Writing a feature

Post Tips is designed for students. This week, the column is also written by students – except for a few ideas and exercises that I added at the end.

ISB students Jung-Bum (JB) Hur (far left) and Camilla Russell (far right) stand together with real.time magazine writers Joe Smith and Kong Rithdee. Earlier this year the two ISB students spent a week with real.time as student interns.

We (Camilla and JB) came here as interns from the International School Bangkok. We were assigned at real.time to work with writers Kong Rithdee, Joe Smith and Weerapoln "Joey" Rummaneerattanakul to learn how they create feature articles. A feature article is different from a news article. It focuses more on "what is interesting" than "what happened" so features can be more fun than news articles.

The "birth" of a feature piece begins with getting an idea for a story. Writer Kong Rithdee explains that ideas can come from anywhere. He's found ideas by glancing through the newspaper, listening to the radio, watching TV or simply having a friend give him a good lead. If these don't work and panic sets in, they then pull out a dusty card board box appropriately named the "Idea Box." In this ancient carton lie hundreds of ideas waiting for their five minutes of fame.

After they have found an interesting idea, the writers go out and research the story. For example, the chief editor Prapai Kraisornkovit noticed a growing interest in pre-teen pop stars and assigned a writer to do a feature on the topic. That is the story we worked on this week.

New to feature writing, but a seasoned reporter, Joey was chosen to research and write the feature. An important part of this process involves developing an "angle" – a point of view. Interestingly, we found out the angle can change as the story develops.

With this feature, Joey’s first angle was to question whether the images or personalities of pre-teen stars are genuine or creations of their record companies. (As you will see, however, this eventually changed – almost at the last minute.)

Joey interviewed producers, radio DJ's and the singers themselves with his first angle in mind. Using their answers he wrote a draft of the article and sent it to Joe for sub-editing. This basically involves organising and rewriting some of the content so the story is easier to read. We tried this ourselves and the writing and the organising took four hours.

While he was sub-editing it, Joe realized that the angle wasn't right for real.time. It was too critical, more like an Outlook or a Perspectives feature. real.time is a leisure section and its readers are mostly adults. The article must have something to do with leisure and it must be interesting to its adult readers. He discussed the change with Joey and they decided to go with a new angle: an overview of the pre-teen pop phenomenon. This angle was more appropriate to real.time's purpose and readership.

The final draft was then sent to the art room. There, it was laid out as it would appear on the actual paper. The art room decides the layout and chooses which graphics go with the article's text. In this article, photos of the singers from their album covers or publicity shots were used.

Advertisements are also put into the layout. Everyone admits that the more advertisements there are, the happier they are, because the advertisements are the "bread and butter" of real.time.

The final copy is then sent downstairs to Allied Printers where the real.time section is printed and distributed to the public as part of the Bangkok Post.

Camilla and JB listen intently as real.time sub-editor Bernie Cooper explains how their work might be improved.

Reading the feature

In the introduction to a feature story, the writer often tries to make a clear connection between the reader and the article. In a story about umbrellas, for example, the introduction would probably start with talking about the rainy season. In this article, the introduction talks about how you can turn on Channel [V] and see how pre-teens are influencing today's pop culture.

