THINKING ABOUT WRITING THE NEWS STORY
		Report the news. Make sure your story contains all the relevant facts. Ask yourself: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How? Make it readable. Here’s how: Use short sentences. (Best single thing you can do. . .and easiest.) Research shows sentences of 15-20 words or less are easiest to comprehend. If you must write a long sentence, punctuation — like colons and dashes — can help the reader. Use short paragraphs. Usually one or two sentences per paragraph is enough. Otherwise, the reader sees a solid, gray mass when looking at a narrow newspaper or magazine column. Use easy words. Avoid multi-syllable and/or technical words that are hard to understand. If you must use them, explain them with simple definitions or by using analogies. Use personal words. These are human interest words: e.g., “I,” “you,” “me,” “they,” names, quotes. Use active verbs. These are words that show action. Examples are easily found in recipes or on sports pages (mix, stir, blend, whip, hit, run). Then get to the point. . .fast! Readers and editors don’t have the time or inclination to wade through a bunch of words before finding out what a story is all about. Use an “inverted pyramid” style. Most editors chop stories to make them fit available space — usually from the bottom. So put the most important points first, second most important next, and so on down to the least important. Writing tips and tricks. NOW. . .that you know some of the rules of good writing, here are a few tricks to help you. Before the story, think. Audience. who do I want (or expect) to read this? What do they want to know? What do I want them to know? The “gatekeepers.” These are usually the editors who will decide if they will use your story. What kind of story do they normally use? How long? Style? Getting started writing. If you just can’t get the first word down on paper, here are some things to try. Talk to someone about your story. Listen to yourself. Write the story like you told it. You can always rearrange sentences or paragraphs later. Go through your notes. Star the things you think are most important. Then try to start a story with at least one or two of those important things in the first sentences. Write the headline first. Then make sure your first paragraph or two says essentially the same thing as the headline. Try being childlike. How do kids tell a story? They blurt it out, getting to the point fast with plenty of action verbs. Plagiarize. If you see something written that you like, borrow the idea (not word-for-word). I’m especially talking about borrowing ideas of style. Smoothing out the story. To do your thing, try these ideas: Write as you talk. Better yet, write as you should talk. Relax on grammar. Don’t ignore what you learned in English, but you can bend the rules. Some examples: Start with a conjunction for emphasis. Use a sentence fragment for impact. End a sentence with a preposition if it’s more natural that way. Polish. Edit. Let someone else read it and offer an opinion. Rewrite if necessary. The newsfeature. More and more, writers are combining news writing style with feature writing. This simply means adding a twist that can make the story more fun to read and write. FINALLY. . .get over all those hang-ups about writing. You can write. And it’s not that tough! Honest. Back To My Creative Team >>