How to write a good feature

Wannabe writers often email the Student BMJ asking how to write a feature. Experienced journalist Lynn Eaton gives the lowdown

One of the hardest things about writing a feature, rather like telling a good story, is knowing how to begin. Imagine you are just back from a trip to China and are off to meet your friends to tell them all about it. Unless you and your friends are trainspotters, the last thing you would do would be to tell them the time and type of every train you took to get from A to B. Instead, you would tell them an amusing or exciting anecdote about what happened while you were there.

Similarly, when starting to write a feature, you need to grab your reader's attention, to make them want to stop whatever they are doing and to listen to what you have to say.

But although finding that "hook" is one of the hardest aspects of feature writing, it is only one element of what makes a good feature writer. Before you even start typing, think about how you are going to achieve your goal of communicating to your audience in a way that--to cite the guiding principles of the BBC--educates, informs, and entertains.

Know your reader

Writing a feature for the Student BMJ is a far cry from writing an essay for your tutor. The tone is different; the style is different. A feature can be written in a less formal more conversational way.

Writing for an audience of medical students is going to be different again from writing for qualified doctors, readers of a women's magazine, or the readers of the Sun (a British tabloid) newspaper. Remember to use points of reference that will be meaningful to your audience. There's little point alluding to a recent trip you have made in your Saab, for example, if your audience is more likely to be using a bicycle (box 1).

The style of feature

Features come in many guises. The Student BMJ has its own particular "slots," each with their own character. Check these by reading the magazine or looking at the guidelines to authors, which are available on student.bmj.com.

Make sure you know what type of feature you are writing. If you are pitching an idea to a magazine that you do not read, buy a copy first to get an idea of the style of its various features (box 2).

A profile needs to give more of an idea of the individual you are interviewing--concentrate on their personality and what is interesting about them, rather than running chronologically through their CV. The profile should contain lots of quotes from the person, as well as some of your own personal observations. Tape the interview rather than just relying on your notes (box 3).

Prepare your questions in advance, but be prepared to be flexible if the conversation takes a different turn in the interview. You may miss an important point just because you stick rigidly to your preplanned questions.

If you are writing about your personal experience you will need to be quite open. Try to keep the tone straightforward and conversational. You are trying to communicate here, not show off your ability to regurgitate long words from the Oxford English Dictionary (box 4).

News features give background to a current news issue. Even though the subject matter may on the face of it be quite dull, you have to try to make it interesting. It is important to remember that these are not opinion pieces. Even though you may have a strong personal opinion on the subject you are writing about, you should always remain impartial, fair, and accurate. Get quotes from others--preferably experts in the field--that back up the arguments you are trying to make (and be prepared to change your mind if the experts do not agree with you).

News features should be authoritative and based on facts that you have checked and can substantiate. If the information is unclear, check it. Do not be afraid to look stupid. You will look even more stupid if you just regurgitate nonsense.

Leaders, editorials, and other opinion pieces also fall within the "feature" category. You will most likely be asked to write one of these if you have a particular expertise in the area concerned. Even then, you should be able to support opinions with fact (box 5).

The brief

Make sure you and your commissioning editor are clear about what they are expecting you to submit. Check with them what sort of tone they want. Something serious? Or is it a lighter, more humorous piece? If possible, confirm the brief, including the word count, and deadline by email.

Once you have agreed a brief, stick to it. Do not write more, or less, words than you are asked for. Always make sure you deliver your copy on time--and be prepared to answer any queries about it after that.

Doing your research

You may well be asked to write on something you have only the haziest notion about. If so, a Google search is usually a good place to start. And even if you do think you know about it, you should do a bit more research.

If you are investigating a medical story, you might want to look into search engines such as Pubmed central, which can be viewed direct through a link from specific articles on bmj.com. And you can check out many stories through the search engines on national newspaper or the BBC's websites.

Make sure to get an expert to comment. This is always going to carry more gravitas than merely repeating information from the internet or your lecture notes. It also helps break up the narrative pace of the article, so is a good stylistic device (box 7).

The difficulty with research is to know when to stop. You might like to read 10 other papers you have just discovered on the topic in the last half hour, but if you only have two hours left to write the piece, you sometimes just have to accept you cannot do that. As a feature writer you have to become an instant expert and rarely have time to get involved at the level you would in academic research.

Plan your research time carefully, leave time for people to call you back, and leave time to write and polish your final result. There is nothing worse than rushing an article up to deadline, sending it in with lots of mistakes, and never getting another commission from that magazine again.

Remember, too, to make a note of where you found the information you are using in the piece. You may need to find it again if there is a query about it from your editor.

The introduction

An anecdote, or an interesting observation, or even a clever play on words will often make a good introduction. Sometimes a direct quote will do the trick. Try to avoid the plodding "once upon a time" style.

One of the other classic pitfalls is to make a sweeping generalisation that does not, in fact, stand up to scrutiny. The last thing you want is for your reader to start taking issue with you in your first paragraph.

It is worth spending time on your introductory paragraph. Play around with ideas and images until you hit on one that works. But do not wait for the perfect intro before you start writing. Sometimes you just need to get it down on paper, then hone the introduction later.

Keep it coming

Your reader has a million and one reasons to do something other than spend the next 10 minutes reading your article. Why should they bother?

This is where your art as a writer comes in. Unlike news stories, where there is a standard formula to follow,¹ features can, and should, be more creative if they are to keep the reader's attention.

I would liken a well written news feature to an interesting but well signposted walk through a wood. Firstly, your reader chooses to go on it with you. You lead them through the argument, pointing out useful pieces of information about the trees and scenery along the way. You will answer questions in the reader's mind about where you are taking them next, and vary the pace every so often, so that they do not get bored or tired.

The golden rule is not to lose them in a fog of confusing information, nor to take them on a long, arduous ramble they weren't prepared for. And you should never waste their time by leading them up a blind alley.

Sometimes when you start writing, you find you can't see the wood for the trees--a common problem with complex features. Whether or not this happens, it is a good idea before you start to jot down the main message, then the other points you want to make, almost like an essay plan. Work out how you get from one point to another--and decide which bits are unnecessary and can be cut.

Happy endings

A good ending is almost as difficult as a good beginning. Unlike news stories, where the ending is cut if space is short, a good feature should end on a positive, or uplifting, note.

It may reiterate a theme in the introduction, or return to an analogy which runs throughout the feature. But it should not--unlike for an essay--be a summary of your piece.

It should, rather like taking an exciting trip abroad, leave the reader with a sense of having travelled successfully from A to B, of having been returned home safely, but better informed as a result--all without ever having moved from their chair.

1. Eaton L. Hold the front page. Student BMJ 2003;11:401.