Check out this amazing example of feature writing. By beginning narratively with the story of an individual woman, a Dalit in India, the writer is able to explain the broader, more abstract trend of spreading Christianity in India.

The author begins by creating an emotional connection between the reader and this woman. This emotional connection successfully carries the reader into the more conceptual terrain of what is called a “trend story” — an article that explains about a new trend in culture, religion, politics or the like. In this case, it’s a story about the trend of spreading Christianity in Hindu-majority India.

If there’s a ministry, strategy, program or trend you’d like to write about, consider finding an individual involved in it who has an interesting story to illustrate the concept. Then your readers are intrigued enough to be willing to dive into the facts, statistics and information.

Still don’t believe me that it’s better to just stick with “says” and “said” when attributing a quote to someone who said it?

Check out this writing advice on how not to look “ridiculous” with creative quoting.

The author makes a good point:

So often, writers worry that they’ve used “said” or “says” too much and they go looking for a substitute word. The author clearly wants to convey emotion here, but “beams” doesn’t seem believable. It’s just not a word we use in daily speech.

Here’s my earlier post on why not to vary from using “said” in your articles.

I really enjoyed how the writer painted a beautiful and very personal portrait of singer Dido in this skillfully woven profile.

Reading well-written profiles like this one can be great inspiration for different and creative ways to write about people.

If you find an interesting person to write about, try to get them to sit down with you over a leisurely coffee or tea. Then really take your time drawing out the life story. Gather all the intriguing details, quirky personality traits, hopes and dreams, disappointments, and how they think they got where they are. Then talk to a few people who know them very well for additional confirmation that the subject is how he or she has portrayed themself. Their friends and loved ones can add fascinating insights, impressions and anecdotes to give depth and highlights to the profile.

People love to read about other people. So go out and get those people stories. Everyone has one.

I loved this paragraph from this article, What is ‘Narrative,’ Anyway? on Poynter.org:

“Stories have characters, settings, themes, conflicts, plots with climaxes and resolutions. Storytellers don’t give away the story in the first paragraph the way news writers do. Instead they set up a situation, using suspense or the introduction of a compelling character to keep the reader turning pages. Rather than put the least important information at the end, the storyteller waits until the end to give the reader a ‘big payoff’ — a surprise, a twist, a consummation.”

Sometimes, when you go to interview someone about an article you want to write, in the course of the interview you realize that the story isn’t exactly what you thought it was. Maybe the part you started out being interested in turned out to be pretty boring compared to something else the person is telling you. Or maybe through the clarifications the person gives you, you realize you had some wrong assumptions about the story.

That’s OK. A good tactic is to follow where the story leads, even if it goes in an unexpected direction. You can still come back with a good article, it just might be a little different than you anticipated.

For instance, my colleague called up a missionary in Croatia to write a follow-up to a previous article on how students are helping in ministry there. During the interview, she learned that the missionary had recently filed paperwork with the government to register the denomination’s first non-governmental association in the country. Suddenly, she was holding breaking news that she had no idea about before the call. That became the main story, and the student learning program was made into a sidebar.

Don’t be afraid to let the interview and the story guide you, rather than being tempted to pursue your original idea even when it’s not taking shape or is less important than new things you’re finding out.

Let’s cut to the chase. You have a good article, but you need a few quotes in there. So, you jot down a few of your own thoughts or reactions, put the quote marks around them and then add your name afterward. “That was easy,” you think to yourself.

Well, it may have been a bit too easy.

In the practice of journalism, it is considered unethical for a writer who is developing an objective article to influence the content, especially through including his or her own thoughts and opinions as a quote. It’s all about trust.

Here’s why:

1. The reader is expecting an article writer to conduct thorough research. If the reader notices that the quotes are coming from the same person who wrote the article, the reader will assume the writer was too lazy to interview other people.

2. The reader, who assumes the author didn’t bother to interview anyone, will wonder what other people would have had to say if only the author had taken time to talk to them and write down their insights.

3. At worst, the reader may feel the author is artificially bending the story to reflect his or her own viewpoints, rather than remaining objective and including the variety of perspectives of the other people who were involved in the events which the article is about. This creates a level of distrust between reader and writer. Distrust is the fatal blow to a writer’s credibility with readers. If you don’t earn trust, no one cares what you write anymore; they assume they can’t believe you or that you are holding back part of the information.

It is essential that a writer conduct a minimum of two interviews for every article. Three is good. Four is great. Depending on the complexity of the topic or event, more may be helpful.

Go back and read prior posts on quotes and interviews. Here are two more on interviews: post 1 and post 2.

Ever wondered how to capitalize and punctuate the various education degrees one can have after her or his name?

I have.

Finally found a helpful page about that here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-write-the-term-bachelors-degree.

Good luck!

