The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide

by William E. Blundell

Overview

Storytelling—how to catch and hold a reader’s interest through artful narration of factual material
 
William E. Blundell, one of the best writers on one of America's best-written papers—The Wall Street Journal—has put his famous Journal Feature-Writing Seminars into this step-by-step guide for turning out great articles. Filled with expert instruction on a complex art, it provides beginners with a systematic approach to feature writing and deftly teaches old pros some new tricks about:
 
·         How and where to get ideas
·         What readers like and don’t like
·         Adding energy and interest to tired topics
·         Getting from first ideas to finish article
·         The rules of organization
·         How—and whom—to quote and paraphrase
·         Wordcraft, leads, and narrative flow
·         Self-editing and notes on style
 
… plus many sample feature articles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101667125
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/29/1988
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	863 KB

About the Author

William E. Blundell was a news editor at the Wall Street Journal, where he was a reporter, page-one writer, Los Angeles Bureau chief, and national correspondent. He won the Mike Berger Award, granted by the trustees of Columbia University, for distinguished metropolitan reporting in New York; the Ray Howard Public Service Award of the Scripps-Howard Foundation, and the Distinguished Writing Award for non-deadline feature writing, granted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	The disorganized, debilitated reporter
	Learning to function more efficiently
	The major commandment: Make it interesting
Chapter 1	Raw Materials	1
	How and where to get ideas
	Picking the proper subject matter
	The need for files
	Finding and cultivating sources
	Thinking about story ideas: Extrapolation, synthesis
	Advancing story ideas: Localization, projection, viewpoint switching
	What readers like and don't like: Dogs, people, facts, observers, numbers
	Why the ideas with action in them are the best ideas
Chapter 2	Shaping Ideas	23
	The importance of forethought
	Range of the story: Keeping it narrow
	Theme of the story: The importance of the main theme statement
	Developing the theme of a general profile or a microcosm profile
	Approach of the story: The limits of the profile and the roundup
	Tone of the story: Why it is important
Chapter 3	Story Dimensions	43
	Time: The importance of the past and the future, as well as the present
	Scope: The quantity, locale, diversity and intensity of a development
	Variety: Using various source levels and internal proofs
	Movement: The built-in kind and the alternation of opposite elements
	The reporter's role: Neither lawyer nor scholastic nor objectivist nor formula follower. But what then?
Chapter 4	Planning and Execution	69
	A six-part guide for the reporter
I	History: Does the main theme development have roots in the past?
II	Scope: How widespread, intense and various is the development?
III	Reasons: Why is it happening now?
IV	Impacts: Who or what is affected-and how?
V	Countermoves: Who is acting to counter or enhance the development or its impacts-and how?
VI	Futures: What could happen if the development proceeds unchecked?
	A slightly altered six-part guide for preparing profiles
	Another story element: Focus points and people. Descending to the lowest level of the action
	A reporter's sources: Wise Men, Paper Men and Rabbis
	Interviews and techniques in relation to storytelling
	How long should the reporting take? When to begin writing?
Chapter 5	Organization	94
	Follow the laws of Progressive Reader Involvement: Tease me, you devil; tell me what you're up to; prove it; help me remember it
	A first reading of materials gathered for the story: Refining the main theme statement, looking for conclusions, looking for endings
	Indexing materials to help provide order
	Rules of organization in writing
	Keep related material together
	Let what you have already written suggest what comes next
	Try to isolate material from one source in one place
	Digress often, but don't digress for long
	Type of narrative lines: Block progression line; time line; theme line, and hybrids
	The lead paragraphs: Why they are often elusive. What to do when they are
Chapter 6	Handling Key Story Elements	127
	Types of leads: Hard news, anecdotal, summary
	Standards for anecdotal leads: Simplicity, theme relevance, intrinsic interest, focus
	Why the general, or summary, lead is often better, difficult though it may be
	Numbers: How to handle them; when to avoid them
	People and quotes: Limiting the number of "talking heads" to emphasize the important actors in the story
	Reasons to quote people: To lend credibility, emotional response, trenchancy or variety
	Using anonymous quotes judiciously
	When paraphrasing is preferable
	Three roles for the reporter in the story: Summarizer, referee and observer
Chapter 7	Wordcraft	158
	Being specific in words and phrases
	Being mean and tough with yourself and your turns of phrase
	Choosing what to describe
	How to describe well: Imagic exactness, the people principle, animation, poetic license
	Promoting a conversational quality
	The narrative flow and typical troubles with transitions, attributions and explanations
	How "purposeful structures" in writing can promote speed, force and rhythm
Chapter 8	Stretching Out	188
	Some tips on handling lengthy stories:
	The importance of maintaining orderly development
	Alternating plot and character
	Maintaining suspense and setting up material to come
	Using typographical devices
Chapter 9	Notes on Self-Editing and Style	218
	Editing yourself for content, for conclusiveness and flow for pace and precision
	The anguish of young writers, and how some overcome it
Appendix 1	Reading for Writers	225
Appendix 2	Full Texts of Sample Stories	230