I’m sure you know about how-to or instructional articles. Since they have a very important place reserved in publications, I thought of writing about them in as brief as possible. Instructional articles (or how-to articles) show a reader how to do something. The possibilities are really endless. You can write instructional articles on cooking a french toast, pruning an orange tree, getting fit, making money, speaking in public, fixing a flat tyre or what-not. You can come up with about 40+ possibilities in less than a minute!

Your first instructional articles need to be about a subject you know about. This is the most important and first step. You may be very good at Indian cooking or training dogs or speaking in public. This first-hand knowledge is a vital resource for writing an instructional piece. Order is everything in these types of articles. Put things in the order they are in real life. This will make your article much simpler-to-understand and it’ll make a lot of sense, to even beginners who have absolutely no prior knowledge. State the obvious, because the reader is not expected to be as knowledgeable as yourself.

Use simple language but don’t talk down to the reader. This article is a fine example of A recipe is a prime example of an instructional article. It is absolutely necessary to get every fact, every figure, every instruction correct. There’s a big difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon of baking soda. Be straightforward. Also try writing conversationally (writing just like how we speak), but that’s up to you, as your writing style can be unique.

An instructional article can range from 200 words to about 1000, depending on the complexity of the topic, of course. Accompanying photographs are handy with this type of article, especially for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) topics. There’s nothing that beginners love more in DIY articles than clear graphical illustrations of the text that’s written, in order to follow the instructional artticle very clearly.

Once you have developed some confidence in writing in this style, you could try your hand at covering slightly unfamiliar topics. You do not have to be an expert in the area, though some interest does help. A good non-fiction writer, like a good reporter, can collect information from an expert and then pass it on in terms the reader understands. It’s an art that you’ll take some time to master, but it definitely is worth mastering. Go get ‘em!

If you’ve been following my recent posts, you surely know you need superb and attention-grabbing ideas to get started. It’s pretty obvious, so I’m not going to dig any deeper with that. Now, the problem for most of us is that it gets hard to find ideas. I’m sure you can relate to it! If you’re a media-guy/girl, you’re almost certain to have had problems with coming up with good ideas for your non-fiction work at some time. (If not, I’d love to take classes from you)

I’ve developed a couple of strategies for developing ideas. That’s what this post is going to be about. Let’s get started.

Starting with What You Know
Everyone’s life is unique in some way. So,start with your own life experiences. Consider writing about them. It may be a story about travelling with a small child, or passing an important exam, or failing another, or choosing a nursing home for an elderly parent, or surviving a mid-life crisis.

Perhaps your working life is a good starting point. What about your training—do you have an in-depth knowledge of a topic that you could pass on to a layperson? Writing about something you know well or have experienced first hand can really build your confidence and it will show in your writing—your story will sound more authoritative.

Study Your Market
Researching Market will give you instant ideas to write content on, for your publication. I shall be discussing this extensively in some other blog posts. And don’t underestimate market research, either. It’s the most important tool for getting ideas.
Know Your Readers
Think about the kinds of stories that interest your readers. Consider their daily lives, their worries, preoccupations, what they talk about with their friends, what you think they might be striving for. For a shortcut, look at back issues of a publication to get an idea of what’s already been written for these readers—this will give you a clearer picture of what you could write.

What is Feature Writing??

Literally, “feature” means a special part of something. So, what do you think is “feature articles”? Easy! Feature arti­cles are usually just some special portions of the periodicals that publish them.

Yes, they indeed do take different forms and approaches. Most people familiar with non-fiction writing for news, etc. think of the traditional straight news or hard news topics and approaches—sports, local govern­ment, politics, technology, business—written so as to clear the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the news story. That’s all, really. These features articles are meant to focus on the important people, the activities, current happenings, local and regional orientation, nature of the event, and explaining the particular event.

Feature stories are special. Feature writers generally engage some kind of flexibility and focus on the unconventional or the different. In simple terms, they think outside the box! Feature writers look for the story about someone who is not necessarily a newsmaker. Instead, the feature story is about something or someone offbeat and very en­tertaining to the public.

Feature stories are meant to be emotional, and involve the readers directly. They feed on reader reaction! These articles can be serious or light, happy or sad…You get the picture.

In conclusion, I’d just say feature articles aren’t some typical lazy journalism work. They’re creative. They’re subjective. Just informing the reader about facts isn’t it, feature writers go way beyond that. They think outside the box and entertain (in some way) the readers with facts!

Feature Writing Examples:

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