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.Writing HumanÂInterestYou have a number of alternatives in writing a humanÂinterest article.Much of the time, the material you have collected can dictate the form of the story.Organizationally, you often choose from these approaches:1.Suspended interest approach2.Storyteller's chronological approach3.Narrative approachThe suspended interest approach is a pyramid organizational strategy.The lead is only a partial summary of what happened, saving resÂPage 172olution of the human drama for a later point in the article.Most of the time resolution comes at the ending.The article's body, or main section, is a description of the main events in chronological order.Finally, the article winds up with its outcome, or revelation, in the conclusion/climax.This approach has its advantages, primarily that it forces the reader to stay with your story for the big ending or moral to the story.This plan is not unlike that of the novelist who unveils the murderer on the last page of the mystery.The second strategy for organizing humanÂinterest articles is to approach writing, as you would tell a story: tell the entire story in chronological order.This sort of plan is simple and easy to write once you get your facts straight.The sequence of events does the work for you.This sort of approach does not fit all humanÂinterest stories.It works well when events culminate with a major action on the part of a principal source in the article.Narrative organization is also easy to use and works particularly well for beginning writers.Like the chronological form, this approach is dictated by the information you collect.Your major decision will be how to start a narrative article because you are not necessarily bound to start with the first event in any sequence.McKinney (1986) said a humanÂinterest narrative article lead should "lure the reader (and this includes the editor, who will decide whether the reader gets a chance at it or not) into your story and to capture that person's interest so that he cannot put it down until he learns how it comes out" (p.27).Narrative organization, then, just tells what happened by running from beginning to end.In this case, narrative is different from the suspended interest because the best material is saved for the end, and different from chronological because it does not lead with the first event or end with the last event.You have the most flexibility with narrative writing by not forcing what becomes the beginning, middle, or end through a chosen structure.You can merge elements of the story using narrative organization, pulling from two divergent tracks, or themes, if needed.Blais likes to use metaphors to structure her articles whenever possible.Blais (1984) said: "The structure should rise from the material.The way to make it happen is to make yourself an authority, to know so much about your subject that you know almost as much about your subject as your subject knows about himself" (n.p.).Page 173Giving a Feature its Personal TouchesMaryln Schwartz, Dallas Morning News feature writer and columnist, has won numerous awards over the past 30 years for her work.She advocates giving a personal touch to her stories:Sometimes writers find it hard to distinguish between a feature and a news story.This is the best way I can explain it: We all know the biblical story of Noah and the Ark.Just before it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, Noah built an ark.He took his family and two of every kind of animal that was then living on earth.Every living creature on the ark was saved from the flood.That is a news story.If I was writing about that event, I'd want to talk to Mrs.Noah, who was probably having to clean up after all those animals for 40 days and 40 nights.That's a feature story.When I'm writing my newspaper column, I look for the small details that give the readers a clear view of the big picture.For instance, when Prince Charles visited New Mexico, I wanted to give an example of what it means to be royalty.I didn't want to just write that people were bowing, because we already know that people bow to royalty.So I just watched for a little while.Then I noticed that Prince Charles was the only person at the party who wasn't wearing a nametag.And this wasn't a "B" Party.Cary Grant was there and he wore a nametag.This is the kind of touch that separates real royalty from mere legend.I did the same thing recently when I was watching the Miss America contestants give their predictable prepageant TV interviews.They were all insisting they weren't beauty queens, they had a message to give the world.They didn't want to discuss sex appeal.They wanted to talk about nuclear disarmament.Then I would flip channels to interviews of the presidential candidates.The political analysts kept trying to talk about Michael Dukakis' charisma or George Bush's sex appeal.I knew I had my column when I began to realize that politics and beauty pageants have somehow become confused with each other: "Would someone please tell me what's going on? Why is it that Miss Montana can't wait to discuss Manuel Noriega and George Bush only seems to want to discuss his grandchildren?"Page 174To write a good feature story requires as much observing as it does writing.You can have a beautifully crafted story, but no one will really care unless you have something to say.Information is the most important aspect.There will always be an editor who can help you turn a better phrase.But all the editing in the world isn't going to help if your information isn't interesting.You don't have to have been at a major news event to find a good feature story.And you just have to train yourself to see details that other people overlook.Actress Farrah Fawcett was the most interviewed actress in the country when she was starring in the 'Charlie's Angels' TV show.My editor asked me to do a story and to be sure to mention that the actress had been named one of the '10 Most Beautiful' on campus when she attended the University of Texas.The story had been done again and again.I didn't think anyone would even want to read it.Instead, I decided to find out what had happened to the other nine most beautiful.The story went on the wire and was used in about 40 newspapers.I got my information by phone.It took only two days.(Schwartz, 1988, personal communication)Page 1757—Profiles and Personality SketchesSome profile writers will tell you that profiles are short, vivid biographies.Profiles such as these are similar to the efforts of portrait painters or sculptors.An artist paints a lifeÂlike portrait of a person with oils or watercolors.A sculptor might use clay or marble to create a bust.As a writer, you can also create a portrait of a person using your command of some very different communication tools—words and language.Still, personality sketches and profiles are a bit different from biographies and different from other portrait art forms.Obviously, a profile for a newspaper, magazine, or newsletter will not be as long as a bookÂsized biography
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