The majority of media news consists of quick, breaking stories to get you hooked and informed (hard news). However, every now and then a journalist gets an opportunity to write a human interest story (soft news) for their media outlet. To make sure your feature story has a meaningful connection to its readers, certain elements must flow nicely together.
By knowing how to approach a proper structure and tone to the story, you will create an awesome and informative narrative that will make the audience connect emotionally to the story. Continue reading to use these tips to write a human interest story that readers will remember for a long time and will continue your credibility as a serious journalist.
Human Interest Story Tips
1. Structure
Okay, so the interview is done. You have all the details and hours of dialogue between you and the individual. What is the first thing you should decide to do? You might just want to start writing it in an inverted pyramid style piece. No. Don’t do that. Not for feature stories, especially for a human-interest profile. Feature stories usually take on a more relaxed form of style, akin more to a literary fashion. (We will get to the actual writing style in a moment.)
The structure of the story should reflect on how the agreed-upon length of the story. Word count matters very much when writing a profile. Human interest stories tend to go on and on sometimes. A limited word count works well when the journalist has hours of details and quotes. When you have decided on the structure, you should write a quick but semi-detailed draft. Getting the details and quotes in an organized manner helps you with later drafts.
2. The Lede:
Should your very first sentence be a lede? Or should you try something more creative, as a fiction author would? Perhaps beginning with a detail of the day you did the interview or traffic or weather, etc, is a better idea. As long as these details you begin with arise again, in some manner, the details will come full circle—thereby, making a better impact.
The lede can also provide a small anecdote, allowing a quick insight into the personal life of the interviewee. Maybe she took a long time to arrive at the interview. Or maybe he brought his dog with him and Fido tried to bite you on sight. These little moments make for superb storytelling in a human interest story. Your readers will absolutely love it.
3. The Nut Graf:
In an inverted pyramid, the nut graf is typically the second paragraph. However, when writing a human interest profile, the nut graf can come several paragraphs down the road. There should be a well-described reason why you are interviewing this person. Why is this person relevant and interesting to your readers right now? Has she won an award for something outstanding? Is he accepting the congressional medal of honor next week? Did she discover a cure for cancer?
The nut graf is when we, the readers, begin learning who is who. Not only does the subject’s credibility matter, but why is your media outlet interviewing them is important, as well. How does their time benefit you and vice versa? This should tie in with how their accomplishments matter to the readers, and to the world.
4. The Scene Starts to Roll
Okay, so now you begin writing where you and the subject have a dialogue. This is where the fun starts. You used your voice recorder or smartphone to record the conversation and you have tons of gritty and deep quotes. You want to add all of them. But you know you cannot. You must decide what goes in and where. Just as exciting as it is, you can get frustrated, too. This could take several drafts.
But don’t worry because you are a damn good writer. Depending on what the topic is about, have you made a choice about what the specific topic is about? Hopefully, you already did. I mention this because adding a wealth of quotes can ruin your human interest story, therefore making a general profile rather than the intended specific.
5. Wrapping it Up
After you have written the best piece of a feature on this side of heaven, you now need to bring it to the finale. This is where you write about any future plans and hopes and dreams the subject has. Remember to keep it specific to the topic of the story. But get personal with it. Does he have hope? Is she worried that the cancer vaccine she invented will get overshadowed by her team of shady doctors? Is he worried you might sue him for his dog attacking you?
More importantly, write of how the person affected the world specifically and why that matters now and in the future. Bring out these moments. Ending a story with a quote is somewhat cliche, but many journalists still do it. Even I do it sometimes. But it provides a good, solid way to enforce the theme of the story to your readers. It is as if you were saying to the readers: “This is what is what all about the whole time.”
More Human Interest Story Tips
6. Writing Details
This makes writing a human interest story worthwhile.
Most journalists have, to some degree, experience in creative writing (like me). And when we are allowed to write a feature story, we can utilize all those fantastic methods we learned in our fiction writing classes. I’m referring to many things, but especially character and setting details, and quotes that are unusual for using in a typical media news story.
For example, if you are writing a human interest story about a woman who cured cancer and you met her at her office for the interview, it could go like this:
For a woman who was nothing short of genius and has made a vaccine that eradicated lung cancer, Margot Lizzo’s office reflected a woman who cared more about anointing posters of science fiction films on her walls than diplomas. Margot (who would tell me during the interview to refer to have as “Magpie”—a name she kept in honor of her late father who passed away from lung cancer just two years prior), entered the room in flip flops and an oversized stained white shirt. Her pants, which were purchased from a thrift store, had rips and holes in various sizes down the seams. Magpie was not your typical doctor. No. She was more. Magpie was special.
The key to the above paragraph is that it is all relevant information about the character. What did we learn about her? Well, she is unlike a stereotypical scientist. She knows all about cancer, but she doesn’t flaunt it with degrees and accomplishments on her office walls. She is humble. In fact, her taste borders on immature. Movie posters don her walls instead. And her attire is unordinary, as well. Rather than meeting for her interview that will discuss her groundbreaking cure of lung cancer, she greets the interviewer in run-down clothes. Magpie is different and the journalist took note of that difference to incorporate into the human interest story. You should do the same.
