How to write a feature article

In the last five sessions of this non-fiction writing course weve looked at different writing styles, genre and markets for non-fiction writing. I hope by now that you have got an idea of what you would like to write about and started researching it. Whether its a travel article, an autobiographical piece or a general feature article for the magazine of your choice, you should be ready to write something up. Successful on-fiction Writing by icholas !order has an e"cellent chapter on writing-up and you may like to refer to it after youve read this post. So it will come as no surprise to you that this week we are looking at how to write a feature article for a magazine. We have not looked at interview features in this course, but I will be doing so at a later date. #he difference between an interview feature and a specialist feature is that in the former you are $uoting someone else and writing an article about their e"perience% in the latter, you use your own opinions, e"periences and specialist knowledge.

Research
I like to compile a &cue sheet for my background research, listing relevant page numbers, paragraphs etc in other books, highlighted sections of internet articles, clippings from brochures and so on. If Ive made notes of my own thoughts and ideas I use this as a skeleton and intersperse research from other sources between my own work wherever I need to back-up or e"pand on my own ideas. 'e careful though to make it clear when you are referring to someone elses idea and not to pass it off as your own. We will be looking more at copyright and libel in a later session. (nce you have your cue sheet compiled, you should read through it a few times and make notes of potential angles, starting points and so on. )or e"ample, an article on violin making could have a historical angle, a craft angle, a music angle or a commercial angle. *ou may of course have already decided on your angle before doing your research, so that is the one you need to take. If not, see which angle is the most strongly suggested from the material at hand and go with it. Exercise away, do some, then come back and do this session later. 19:

+ather together all your research and compile a cue sheet. If you havent done any research yet, go

The Intro
#his is the springboard for the rest of the article. I usually start with a factual one, ,ust to get started, then make it a bit more appealing later on. )or e"ampleIn the ./th !entury the small village of *etholm on the Scottish and be the seat of the so-called +ypsy 0oyal )amily1 orthumberland border used to

#his was my working intro for my article #he 2ast of the +ypsy 0oyals. I never intended it to be the final intro, but it was enough to get me going. In it I have the &Who3 Where3 When and What3 that we discussed in the earlier session on non-fiction writing style.

Who? the +ypsy 0oyal )amily Where? *etholm on the Scottish 4 When? #he ./th !entury What? Was the seat of the so-called +ypsy 0oyal )amily #his intro establishes the angle Im going to be taking in the article- historical and regional. 5owever, as I started writing the article I realised I needed to se" it up a bit. (ne of the fascinating titbits I came across was the 'ill !linton connection. #here was also something about 5ilary 0odham, but this was more speculative. So I decided to put it in the intro as a hook, even though the article has little, if nothing to do with the former president of the 6nited States. Shameless, I know, but it served me well when I tried to re-sell the piece to the 7merican market. So I reworked the intro to readIts rumoured that 'ill !linton is one of their descendents, but the gypsies of *etholm on the Scottish and orthumberland border have more than an 7merican president to their name. We look back on the lineage of one of 'ritains less known royal families. ote, the &rumoured covers my butt in case historical purists $uestion my sources8 7nd speaking of sources 1 orthumberland border

Sources
In articles for popular magazines, unlike non-fiction books, one does not generally $uote ones sources in the article. It all depends on the publication though, and some mags that I write for do re$uire it. #he orthumbrian, the magazine I originally produced this piece for, didnt re$uire it. 'ut if it did, I could either put in a numbered footnote or in the te"t itself . (ne of my primary references for this article was a book written in .99:. I would simply have to reference- ;'rockie, William, &#he +ypsies of *etholm. .99:.< ote, this isnt the detailed annotation of an academic article. I didnt have this in the original article, but I was able to look back in my notes from four years ago and find it. What does that tell you3 =ven though you dont always have to provide references and sources in commercial magazine te"t, you need to be able to account for them if $uestioned. In fact, for legal reasons, you need to keep all notes, interviews, pictures and recordings for five and a half years after the article is published. We will be discussing this further in the session on copyright, libel and finance. Exercise 20: If you have done your research, write a working intro for your article using the Who3 Where3 When3 What3 )ormula. 0emember, the why and the how should be developed in the main body of your article.

