It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future
It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.”
Augusten Burroughs
If you have gathered enough information and have a strong enough nut graph, the body of the article is the easiest part to write, as the whole goal of your body is to prove the nut graph of the article to be true.
I wrote a story about Columbus, Ohio, school board member who had seven unsuccessful attempts to join the city school board, and was finally elected through the ineptitude of other candidates (they failed to get enough signatures). He was a high school dropout who wore Hawaiian shirts, was missing most of his teeth and had a braided plait midway down his back (all of which I showed in the lede). The nut graph of the article was this:
Now two years later it would seem easy to dismiss Wiles as an accidental school board member who is only around until a more qualified candidate comes around during the next election. But a funny thing happened during his stint at the board table: The ultimate outsider is starting to earn some respect, aligning himself with Stephanie Groce, the board’s strongest critic of the district administration. And with Groce not seeking reelection this November, Wiles most likely will take over as the public voice of dissent on the board.
The responsibility of the body became to show the reader Wiles’ personal path to get where he is today. It must truly address three main questions:
- What is happening now?
- How did we get where we are?
- What will happen next?
For this story, some key areas tracked by the body include:
- How Wiles ended up a dropout and yet got immersed in public education.
- Showing what exactly makes him such an outsider.
- Showing the efforts he has taken to get on the board.
- Showing what has he done now that he is on the board.
- Describing where he expects to go next.
To support the nut graph, the body must begin where the story begins, and the direction and content depend on the goals of the story.
For a profile, we start where the subject story begins, and where his or her experiences begin to support the nut graph.
For a general interest piece or coverage of an event, we make sure the reader knows where the story begins by providing some historical perspective and then let the sources take us through the experience with their anecdotes.
“There can be an inclination to when you don’t have a lot of experience with it to throw everything into the story,” Misti Crane of Ohio State research said. “When I became a more careful feature writer, I realized I needed to identify the kind of details that were important and that brought meaning to the story and to leave the rest in my notebook. If you are trying to paint a picture of the ocean, you don’t also put the forest in just because you know what the forest looks like.”
When crafting the body, remember that the broad borders of the feature writing hourglass give yo