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The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide
Covers topic selection, story dimensions, organization, and editing.
272 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 1988
159 people are currently reading
1097 people want to read
About the author
William E. Blundell
6 books3 followersWilliam E. Blundell was a news editor at the Wall Street Journal, where he was a reporter, page-one writer, Los Angeles Bureau chief and national correspondent. He won the Mike Berger Award, granted by the trustees of Columbia University, for distinguished metropolitan reporting in New York; the Ray Howard Public Service Award of the Scripps-Howard Foundation and the Distinguished Writing Award for non-deadline feature writing, granted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
September 15, 2018
"Spot" or one-event news, written for print, employs a standard format, usually called "inverted pyramid." (Get the most important who-what-when-where-why-how up front, and as the paragraphs roll on, make the supporting information less and less vital to the reader's understanding of the story.) But feature journalism requires different techniques, and in my opinion this is one of the best guides to approaching it. It has aged remarkably little in the intervening years. Cheers to William Blundell for writing such an enduring little guide book.
November 13, 2014
Fantastic. By reading this book over going to J-school, you could save yourself something like $75,000!
Okay, sort of kidding. But I found this book excellent and very satisfying. Something that sets it apart from general 'how to write' manuals is its focus on a specific form, the newspaper feature. (Which form was longer-format back in the '80s when this book was written, you'll notice.) That narrowness of focus allows Blundell to give very detailed advice about structure and organization and the writing process, as well as something very important—how to generate interesting ideas. You will likely find yourself reading newspaper articles with a different eye after you've been through this book.
Blundell goes deeper into the nitty gritty of his particular form than many 'how to write' authors who aspire to reach a larger audience—but while this books is ideally suited to journalists, I think that many of his points can be extrapolated to other kinds of writing as well. (His discussion of word choice, where he calls some words "blobs," is an amusing take on a lesson every prose writer needs to learn.)
The only part of the book I didn't love was the final chapter on 'Stretching Out.' The article Blundell offered as a shining example of super-long-format work was, to this gal, almost unreadable. But skipping that chapter was easy, and everything else in the book stands tall.
Okay, sort of kidding. But I found this book excellent and very satisfying. Something that sets it apart from general 'how to write' manuals is its focus on a specific form, the newspaper feature. (Which form was longer-format back in the '80s when this book was written, you'll notice.) That narrowness of focus allows Blundell to give very detailed advice about structure and organization and the writing process, as well as something very important—how to generate interesting ideas. You will likely find yourself reading newspaper articles with a different eye after you've been through this book.
Blundell goes deeper into the nitty gritty of his particular form than many 'how to write' authors who aspire to reach a larger audience—but while this books is ideally suited to journalists, I think that many of his points can be extrapolated to other kinds of writing as well. (His discussion of word choice, where he calls some words "blobs," is an amusing take on a lesson every prose writer needs to learn.)
The only part of the book I didn't love was the final chapter on 'Stretching Out.' The article Blundell offered as a shining example of super-long-format work was, to this gal, almost unreadable. But skipping that chapter was easy, and everything else in the book stands tall.
Want to read
February 4, 2010"Show them the forest; introduce them to a tree."
— William Blundell, author of The Art and Craft of Feature Writing
— William Blundell, author of The Art and Craft of Feature Writing
March 22, 2018
This is an okay read with some useful tips, but also not remotely up to date. I can't believe it has not been updated, but since my college bought this 1988 book in 2015, evidently not.
The author enjoys reflecting on the disorganised reporter and how it is stressful to while away a morning and then have a long lunch and then scramble around trying to write something worth turning in to an editor.
Eventually he tells us how to organise the work, stapling six A4 sheets together and writing an outline (which he doesn't call an outline) on them. He has a peculiar code for his notes. All this we would do on computers today.
Referring to several lengthy articles, the author explains about gathering information from sources and quoting them, but not plastering lengthy titles across the first lines of the article. Indeed, we need to beware the biased source, or the one with an axe to grind, or who might retract something. And we don't need to quote everyone we interview, just a spread of opinions; but it is not right to say 'brokers claim that' if you only asked two brokers. He suggests good opening paragraphs, what editors he knows call the nut graf, meaning the nut of the matter, and closing words - which may anyway be cut for length. Then he demonstrates editing for length, removing repetition and using active verbs instead of passive.
Mainly I kept thinking that the author could have packed in a great deal more useful information, like what to call a source who doesn't want to be named, legal issues such as libel, getting confirmation of claims; like planning ahead and pitching a Christmas article during the summer or a summer sailing article during early spring; like putting together a tick-tock instead of all the tedious timeline writing; like compiling a feature from various items; humour or light articles; like writing around photographs. Photos don't get a mention. We are encouraged to paint scenes and characters in words, which is fine except that most magazines (and all websites) want at least one photo with an article.
