The Features Manifesto
1. Locate the Drama
News stories provide information about what’s going on. They should be elegant and amusing, but at
the bottom they’re just summaries of something that’s going on. Features provide the opportunity for a
different kind of story. Rather than providing a quick look at a surface controversy, features dig deep
into ongoing, sometimes everyday activities, and reveal the tensions lurking beneath the surface. A
feature doesn’t simply summarize a conflict, dilemma or transformation. It first has to convince the
reader that there is a drama there that the reader has failed to notice. Then it brings that drama to life
and, in the process, suggests some possibilities for resolution.
Remember that all features are about people—people making choices, people screwing up, people who
have histories and insecurities and improbable goals. News stories tend to reduce sources to talking
heads who wear a particular hat: “student,” “administrator,” “politician.” A good feature should give
its sources back their three-dimensionality.
2. Distinguish the Subject from the Story
Finding the drama in your feature means figuring out what story you’re actually telling. Don’t confuse
the topic or subject of your article with the actual story. Your topic might be a profile or a person or
group, an investigation of a hot topic, new trend, or controversy. But having a subject is only the first
step. Whatever topic you write your feature about, you need to dig beneath the surface and locate the
drama—then you’ll know your story. Think back to the plots of great novels. Is your article the story
of an underdog struggle, an unexpected transformation, a conflict between two opposing ideals? A few
years ago, I profiled Donald Hall ’51, who had just been appointed poet laureate. My subject was
Donald Hall, poet. I could have filled a few hundred lines with his memories of Harvard and his quotes
about being a poet and left it at that. But that wouldn’t have been a story. The story I told was that
Donald Hall, as much as he loved Harvard, felt like he needed to get away from the Harvard scene in
order to truly become a writer. Bottom line: my story was about the tension between prestige and
creativity. If you can distinguish between your subject and your story, then figuring out your lede and
your nut graf and how to organize your article will be much easier. Sometimes, you’ll do all your
reporting and interviewing, and only then will the story click into place. Once you know what story
you’re telling, you’ll be ready to write. If all you’ve got is a topic and some details and information,
you don’t really have a feature.
For Poet Laureate, In Vino Veritas
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513906
3. Find Your Narrative Arc & Write your Nut Graf
News stories put the most important information first so that the reader can skim the first few
paragraphs and get the general idea. Features give you the chance to be a little more artful. You want
to hook the reader with a question or conflict; you have to convince them to turn the page and keep
reading. When you’re organizing your feature, figure out how to present a problem or contradiction
that will keep your reader waiting for resolution until the very end. You already know the “drama” of
your piece; now all you have to do is structure your article so that it opens with the dramatic problem,
and then progresses scene by scene, flashback and flash forward, to flesh out the problem and finally
provide some kind of resolution. One very obvious way of doing this is to tell the story of an
individual or group as they prepare for “The Big Game.” Will they win? Will they lose? It’s an easy
way to add drama to what would otherwise be a basic profile. (This “The Big Game” structure works
in a lot of contexts—it doesn’t have to be a sports game or competition, but any event for which the
subject of your profile is preparing, and in which they might win or lose.) But providing a narrative
arc can be even simpler than this. You might present a choice that the subject of your article made—a
choice that doesn’t, initially make a lot of sense, like abandoning your solid professional job at age 50
to go to music school. Then completing your narrative arc means explaining why the subject of your
article might make that choice. Or your might present a strangely contradictory figure, like a blonde
girl wearing camouflage, combat boots—and carrying a fluffy pink purse. Who is this girl? The reader
asks, and your narrative arc is answering that question. For your feature, writing a nut graf means
posing the dramatic question that the rest of your article will answer.
4. Do Your Research
Before you write a story, search The Crimson archives—and then maybe the New York Times—to see
what’s been written on a subject. See what kinds of takes different writers have already done. If a story
has already been written repeatedly, you can either find a new angle, or simply switch to a new topic.
(Your goal as a writer is to be so vivid and definitive in the story you tell that no other writer wants to
tackle the story for at least a decade.)
Next, be sure to do background research on your subjects before you interview them. All academics
have their c.v. online somewhere—note down the dates and the details. They’ll be much more
impressed with you, and trust you a lot more, if they know you’ve taken the time to learn the basics
about them. See if the person you’re interviewing has been written about before, or what kinds of
things they may have written. If they’ve written a book that relates to your article,
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Interview Early and Often
Be Alive to Ironies
‘…And What Did You Have For Lunch?’
Focus on the Moment
Always Talk to Mom
Don’t be Nice; Be Real
Where Do Baby Features Come From?
What’s Weird
Inside Different Worlds
Follow Your Gut
The Fun Features Gallery
What Her Skin Doesn’t Show (April H.N. Yee): Strippers
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507579
Burden of Proof (Logan R. Ury): Math 55
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516216
Making Their Argument (Leon Neyfakh): Harvard Debate
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506283
School’s In For Summers (Lauren A. E. Schuker): Larry Goes to School
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349661
Kids Who Would Be King (Lois E. Beckett); Harvard Kids With Oval Office Dreams
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=525265