How to write a feature story in six steps

Writing coach Ann Wylie offers an ideal structure for the brand journalist who is learning to compose the feature story:

1. Lead: Illustrate your point. Show, don’t tell. Make the lead concrete, creative and provocative. Think anecdote, human interest and juicy details.
2. Nut graph: Explain your point. Now you can tell. Here’s where you summarize your story into a nutshell, or deliver the key point.
3. Background section: Fill in the blanks. Do you have a term that needs explaining? Does your story require an understanding of context or history? Include that background information here.
4. Body: Develop the story. Avoid the “muddle in the middle” by arranging the body of your story into discrete sections, organized thematically, sequentially or hierarchically.
5. Wrap-up: Restate your point. In the nut graph, you tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em. In the body, you tell ‘em. Here’s where you tell ’em what you told ’em.
6. Kicker: Illustrate your point. Leave a lasting impression with a provocative kicker. Bonus points for circling back to the lead.

When I was a newspaper reporter, we called this structure the Wall Street Journal feature. Almost every WSJ front page feature is structured this way.

The nut graph can be tricky. I suggest you write it first, then build the rest of the story around it. If you lose your way, go back to the nut graph and remind yourself what the story is actually about. Stay on course. Less is more.