7. Create Vivid Scenes
From the research you have done, the interviews with others who know your subject, and from the actual dialogue you have had with him or her, you can now produce special moments of your subject’s life. This is very important as it will provide a deeper insight into his or her character, making the reader feel empathy. A connection of this sort is absolutely critical for the human interest story to work successfully.
Perhaps if they informed you of a special heart-to-heart instance with their grandmother before she died, you can use that as a bridge to the next piece in your story. Everything the subject says does not have to appear in dialogue. In fact, you will likely have so many quotes and overall information from them by the end that only very specific quotes will actually get used. The rest, likely, will serve as the prose of your narration in your human interest story. For example:
The father, Dylan, but everyone nicknamed him “Sylvio” on account of his love for mafia movies, suffered for two years with lung cancer, Magpie says, gasping while she crying. It was the moments after chemotherapy that were the hardest for them. The losing of his hair. The weakness in his knees. And the never-ending expression of pain and regret in his eyes he had from smoking cigarettes all his life just destroyed Magpie every time she saw her dad’s face. “I feel responsible,” she says. “I could have done more to help him.”
To truly nail writing a feature story, think of the times you have read or wrote fiction. Maybe you still write fiction. Or perhaps you did many years ago. Even if you never had, creating a human interest story is fun because of the freedom you have to include these special details. Depending on the word count, you can write detailed scenes and provide deep emotional insights into your subjects’ lives.
8. Use Dialogue Correctly
Like I said above, you will have so many quotes you may not know what to do with them all. That is good, though. If this is your first feature story 
you are writing, don’t freak out over it. Keep the quotes and use them wisely. Within the mounds of prose, you will need to use those quotes to mix up the flow, to keep it interesting.
But you don’t want to use any old dialogue you may have had with your subject. You should have a keen sense to choose which pieces of dialogue belong in your story. For example:
Discussing one of the last times Magpie brought her dad to chemotherapy, she revealed a secret about the family.
“I know you love me, dad,” she said. “I know you never said it to any of us, mom or my sister, and when you have in the past, it was always awkward. Forced. Maybe that’s why you strayed from repeating it at all. But I know you do love us. Sometimes we need to hear it.”
Sylvio nodded in response.
“Still nothing?” she said. “You have terminal cancer and you still cannot tell me you love me, dad? Why?”
It wasn’t until some weeks later she said that he laid motionless on his bed, hospice nurses around him that he called his daughter over. She said he hadn’t spoken in some days. The power to produce words was gone. Dylan “Sylvio” Lizzo was at his end. However, when Magpie sat near her dad and brought her face to his, she could see they formed “I love you.”
The dialogue here works because it is not only powerful, it is something that we can relate to easily. Parents and their children. Emotional bonds. Sickness and death. These moments are inevitable. And your readers may have already experienced something like that or could be going through something like that. When they read it, trust they will feel the connection.
Even More Human Interest Story Tips
9. Syntax
This part here is a personal favorite of mine: the PROSE.
I am a sucker for a story with beautiful writing. If the story is uninteresting, but the prose is gorgeous and poetic and different, I will read the entire piece. Typical news media stories are not written in such ways. Time is of the essence, so the writing must be direct and immediate. However, thankfully, journalists in the 1960s introduced new techniques akin to literary fiction into their works. This style, “New Journalism,” changed everything, giving writers and editors new avenues to explore when they write the feature stories.
A particular love of mine in literature is its freedom. An author can write fiction inside out and as long as it tells a great story, it is okay. Feature stories allow—to some degree—the same freedoms. Especially with the actual sentence formation, the syntax can be tweaked so it appears as a somewhat interior monologue-ish vibe. From there, there are no limits. Vary your sentences. For example:
Magpie’s mind races as she speaks of her father’s last wish.
She had made her way up the mountain. Already, she had fallen twice. She wasn’t making the climb for herself. It was where he had wanted his ashes spread. Her dying father. Damn that sickness. Cancer. She had cured it for everyone else. But not in time for her own father. She will never live that down. But she can lay him to rest the way he wanted. “Keep going up, Magpie,” she could remember him saying to her when she fell off the swing set at 5 years old. “Get back on. Don’t give up.”
10. Point of View and Tense
While the majority of news writing is in the past tense, the feature story usually takes a different approach by using the present tense. The present tense is chosen here because of its need to stand out from the typical breaking story formula. Also, features use present tense to ensure that you, the reader, stay alert and grounded during the deeply emotional and sometimes, lengthy, story. The present tense forces a reader to experience the story as it unfolds. It is as if you can see and hear and feel what the subject is going through.
Another tool is the unorthodoxy way human interest stories will use a second-person point of view, “YOU.” Most novels never use this POV. The fact that feature stories do use it, makes them stand out. Also, this POV puts the reader directly in the story, as if you are the subject.
