
The five Ws and H –the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How - plus an inverted pyramid are the foundations for writing structure for journalists.
They are taught in Journalism schools and are drilled into the cub reporter by their editors.
When reading an article, the most important facts are on top of the story and descends in order of significance. This serves two purposes. To inform the reader to go on reading more and to let editors trim from the bottom if they need to for space saving purposes.
The inverted pyramid works for breaking news when the public is most served by getting the facts fast.
It always doesn’t work well for features.
Feature stories are a type of non-fiction writing that cover a single topic in detail. They are defined by the style in which they are written, which is feature oriented.
The reader is well served by writers if they take the time to write a story. Feature stories are a type of soft news, primarily focused on entertainment. The lead still must sink them in like breaking news, and they are still full of verified facts and information, but they often include more narrative and anecdotes and human elements.
For example, I love a good narrative lead in feature writing.
MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — The bodies of the children all lie here, dumped into this narrow trench hastily dug into the frozen earth of Mariupol to the constant drumbeat of shelling.
This lead was written by reporters Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Lori Hinnant, which won them a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service reporting in 2023.
The lead doesn’t tell us immediately what is happening or why. But it draws the reader into the story. Through this method, the reader is not only informed but entertained.
Keep breaking news from meandering but use your writing license to take the reader on a journey in feature writing.