Yagoda Dos and Don’ts for Feature Writing
DOs
- Show,
don’t tell. Well-chosen facts are always more effective in getting an idea
across than adjectives, adverbs and characterizations. Reporting that
someone kicked an injured person when down or stole money from a Salvation
Army Santa is better than telling us that he is horrible, awful, horrid,
despicable, or obnoxious.
- Become
a mini-expert on the subject of any story you write. Read everything and
talk to anyone you can find about it. Especially important: be aware of
what has been written about it before and try to find a fresh.
- Be a
storyteller. Imagine that the reader is a friend of yours,
and you’re telling her about something
really interesting that happened to you.
That means you don’t want to waste her time with dull stuff;
if you do, she’ll probably walk out the door. As a feature writer, your
main goal is to hold the reader’s interest at all times. If you don’t,
they’ll turn the page, turn on the computer or TV, take a nap.
- Make
an outline for the structure of your story, either on paper or in your
head, so that you know how every paragraph relates to the one before.
- Read
every sentence out loud, either with your mouth or in your head. This will
help you with the rhythm of your sentences, and to recognize wordiness,
awkwardness and word repetition.
- Spend
as much time on the ending as the lead—it’s just as important and a lot
harder to get right.
- Use
good and original similes and metaphors and figures of speech like
alliteration and zeugma (look it up), when apt and appropriate.
- Have a
thesaurus and dictionary (either paper or on-line) with you when you
write. The thesaurus will help you find the right word; the dictionary
will help you avoid the wrong one. When you think of it, consult the
online Oxford English Dictionary at www.lib.udel.edu/db.
Your tuition is paying for this incredible resource, so you might as well
make use of it.
- Proofread
your story carefully; their are lodes of mistakes spellcheck won’t catch,
as it didn’t when a student referred to a “heroine attic.”
- Use
understatement, which is helpful in being humorous, getting your point
across and setting up quotes. For example, “Brown was furious about his
team’s effort. ‘They played like a bunch of chumps,” he said” is less
effective than, “Brown wasn’t exactly thrilled about his team’s effort.
‘They played like …’” Understatement often takes the form of litotes—e.g.
“not thrilled,” “less than enthusiastic,” etc. Also: you want to be able
to stand by every single sentence you write, and understatements are
easier to back up than overstatements.
- When
describing a person or a physical setting be (as Henry James said), “the
kind of person on whom nothing is lost.” Pick the one or two or three most
telling details to tell your readers.
- When
appropriate, use colorful expressions that are in the current vocabulary,
taken from pop culture, slang, or some occupational lexicon: e.g, “perp
walk,” “spin doctor,” “senior moment.” Use sparingly, and be aware that
after a while, they turn into clichés: as in, “mother of all…,” “show me
the money,” and anything from “Seinfeld.”
- If you
can give some information, convey an idea or tell an anecdote more
effectively than your source, use your own words rather than the quote.
You’re the storyteller, and that’s why they pay you the big bucks.
Generally, be sparing with quotes. They are the seasoning, not the meat.
- Be
concise. Trim from your story anything that isn’t important or interesting
information, or that isn’t a good quote. Unlike Dickens, feature writers
aren’t paid by the word.
- When
two words mean the same thing, use the simpler one (unless you have a good
reason not to): funny rather than humorous, happened rather than occurred,
long rather than lengthy, persons rather than people, hard rather than
difficult, etc.
- Read
as much and as widely as you can—novels, non-fiction books, magazines,
newspapers, shopping lists, whatever.
DON’Ts
Never:
- Use
“this” constructions, e.g., “This Wilmington native likes to sing spirituals
in her spare time.” Sounds like a beauty pageant.
- Tell
the reader what to do, e.g., “So the next time you’re walking down Main
Street, stop in at Bagel Junction.” Nobody likes to be ordered around.
- Use
ellipses (…) in spoken quotes to indicate omitted words. They are
necessary when omitting anything from written material, however.
- Start
a sentence with the word “Well,....” Leave that to Ronald Reagan.