Try to avoid first-person stories. Stick with third and second-person stories. First-person isn’t right for feature stories because it isn’t about you, the writer. It is about the subject, the person. You, the reporter, the journalist, should never be acknowledged. You are invisible.
Related Questions
What is a good way to begin a correspondence with a potential client?
Before the research, before the writing, and before the layout of the story, a journalist must first build rapport with his or her potential interviewee. Whether it is your idea or your project editor’s idea to do the story, it is your responsibility to set up the interview.
After you have his or her information, begin the contact process. The easiest way is through email. Keep it friendly but professional, and short. Too much rambling could compromise his or her correspondence with you. Don’t ruin it before it begins.
A good introduction email could look like this:
Dear Mr/s. John/Jane Doe,
I hope this email finds you well.
My name is Robert Smith and I am a journalist for XYZ media. We are doing a feature story about saving the environment and you were at the top of our list of outstanding contributors to the environment. Your past work with eradicating garbage (especially plastic products) from the nearby lakes has impressed us so much that we want to do a 5-page profile about you. Our readers of XYZ media want to know who you are, both professionally and personally.
We know that you are busy, but we hope that you will grant us a moment of your time for this story. We plan to have your story published in our next edition. If you are available for the interview next week, that would be perfect.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at xyzmedia@xyz.com or call my office phone 555-555-8888.
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you.
Best Regards,
Robert Smith
This example is simple and direct.
It introduces the journalist and his media outlet, which is important because waiting for the sign off is too late and … mysterious. Don’t let a potential story not know who you are.
It then provides a few compliments. But what is more important, is that the writer mentions how the readers want to know about the person—not just him. That is the key. Make the impression that the general public is interested.
And then enforce a deadline. Or at the very least, make the deadline noticeable. Otherwise, what is forcing the person to correspond with you? Without a deadline, they might forget about your email.
Provide your contact information and wish him or her a nice day.
You can even provide a link to the company’s website so they can get a better feel of who you are and what your media outlet is about. Also, if you wanted to ask one or two specific questions in the body of the email might be a good idea. The questions could allow him or her to gauge what the potential interview would entail. It could make them feel safe knowing you aren’t going to ask them any “gotcha” questions.
Furthermore, feel free to name drop people you both might know. If the interviewee is familiar with your editor or another journalist in the industry, feel free to mention it. Good relations generate good relations. It doesn’t hurt.
What are some ways to research a potential client?
Compiling information about your topic and the individual you will interview is a mandatory step. Knowing as much as you can before the meeting will help you get a sense of who the person is and how he or she might respond to the questions you will ask.
Research should begin with Google searches. Beginning with names. Scout other interviews or articles he or she had done in the past.
- Can you take any information from their past interviews and make similar questions?
- Perhaps they will expand on that subject more elaborately now that they have been asked it a second time.
- Have they written any articles on a similar subject?
- If so, can you incorporate the information into your interview?
- Does the article they wrote conflict with any topics you will bring up?
- If so, can you reword any similar questions to appear differently?
Then, research videos. Investigate their demeanors during interviews.
- Were they friendly?
- Was their body language welcoming or were they shut off?
- Did certain questions or topics force them to retreat or provide general answers?
- Avoid questions that will provide general answers or simple YES/NO responses.
- Did their answers seem genuine?
- Did they seem as if they were sidestepping questions?
- Is it because of the questions or was it because of the journalist’s aggressiveness?
Then, research social media. Any good journalist worth his or her salt will do this.
- Chances are they already have a LinkedIn profile.
- If so, see any projects they worked on in the past.
- Can you develop any questions from their achievements?
- *Compliment their achievements at the beginning of your interview.*
- If so, see any projects they worked on in the past.
- If they have a Facebook profile (or any other non-professional social media account):
- If they have pictures of their families or friends at sports games or special events or trips, you can add that your family enjoys the same.
- It is good to build rapport this way.
- This step could happen before the interview begins to set him or her at ease.
What type of gear should I use for a feature story interview?
Usually, a journalist will bring with them a few trusty gadgets that will assist in the interview process. Most are relatively affordable. You likely already have them.
A smartphone is the handiest tool a journalist can have these days. I use my smartphone for field assignments and phone interviews all the time. Smartphones come with built-in voice recorders specially made for such occasions. If your phone does not have one, then surely an app can do the trick. Go to the app store on your phone and download it.
If you don’t mind carrying around an extra device, you can always purchase an actual voice recorder. They are cheap and do the same job as the smartphone.
There probably will be a need for photos. Every feature story needs a few good photos of the individual and the environment they specialize in. As handy as a smartphone is, I suggest you don’t use it for professional photography. Buy a DSLR or mirrorless camera for a few hundred bucks. I did and it takes excellent pictures. The DSLR cameras these days have loads of options.
A tripod may or may not be necessary. I know some journalists who have used tripods and monopods for a simple feature story interview. Tripods work well for balance and steady shooting. However, unless you are planning to record the actual video with your DSLR, then you can skip the tripod. Taking handheld photos will do just fine.
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