The Main Body

>ery basically, an article has to have a beginning, middle and end. *ouve already established your beginning with the intro, now you need to develop your argument to reach a conclusion. #his assumes, of course, you know where its going to end up. I believe that you shouldnt start an article until you know where its going to finish. What do you want to say through this article3 #ake the +ypsy 0oyal piece for e"ample. 7fter all my research I was saddened to discover that this royal family became a comical parody of the 5anoverian royal family in 2ondon. It was a publicity grabbing, tourist attracting farce. It may not have started out that way, but thats where it ended up. So that was the &arc of my article. 5ow the royals came into being, a few glory years, then their sad demise into obscurity. #hat was actually the middle and end of the article, what became the beginning was the background to the gypsies in the region. So the start of my article focused on the royals then backtracked through a bit of their history, then by mid-way came back to the royals again, then moved towards its conclusion which was how the family slipped into a historical no-mans land. #his is classic three act structure, borrowed from fiction and dramatic writing. #hus my outline for the +ypsy article was-

Intro- !linton connection )ocus on ?irk 4 #own *etholm =stablish gypsies in area @evelop !linton connection Aemmy 7llen Ba well-known historical personalilty that many people will have heard ofC +o further back in gypsy history to establish roots in region, background of persecution D brigandery 0oots of royal connection Where did gypsies come from3 'ring back to royals- Eueen =sther >ictorian tourist attraction @emise of royals 7ttempted revival under !harles )ade into obscurity !onclusion- bring back to the pub

Bringing it to a close
(f course the order of the article changed a few times, but this is what I finally settled on. comfortable way to bring unity to an article. Exercise sketch how you might get there with the material available to you. 21: ote also that the conclusion brings the article full circle to the photos in the pub. #his is not essential, but its a

0eview your research, establish your intro, decide where youre going to end up, then, in bullet form,

Feature article layout

Cover page: this is best done once the article is written. In the middle of the page include name of article, your name, word count, the phrase- &)irst 'ritish Serial 0ights (nly Bor orth 7merican, 7ustralian etcC with the date of submission below it. #his establishes your copyright from that date. 7t the bottom left repeat your name, address, telephone number and email. We will be looking at Serial 0ights in a later session.

Heading / title: take your cue from others in your targetted magazine. 0emember this is ,ust a suggestion and might be changed by the editor. Slug: a one word label, this will be your file name, picture name etc. eg +*FS*. Set up your header 4 footer with &slug plus your name eg +*FS*, )iona >eitch Smith and page numbering. Blur : If your targetted magazine uses blurbs, you may write one G the editor may change it though. =g- Fiona Veitch Smith discovers a most unusual royal line . #his should be separate from your intro% I usually put mine in bold. If the magazine doesnt use them, dont write one.

Spacing: present your document as double or ..: spacing on one side of 7H. 6se simple font7rial, #imes 0oman or !ourier .I pt. @o not put your te"t in columns or in any way try to mimic the layout of a magazine page.

!aragraphing: this can either be with indents Bstandard fiction presentationC or with double spaces between paragraphs. Faragraphs should be kept short- ma" JK words Btwo to three sentencesC. Sometimes one sentence can be a paragraph.

Word count: of main body only.

ote this at the end of the document and on the cover page.

*our word count will be determined by the magazine re$uirements G either in contributors guidelines or agreed between you and the editor. *ou should also include a word count for each of your sidebars G but not on the cover page.

Captions: Include in the same document as your article. Lake sure they have the same &slug as your article, eg +*FS* .% +*FS* I etc., as the layout sub-editor needs to match the pictures to the &copy Byour te"tC. 7 caption should be no longer than two short sentences and should describe who is in the picture, what they are doing, and, if possible, tie in to a point you have made in the article. Lake sure you give the full name of everyone in the picture Bunless a huge crowdC. If you dont have them, use another picture. Submit pictures as separate files as an email attachment Bwith same slugC

G MKK dpi ,pg, or as ,pgs or bmps, tifs or gifs on a disc if sending in hard copy. *ou can also submit a draft paper printout of each pic for reference. 5and write the slug on each page.

Side ars: )actual info that doesnt fit in with the flow of your article can be added in a &sidebar. 'e prepared that the editor may cut these for space, or use them for padding. #hese are most fre$uently used in travel writing.

"#$E % Some people write this at the bottom of every page. I only do this if submitting hard copy. =lectronic copy can throw out formatting so &more 1 might appear halfway down a page. )or this reason I dont use L(0= when sending via email, but many writers still do. If you have a word processing programme that can place it as a footer, then do so.

come.

E&'S Write this at the end of your document so the editor knows there isnt any more to Exercise something down on paper. 0emember, this is a first draft and can be changed. 22:

*ou should now be ready to write the first draft of your article G do so. @ont be scared to get

Critiquing service
If you have written an article and are considering sending it off to a magazine, dont forget that I offer a criti$uing service. #here is a charge for this, but bearing in mind that itll likely improve your chances of publication, it may be worth your while. In the next session well look at writing a proposal for your book or magazine article and how to approach editors.