- Use
single quotation marks (‘like this’), unless you are indicating a quote
within a quote.
- Indulge
in comma splices, e.g., “He is graduating in May, he doesn’t have a job
yet.” One particular kind of comma splice happens when you incorrectly use
“however” as a conjunction meaning the same thing as “but,” e.g., “He is
graduating in May, however, he doesn’t have a job yet.” The correct way to
do it would be, “He is graduating in May. However, he doesn’t have a job
yet.” Or: “He is graduating in May. He does not, however, have a job yet.”
- Knowingly
use a cliché.
- Useth
“amongst” or “whilst.”
- Use
the first-person singular (“I,” “me”) or plural (“we,” “us” “our”), unless
it’s a first-person story. E.g., if you’re doing a profile of Harris Ross,
don’t write, “He knows more about movies than anyone I’ve ever met,” even
if it’s true.
- Use
quotation marks to indicate a “funny” word or expression (as opposed to a
quotation—something someone said).
- Use
dialect in your own writin’.
- Commit
dangling modifiers, e.g, “Being a journalism professor, McKay Jenkins’s
life has had its share of surprises.” McKay Jenkins’s life is not a
journalism professor.
- Invoke
stereotypes about people of any age group, gender, race, religion,
nationality, occupation, ethnic group, or hair color—even if you’re only
bringing up the stereotype to prove it wrong. Your goal is to write about
people as individuals, not as types. As a matter of fact, try to avoid
stereotypes of every kind.
- Use
parenthesis, exclamation points, colons (a dash works better) or
semicolons in quotes.
Avoid (unless otherwise indicated, once per story,
max):
- Parenthesis,
exclamation points, colons (again, dashes are better) and semicolons in
your own writing. Generally, when you do use exclamation points, do so to
be ironic! (See Tom Wolfe.) For semicolons, you’re usually better off
substituting a period.
- Direct
address of reader, i.e., the word “you.”
- Puns
or wordplay.
- The
words “very,” “much” or “much more.” They’re usually unnecessary, or else
a sign that you need to choose a
much stronger
adjective or adverb.
- Verbs
of attribution other than “said” (exclaimed, stated, gasped, sighed,
laughed, remarked, and especially not “claimed” or “admitted,” which imply
you don’t believe the person). Exceptions are verbs that describe the type
of statement the person is making, as in “recalled,” “asked” or “replied.”
“Acknowledged” can be okay as a substitute for “admitted.”
- Rhetorical
questions. Only use them when they really are rhetorical question
(“John Williams doesn’t plan to register as a Democrat. Why should he? His
parents, four grandparents and eight aunts and uncles are all
Republicans.”) Don’t use them when you know the answer and are about to
tell us. (“What’s all the commotion inside the Main Street storefront?
Well, workmen are putting the finishing touches on a new Starbucks.”)
- “In
common” ledes, as in “What do Lawrence Welk, knock-knock jokes and ‘in
common’ ledes have in common?” They’re kind of corny.
- Repetitive
structure, as in statement-quote, statement-quote, statement-quote. You
can pick up on this by reading your story aloud.
- Word
repetition. Specifically, try not to use the same word more than once in
one paragraph. Even very common words like “she,” “the,” “and” and “is”
can grate on the ear if used too much. Again, reading aloud can help you
with this.
- The
word “seems,” as in “It seems that floppy hats are the thing this year.”
Your job is to say what is, or is not, the case, and if you’re not sure
you probably shouldn’t say anything at all. (“Nay, it is. I know not
‘seems.’”—Hamlet.)
- “Everything
from” constructions, as in, “He’s done everything from laying bricks to
selling shoes at Wal-Mart.” It’s a cliché and a crutch.
- Dialect
in quotes (e.g., “gonna”).
- One-sentence
paragraphs. It’s okay to use more than one per story, but rarely two in a
row and never three in a row.
- Sentence
fragments. Like this.
- Brackets
[] in quotes. They ruin the rhythm and effect of quotes. With a little
work, there’s almost always a way to set up the quote so readers will
understand what is meant.