to take away is …[insert what this is].” Complete this for next week’s class and we will discuss in class.