For those who do much writing in the publishing world, it is no surprise to learn that there are such things as “style guides.”

Each publication and genre of publishing follows different guidelines that help to keep the writing consistent. Some follow Chicago Style; others following MLA. Those in journalism follow the Associated Press, or AP, style.

Style guides help to establish consistency throughout a publication. For instance, when writing about a page on the Internet, should you write “Web site,” “website” or “web site”? Should you capitalize or lowercase “Internet”? When should “church” be capitalized, and when should it not? Is “evangelical” an adjective or a noun?

For things in the English language that may not be treated the same way by everyone, a style guide can help a publication make decisions about how to treat various terms and then remain consistent throughout each article, as well as throughout the entire publication and from issue to issue.

To find some helpful tips on ways to be consistent in capitalization, spelling or terminology, check out this website for religion writers: www.religionwriters.com. Click on “Religion Stylebook.”

The introductory page explains what you’ll find in their collection. Then you can begin searching terms and words by letter in their alphabetical listing.

What’s the best movie you’ve ever seen?

How about your favorite book?

What was the best sermon you ever heard?

OK, you might not have been expecting that last one. You probably do have a favorite sermon and can remember the main points. But was it hard to narrow down to your favorite movie or book from the hundreds of movies you’ve seen and books you’ve read? Was it just as hard to pick your favorite from the thousands of sermons you’ve heard in your life?

If you could immediately think of more movies or novels than you could remember sermons, there’s probably a reason for that. It’s because we live in a world in which the majority of people think in images and narrative — stories.

This latest generation has grown up immersed in television, YouTube, and movie theaters; we operate in the language of Imagery. Some might think this is only true of developed, Western countries. But Nigeria has the most prolific movie-making industry in the world (which is flooding through the whole continent), closely followed by India. Many other cultures are oral, story-telling cultures. Stories told around the dinner table or the village cooking fire ARE their movies.

Movies and television specialize in telling a story. As a result, just like the generations of humanity who lived before the Western Renaissance, we once again think and communicate through narrative, and less through abstract concepts or rational arguments.

Some conclude, then, that the only way to communicate a story is in a video format. That’s not necessarily true. Images exist not only in tangible format like film, streaming video or photographs. They also exist in our imaginations. See the connection in those words? Image. Imagination.

You can still present images through words. Some call it “painting word pictures.” Words can tell a story. And it’s in stories that people today absorb and are transformed by Truth.

When you prepare to write an article, first remember that we are telling God’s story. Second, remember that part of telling God’s story is telling our stories. Be sure that everything you write tells that story. You can select words that paint pictures and tell stories — that transport the reader from her here and now to the characters’ here and now.

As people, we are interested in other people. We’re curious about the thoughts and opinions of others. As writers, we can help the reader to feel connected to the people in our stories when we include thoughts and ideas in someone’s own words.

First of all, what is a quote? It’s more than the two little curvy strokes that you stick on either end of a statement.

In journalism, when you use someone’s own words to state something, it’s called a direct quote. And there are specific ethics and rules about how to get and use a direct quote.

When interviewing your source — the person telling you about the topic — you need to write down exactly what they say, word for word. EXACTLY. This is because leaving out even a small word could potentially change the meaning of what they intend to say.

It can be hard to write or type as fast as your source is speaking. But most people don’t mind if you interrupt them to say, “Excuse me, I’m a little behind in my writing. Give me just a moment to catch up.” It might feel rude to you, but most people are reassured to know that you are doing your best to capture their words accurately and completely. They won’t mind pausing every now and then.  You might even begin the interview asking them to speak slowly so you can write down everything they’re telling you.

Every article should have at least two to three direct quotes sprinkled in (for longer articles, more is OK). The reason for this is to prove for readers that you actually did the interview and are not simply making up sources or putting opinions in their mouths. Quote = legitimacy.

Yet, there are more effective and less effective ways to use someone’s direct quote.

The first rule of a quote is that it should give new information to the story, whether that is a fact or an insight. If you’ve already stated that an outreach event was designed to minister to children, you’re just being repetitious if you follow it with a quote like, “We particularly targeted the event to children in our community.”

A good follow-up quote would be something like, “Many of the children in our community are economically disadvantaged. School supplies and uniforms are a basic need we wanted to meet.” This adds new insight and contextual information to the story.

The second rule of a quote is to keep it a reasonable length. Don’t use more than two or three sentences in the direct quote. If the person has more quality information to add, just summarize the rest in your own words, attributing it to your source.

Third, don’t give in to the temptation to litter your story with quotes. Some people are good at saying something just the right way. But if you have a direct quote every other paragraph, you send the message that you’re a lazy writer, letting your sources say everything for you. Quotes are more powerful when they are used sparingly.

And you can quote me on that.