Feature writing

A feature (human-interest story) is factual, not fictional, but may borrow short-story devices; it aims to illuminate, not persuade. Sidebars can carry one aspect, statistics or a biography.

Types: news features (background and implications of current issues); personality features (the individual, not the job, must stand out — a vendor or potter too); lifestyle; travel (access, stay, food, cost, all five senses); investigative (verify, separate fact from opinion); photo features.

Meena Menon's Ladakh feature shows a news feature: retreating glaciers, over 80 per cent of farmers depending on snow-melt, Changpa herders changing routes, tourism in the crane breeding season, and Kunzes Dolma of the Women's Alliance on lost traditions.

Process: pick a topic and one angle; research and interview; open creatively (a quotation, an observation, a question, a striking figure); develop the body logically; link paragraphs with transitions; end by summing up, with a quote, message or open question.

Features rarely use the inverted pyramid; a 'delayed lead' sets the mood, as in the Chennai Gond-art piece. Writer's block? Hemingway sharpened 20 pencils — jot a few sentences to warm up the engine, then reread from the reader's view.