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| Introduction | ix | |
| The disorganized, debilitated reporter | ||
| Learning to function more efficiently | ||
| The major commandment: Make it interesting | ||
| Chapter 1 | Raw Materials | 1 |
| How and where to get ideas | ||
| Picking the proper subject matter | ||
| The need for files | ||
| Finding and cultivating sources | ||
| Thinking about story ideas: Extrapolation, synthesis | ||
| Advancing story ideas: Localization, projection, viewpoint switching | ||
| What readers like and don't like: Dogs, people, facts, observers, numbers | ||
| Why the ideas with action in them are the best ideas | ||
| Chapter 2 | Shaping Ideas | 23 |
| The importance of forethought | ||
| Range of the story: Keeping it narrow | ||
| Theme of the story: The importance of the main theme statement | ||
| Developing the theme of a general profile or a microcosm profile | ||
| Approach of the story: The limits of the profile and the roundup | ||
| Tone of the story: Why it is important | ||
| Chapter 3 | Story Dimensions | 43 |
| Time: The importance of the past and the future, as well as the present | ||
| Scope: The quantity, locale, diversity and intensity of a development | ||
| Variety: Using various source levels and internal proofs | ||
| Movement: The built-in kind and the alternation of opposite elements | ||
| The reporter's role: Neither lawyer nor scholastic nor objectivist nor formula follower. But what then? | ||
| Chapter 4 | Planning and Execution | 69 |
| A six-part guide for the reporter | ||
| I | History: Does the main theme development have roots in the past? | |
| II | Scope: How widespread, intense and various is the development? | |
| III | Reasons: Why is it happening now? | |
| IV | Impacts: Who or what is affected-and how? | |
| V | Countermoves: Who is acting to counter or enhance the development or its impacts-and how? | |
| VI | Futures: What could happen if the development proceeds unchecked? | |
| A slightly altered six-part guide for preparing profiles | ||
| Another story element: Focus points and people. Descending to the lowest level of the action | ||
| A reporter's sources: Wise Men, Paper Men and Rabbis | ||
| Interviews and techniques in relation to storytelling | ||
| How long should the reporting take? When to begin writing? | ||
| Chapter 5 | Organization | 94 |
| Follow the laws of Progressive Reader Involvement: Tease me, you devil; tell me what you're up to; prove it; help me remember it | ||
| A first reading of materials gathered for the story: Refining the main theme statement, looking for conclusions, looking for endings | ||
| Indexing materials to help provide order | ||
| Rules of organization in writing | ||
| Keep related material together | ||
| Let what you have already written suggest what comes next | ||
| Try to isolate material from one source in one place | ||
| Digress often, but don't digress for long | ||
| Type of narrative lines: Block progression line; time line; theme line, and hybrids | ||
| The lead paragraphs: Why they are often elusive. What to do when they are | ||
| Chapter 6 | Handling Key Story Elements | 127 |
| Types of leads: Hard news, anecdotal, summary | ||
| Standards for anecdotal leads: Simplicity, theme relevance, intrinsic interest, focus | ||
| Why the general, or summary, lead is often better, difficult though it may be | ||
| Numbers: How to handle them; when to avoid them | ||
| People and quotes: Limiting the number of "talking heads" to emphasize the important actors in the story | ||
| Reasons to quote people: To lend credibility, emotional response, trenchancy or variety | ||
| Using anonymous quotes judiciously | ||
| When paraphrasing is preferable | ||
| Three roles for the reporter in the story: Summarizer, referee and observer | ||
| Chapter 7 | Wordcraft | 158 |
| Being specific in words and phrases | ||
| Being mean and tough with yourself and your turns of phrase | ||
| Choosing what to describe | ||
| How to describe well: Imagic exactness, the people principle, animation, poetic license | ||
| Promoting a conversational quality | ||
| The narrative flow and typical troubles with transitions, attributions and explanations | ||
| How "purposeful structures" in writing can promote speed, force and rhythm | ||
| Chapter 8 | Stretching Out | 188 |
| Some tips on handling lengthy stories: | ||
| The importance of maintaining orderly development | ||
| Alternating plot and character | ||
| Maintaining suspense and setting up material to come | ||
| Using typographical devices | ||
| Chapter 9 | Notes on Self-Editing and Style | 218 |
| Editing yourself for content, for conclusiveness and flow for pace and precision | ||
| The anguish of young writers, and how some overcome it | ||
| Appendix 1 | Reading for Writers | 225 |
| Appendix 2 | Full Texts of Sample Stories | 230 |
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Kevin Moe
reviewed The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide on June 22, 2013 The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide
Fantastic. By reading this book over going to J-school, you could save yourself something like $75,000!
Okay, sort of kidding. But I found this book excellent and very satisfying. Something that sets it apart from general 'how to write' manuals is its focus on a specific form, the newspaper feature. (Which form was longer-format back in the '80s when this book was written, you'll notice.) That narrowness of focus allows Blundell to give very detailed advice about structure and organization and the writing process, as well as something very important'how to generate interesting ideas. You will likely find yourself reading newspaper articles with a different eye after you've been through this book.
Blundell goes deeper into the nitty gritty of his particular form than many 'how to write' authors who aspire to reach a larger audience'but while this books is ideally suited to journalists, I think that many of his points can be extrapolated to other kinds of writing as well. (His discussion of word choice, where he calls some words "blobs," is an amusing take on a lesson every prose writer needs to learn.)
The only part of the book I didn't love was the final chapter on 'Stretching Out.' The article Blundell offered as a shining example of super-long-format work was, to this gal, almost unreadable. But skipping that chapter was easy, and everything else in the book stands tall.
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Add The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide, William E. Blundell, one of the best writers on one of America's best-written papers-The Wall Street Journal-has put his famous Journal Feature-Writing Seminars into this step-by-step guide for turning out great articles. Filled with expert instruction on, The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide, William E. Blundell, one of the best writers on one of America's best-written papers-The Wall Street Journal-has put his famous Journal Feature-Writing Seminars into this step-by-step guide for turning out great articles. Filled with expert instruction on, The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide to your collection on WonderClub |
