JOMC 256: An intro to feature writing and blogging about it.

After covering a veterans affairs beat last semester, I've decided to continue that beat and transfer it into strictly features. It's what I'm passionate about and it's what I aspire to do as a career, so it comes naturally. 


For information on my veterans affairs beat and to better understand what it is I will be writing about here, see my FAQ.


I'm hoping to expand my beat but more than anything, I want to learn how to write features much better than I have in the past. As I said in class on the first day, I want to know how to do a heck of a lot more than just an anecdotal lede. So much of what military journalism is is feature writing and if I truly want to go into that field, I need to be much better at it than I am now. Which is not very good. At least I don't think so.


I'll be using my site to keep track of my stories, but also to chronicle my work process--how things are going, what challenges I come across, etc. As I collect more and more information, I'll also add to my FAQ.



In the past, before I really understood what feature writing was, I wrote feature stories in much the same manner as I wrote most other news stories and looking back on them, I'm a bit embarrassed. Even now, with the little bit of knowledge I have, I know I could have done better than I did. The fact of the matter is, I've needed this class for a while now.


It's hard to say, but I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorite classes of the semester. Reporting last semester was tough because it was so much work and I was constantly on-on-on. This is going to be slower paced, but with longer pieces. So probably just as much work, but I'll be sure to manage my time better. The experience of being in reporting was definitely a big help to my writing and I think that will reflect in my work for this class.