Brat new world Movers and shakers of the pre-teen pop scene WEERAPOLN RUMMANEERATTANAKUL Switch onto Channel [V] right now and the singers you see may well be closer to 10 than 20. They'll be wearing make up and trendy clothes that respectable society finds, well, not respectable. These pre-pubescent pop-stars will be pouting, preening and prancing in a way that would make adults blush, and singing, usually, about love. Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few years, you will have noticed that pop stars are getting younger and younger and pre-teen culture is getting stronger and stronger. CDs, radio stations, magazines, DJs, VJs, even entire record labels are dedicated to serving this new market. Anan Anwar, who is studying at grade seven at the International School of Bangkok, is the latest star of record label RS Promotions. The 12-year-old half-Scottish, half-Indonesian singer shot to the top of the charts with his songs "Pai Rong " (Go To School) and "Simon Says". The idea is for Anan to charm us with playful extrovert personality and cute furry mammal looks. His producer, Sudhipong Vatanajang, former singer well-known under the name Chompoo Fruity, resists the idea that Anan was given an image to fit a market. The young star, he says, was discovered rather than created. He says: "We didn't have a project of creating any pre-teen star. When we met him, we saw that star quality in him and his abilities to entertain the audience truly by himself. He is a lot more talented than anyone else we've seen at this age. We wanted him since he was seven or eight, but the board decided he was way too young." Anan, whose older brother Johnny has also had hit singles in the Thai charts as part of the pop duo Johnny and Louis, confirms that he is only doing what comes naturally. "I always love to sing and dance," says Anan. "I saw my brother Johnny being so happy in his singing career, that's why I want to do it too." The producer of 15-year-old two-girl band Niece has the same story. Zomkiat Ariya- chaipanich of Dojo City, the label attached to Bakery Music, says: "It's not a fill-in-the-blank kind of question where we start with the qualifications and then find someone to fit in there. The singers need to have their own identity before we can use the theory to make them popular. "These two girls are quite different from other kids. They know themselves; they know what they like, they know their music, they know how to dress." The ultra-cute singers, Kiratra Promsakha na Sakon Nakhon and Apasneekit Sirirat-usdorn, released their debut album in September last year with their hit singles "Pai Phak" (Rest Up) and "Beeb Mue" (Squeeze). "They don't need to be really good," reveals Zomkiat, "but they do have to love music and love to perform. Singing and dancing abilities can come later. "As well as the music, their personalities are also important to the listeners." "We have our special team to produce the music for them," says Zomkiat. "For dance tracks, we start with the melody, but for ballads, we start from the words." What effect does this celebrity have on the young stars themselves? Are the stresses and strains of a professional entertainers' working schedule too much to impose on a child? Varisara "Pookpik" Prapayon, 12, from hot new pop trio Triple Shake tells a heartbreaking story about the release of their album of the same name: "We cried because we were so tired. But in the end we understood how the team wanted to do the best for everybody." Pookpik, who studies at grade eight at St Francis Xavier Convent School, and fellow members, Kulrat "Nam Tuey" Pimsen, 11 and Tippawan "Lek" Charungwong, 14, both at Navamindrachinutis Bodindecha School, capitalise on a sweet, natural "kids from next door image". Since the girls of Triple Shake are still students, all production has to be after school and on the weekend. "We have to pay attention to our study more as we have less time than other kids," says Nam Tuey. "But never mind. We've gained a lot of experiences that other kids don't have." It's not all a case of how celebrity is detrimental to the young artist's lives, however. There's also the potential for a lot of learning — and earning. "We treat them in a professional way, just like adult singers. They have to be punctual and spend not too much time on any particular thing." Anan's producer Sudhipong agrees: "This is a big chance for him to learn about duty and responsibility. He has to try to organise his time, otherwise neither work nor school will go well." "It's a good thing when he's happy with his work and proud of himself. Later on, he will become a teenager who has self-confidence and knows the value of money."

Follow-up

Look through the Outlook section of one or more issues of the Bangkok Post for several interesting-looking feature stories. If you have an issue of real.time, that will, of course, be very good as well. Look through the title and introduction of each story and, as quickly as possible, try to determine (1) the general topic of the story and (2) the particular angle the writer has chosen for the topic.

If you are not still not sure what "angle" means, here is a simple example. Suppose you want to write a story about your school. There are many angles you could take on the subject. For example, you could write about something particular interesting or unusual about your school – like its support for student activities or its emphasis on Thai culture or maybe its up-to-date Internet website. Perhaps you might want to focus on some famous or influential people who have attended your school in the past. I’m sure you can think of other angles as well.

You can learn a lot from your students. That quickly became obvious from our recent experience with three ISB interns who stayed with us for a week in June. They were assigned to find out as much as they could about particular sections of our Bangkok Post and before they were finished, they taught us quite a few things that we didn’t know.

On June 28, we featured a Post Tips lesson by one of our interns, Dana Brown. He described his experience in the editorial department and gave us an insider’s view of how the news is gathered at the Bangkok Post. This week it is the turn of Camilla Russell and Jung-Bum (JB) Hur who describe how feature stories are produced for the real.time magazine.

They give your students a very good overview of the feature-writing process and that is where you should begin. Have your students make a list of the steps described by the two interns.

Their focus on the "angle" of a feature is particularly useful. Understanding the general topic of the feature and the writer’s particular angle on the topic will give your students a great start in understanding the feature as a whole. Too often, students fail to do this and they get quite confused as a result.

Next week: An interview with another up-and-coming feature writer at the Bangkok Post.

This lesson was prepared by Camilla Russell and Jung-Bum (JB) Hur. They both attend school at the International School Bangkok. Camilla is an aspiring artist while JB is going to walk on Mars. They were assisted – just a little – by the Bangkok Post’s educational services staff which includes Terry Fredrickson, Sunee Canyook, and Maureen Paetkau.