[MUSIC] Feature stories are also called soft news and they're also called human interest stories. That's because people are interested in the other people or the things that are happening within those stories. Feature stories are everywhere you look. Feature stories are not dependent on being timely. They cover any subject that is interesting to readers. They are factual, not creative or fiction. And they include research, such as observation, documents, interviews. And they are carefully planned at the beginning, in the middle, called the body and also at the end. Feature stories are written in lively prose or they may include plot, scene settings, characterizations, almost anything you might want to use in the narrative. Feature stories can be about almost anything. That can be hobbies, personalities, anniversaries of events, historical events, how-to's, vacations, businesses, adventure, anything. So how do you start out a feature story? How do you write the lead? Well, about the only requirement for a feature story lead is that it is interesting to readers and makes them want to continue reading and reading and reading. So leads may be a question. They may be a quote. They may be something startling. They may be surprising. It may be a flashback. It can be anything that just grabs your readers attention and pulls them into the story. So here are two lead examples. So the first one, who says men can't cook!. So, this may be the beginning of the lead, the first sentence to the story, about a hometown boy who is now grown into a man, who is an award-winning chef of an international restaurant. So with this lead it is short. It is exclamatory. But it is also asking a question. And it's a surprise. Okay here's another example. Tony was so scared that he ran as hard as he could and never stopped to breathe until he was safe inside his home with the doors locked and the curtains drawn. This story goes on to talk about thugs that terrorized a neighborhood and how the residents were able to get rid of them. But the the writer, the journalist, is drawing audience members in to give you a point of view from one person who experienced this neighborhood and how they often felt. Now, as we get into the body of a feature story, we try and figure out, how are we going to relate the lead to the point of our story. Similar to the lead, the way in which the body of the story is written has no hard and fast rules. Journalists use description, they use detail, observation, chronology, flashbacks, and other types of narrative prose. For example, details may include Tony's hand would often slip on the doorknob because his hand was so sweaty. Or it might be observationist, the way in which his hair looked, or his clothes, or how he couldn't breathe because he had been running so fast. It may have to do with a car that Tony's looking at, and the color of it and the make of it, and who all is in it. Those things add up to a lot of detail. So journalists also use the best quotes and dialogue and sometimes these quotes and dialogues show temperament, personality, and character. Feature stories are very well-planned to achieve the goal of informing, educating or entertaining a reader without digressing from the focus of the story. So with every sentence that is used, a journalist has to say, how does this contribute to the point of my story? How does a journalist write the ending of a feature story? Well, it's the same answer as what was given for how to write a lead, and the body. The last paragraph, or sentence of a feature story, is whatever helps it to achieve a satisfying ending. Oftentimes journalists are wanting to summarize the story all over again. But don't, the reader has just read it. Sometimes the writer is trying hard to finish the story when actually the ending has already been written. Sometimes just stop writing instead of belaboring the point. Here are some examples of how to end a feature story. Remember the earlier example about the chef? So here's a way that perhaps it can end. It's all thanks to my mother, he said. She was my role model. She worked hard and she always made meals fun, no matter how little we had. Think about the second feature story lead example. That one had to do with a neighborhood that was experiencing break-ins and robberies. Here's an example of how that story could end. Friday marks the one-year anniversary that residents, such as Tony, took back their neighborhood. No break-ins, robberies, or assaults. One year and counting. And the journalist ends there. Sometimes, it is hard for people to create feature story ideas. So you might consider taking a walk and coming up with ten ideas about things you see. You might also review the earlier module on news elements to think about the types of stories that would attract readers, such as do these stories have magnitude, proximity, or prominence. [MUSIC]
