Bob wrote
> Feature Writing 101. Blech!
>
> Feature stories are to be immediately distinguishable from hard news
> stores by their soft and squishy ledes. Heaven forfend that the writer
> spill some actual details of the story in the lede. No, the writer must
> entice the reader into the story by teasing him, tickling his fancy, as it
> were, and drawing him in to the mushy, gushy details to follow. All
> written in a light and breezy style, which again clues readers that they
> aren't reading real news, but made up news of the "Hey! Check this out!"
> variety.
>
> The other entrance into feature that I hate with a passion that waxes
> purple is the anecdotal lede, which features more puff pastry before
> getting down to facts. "Chris Barker always starts his day at the kitchen
> expresso machine before sitting down at the breakfast nook with . . ."
> blah, blah, blah!
>
> Sigh. Perhaps that's why I don't read as much news as I used to. The news
> itself is depressing enough, never mind the squishy still with which it is
> presented. (And don't get me started on hard news, where the purpose of
> the lede now appears to be to share the unholy crap out of the reader,
> even if there's nothing to be afraid of.
>
> Journalist No More Bob
A year or two back I was writing a book. I sent a copy of the draft to the
intended publisher just to show him how far I got.
The twit sent it to two of his 'editors' who said it was ( I forget the exact
term
he said they used, let's say 'rubbish' ) and it wasn't - it conformed
reasonably well to current styles. This was a book about fact. Historical and
other.
Anyway, this unsettled me a lot, and I persuaded a local writer of both fiction
and fact to scrutinise my work and advise me. I paid $100 for an hour of her
time - a lot for me at that time.
I wasn't totally satisfied with what she said, then i discovered that Oxford
University was running a distance learning programme for authors, so I
checked out their book list.
Beating the rush, I bought 3 - 4 of them. Most were authored from the USA.
I've never seen such unsuitable garbage. All about fluffing up a story and
manufacturing false drama which would have absolutely no place in the kind
of book I was engaged in.
I ditched them all. Eventually I told the guy for whom I was writing the book
that I could not complete it, and neither did I. I ran out of energy and
vision.
I could not work with an editor like that who would give a one-word verdict
and no guidance.
Brian Swale
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