News features are stories that combine a journalistic style with hard news reporting. They can be entertaining, saddening or light, depending on the topic and the tone of the piece.
The main goal of a news feature is to inform readers and pique their interest in your topic. To achieve this goal, you’ll need to create an engaging story that focuses on a newsworthy event or person.
Unlike other types of writing, news writing prioritizes accurate and relevant facts over creative content. This is what makes it ideal for delivering important information quickly and efficiently to readers. News articles also offer the advantage of being able to be edited for length or brevity as needed.
A good way to start a news feature is to begin with a compelling lede or opening paragraph. This should grab the reader’s attention by using literary techniques such as second-person language and rhetorical questions to draw them in. Then, you can build on the lede in the body of your article with detailed descriptions of your subject. When describing your subject, be sure to use the “show” not tell” approach by providing examples of what your subject is doing or feeling rather than simply listing their traits and characteristics.
For example, instead of just telling that Jean was tired after running up the hill, you might write that “jean’s legs were burning and her breath was heavy as she pushed herself to the top of the steep, dirt path.” This technique is called active voice. It is important to use it in your feature story because it allows the reader to engage with your topic as if they were there themselves.