• By Chris Kennelly
• Published 03/24/2008
• Article Writing

She was sixteen when she met handsome Romeo, who is ten years older than she was and a seafarer. They fell in love and became lovers. Two years later, she found out that she had AIDS in its early stage and Romeo was dying from the disease himself. Romeo died after two months. She lived to be fifty-five and even had a kid, who she also lost to the disease. She was the only one who lived to tell the tale because of a miracle cure. If this had any truth in it, this would have made a wonderful feature article because a feature story delves behind what goes on behind the news and having AIDS and still living because of a cure is news. A feature story also gets into peoples lives. It tells of the story behind their triumphs and aims to inspire those who are less fortunate. It tries to explain how a trend took on, it gives out information to people in a way that is lighter to read than the news. It makes you aware of how an event came to be and who were really responsible for it happening. There are really no restrictions when it comes to making feature articles because unlike news stories, you have no length requirement to think about. It basically is a journalists equivalent to an essay. When writing a feature, you just have to base your story on some simple guidelines. You choose a theme and start with it, then present information and insights to validate the point that you want to get across, and last, draw a conclusion that would bring your reader to a level of realization that is most imperative at the end of the story. Here some of the type of feature stories that one could write: The Story Behind the News Story While the news story tells the people about what transpired, the feature story will tell of how it happened. It will explain why it happened the way it did and tell of the reactions and the feelings of the people involved.

It will try to elucidate the various decisions that people made because of what happened and what impact these decisions have on the other people around them. The feature behind the news story will give the

readers an in-depth look of what really happened behind the goriest of murders or an atomic blast and should get them thinking about their own mortality. Profile of a Personality There always exists a person in your community or even elsewhere who is bound to pique the curiosity of everyone. Satisfy their curiosity by giving out a story on how this personality became to be. Though you could also write about somebody who is a virtual unknown but who has done something so remarkable that he will surely impress if not inspire readers. Give the readers facts about the persons life at the same time infusing color and details that make this person stand out from all the rest, making him worthy of a story. It is also a plus factor to be able to interview the person himself so you could get some piece of information that only he could provide, making the story even more interesting to read. Feature Writing Tips Guidelines to writing a feature story is basically the same as that of any other story but if you really want to capture the readers attention even after a thousand words, then your writing must be lively and engaging with specific and clear details. First, you have to start out with a strong lead that would immediately make the reader want to read the rest of your story. It could be an anecdote that came up during an interview of what transpired or a principle that your subject lives by. It could be a description of the person that you are writing about that you are sure would hold a readers attention. Move on with your story by telling them of descriptions of the persons involved or how they came to be. You might want to put in direct quotes from an interview that you had with your subject. Explain and present everything in the main part of the story in such a way that the reader will want to go through it until the very end, where you also finish with an explosive closing line. Your conclusion should make an impact on your readers. It could either be a powerful quote or an encapsulation of what the subject could inspire the community or even the nation into doing after knowing of what he has done.

Always make a reader put down what he is reading with a sigh of contentment or a smile of pure delight.