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Feature article template

A feature article opens on one person in one moment, pulls back to the question the piece is really about, works through how it came about and what complicates it, and returns to the person from the opening. The frame makes a large subject human.

An elderly cobbler repairs a boot at his workshop bench.

When to use it

  • You are writing a long magazine piece or a profile, not news.
  • Your subject is big and abstract, and needs a person to carry it.
  • Your draft opens with a thesis. Move it to the second section.

The 7 sections at 3,000 words

The marks assume 3,000 words, because magazine features usually run 2,000 to 5,000 words. Each chapter starts at an even share of the whole; yours will run longer or shorter. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. Opening Scene One person, one moment, told closely. No thesis yet.
  2. The Question Pull back and say what the piece is really about.
  3. How It Came About The history that produced the situation.
  4. The Turn The complication, the surprise, or the counter-example.
  5. What Complicates It The part that resists the easy reading.
  6. Where It Stands The situation now, honestly, including what is unknown.
  7. Closing Scene Back to the person from the opening, and what changed.

A worked example

The last cobbler in a city of a million people.

  1. Opening Scene. Sal resoles a pair of boots older than his customer, at a bench his grandfather built.
  2. The Question. What happens to a trade when the last person who knows it retires?
  3. How It Came About. Cheap shoes, rising rents, and fifty years of closing shops.
  4. The Turn. His waiting list is three months long, and growing.
  5. What Complicates It. Nobody under sixty will take the apprenticeship at what it pays.
  6. Where It Stands. A college has offered to teach the trade, if Sal will teach it.
  7. Closing Scene. Sal at the college bench, with six students and the same boots.

Open this template in Tabularia

Start a new project, choose Article, and pick the Feature shape. Each section arrives with its heading and its note beside it.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every section with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word