The articles reproduced for us are lengthy, American and in some cases too long. I found the one on timber workers interesting, and the Mexican illegal labourers, and the Wyoming boom towns; but not the baseball one, while the very lengthy Texas oil wealth legal issue lost my interest before halfway; and reproducing all these again at the end seemed like padding. I spotted several typos.
This book will interest students of journalism and working reporters, but I recommend finding a much more up to date read as well.
I borrowed this book from Dublin Business School Library. This is an unbiased review.
The author enjoys reflecting on the disorganised reporter and how it is stressful to while away a morning and then have a long lunch and then scramble around trying to write something worth turning in to an editor.
Eventually he tells us how to organise the work, stapling six A4 sheets together and writing an outline (which he doesn't call an outline) on them. He has a peculiar code for his notes. All this we would do on computers today.
Referring to several lengthy articles, the author explains about gathering information from sources and quoting them, but not plastering lengthy titles across the first lines of the article. Indeed, we need to beware the biased source, or the one with an axe to grind, or who might retract something. And we don't need to quote everyone we interview, just a spread of opinions; but it is not right to say 'brokers claim that' if you only asked two brokers. He suggests good opening paragraphs, what editors he knows call the nut graf, meaning the nut of the matter, and closing words - which may anyway be cut for length. Then he demonstrates editing for length, removing repetition and using active verbs instead of passive.
Mainly I kept thinking that the author could have packed in a great deal more useful information, like what to call a source who doesn't want to be named, legal issues such as libel, getting confirmation of claims; like planning ahead and pitching a Christmas article during the summer or a summer sailing article during early spring; like putting together a tick-tock instead of all the tedious timeline writing; like compiling a feature from various items; humour or light articles; like writing around photographs. Photos don't get a mention. We are encouraged to paint scenes and characters in words, which is fine except that most magazines (and all websites) want at least one photo with an article.
The articles reproduced for us are lengthy, American and in some cases too long. I found the one on timber workers interesting, and the Mexican illegal labourers, and the Wyoming boom towns; but not the baseball one, while the very lengthy Texas oil wealth legal issue lost my interest before halfway; and reproducing all these again at the end seemed like padding. I spotted several typos.
This book will interest students of journalism and working reporters, but I recommend finding a much more up to date read as well.
I borrowed this book from Dublin Business School Library. This is an unbiased review.
December 23, 2018
As a writer of talent but little note, I found The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on the Wall Street Journal Guide to be extremely useful in improving my craft of telling a real (nonfiction) story in a very compelling way. It was a slow and painful read, not only because it's old now (1988) and the feature stories from the Wall Street Journal, mostly written by William E. Blundell himself, are dated, but also, strangely enough, because the book design is very horrible, with a typeface long worthy of extinction. As if the yellowed pages were not enough.
I will continue to refer to this precious book often, and I advise you, dear writer, to do the same. You'll find plenty of copies on AbeBooks or Amazon for a song.
I will continue to refer to this precious book often, and I advise you, dear writer, to do the same. You'll find plenty of copies on AbeBooks or Amazon for a song.
April 11, 2009
Blundell provides useful advice on how to start and finish a feature story. While aimed at reporters and magazine writers, much of his advice is practical and applicable to anyone looking to write nonfiction. His method of organizing notes is a little dated and seems haphazard (there are many great software and methods available online to handle this aspect), but his breakdown of how to approach a story is recommended.
Worth re-reading in parts and for the sample articles within.
Worth re-reading in parts and for the sample articles within.
September 15, 2013
a really superb guide. Full of good advice. I've worked years to arrive at some of the author's insights. Inspiring.
August 4, 2024
Finally finished reading this book from journalism camp and really enjoyed it. Very informative and the writer infused his personality into the book effortlessly making it really entertaining. Definitely recommend to writers young and old!
July 16, 2020
The single best book on writing I've ever read.
January 1, 2020
Very good but a bit overwhelming for beginners.
July 5, 2015
(Welp, fuck you very much, Goodreads, for eating my review. Here goes take 2...)
I bought this book because I've felt like I can write well enough when expressing my own opinions (book reviews, record reviews, concert writeups), but I have a lot more trouble working on larger pieces that involve multiple interviews, precise chronology, or narrative tension. As a zine writer, it's easy enough to write an intro, a few thoughts of your own, and then present a transcribed interview, but I have to think it can be done better. I call it "through-written", even though I'm not sure if that's really a term. I want my articles to be through-written, not just blobs of information I've mined. Which is why I decided to turn to a writer for the Wall Street Journal, circa 1986, for insight on the structuring of a long-form feature story.
The book is broken into eight parts, covering all of the extensive pre-prep that must be done before you even think of putting two words next to each other. Sections include raw materials, polishing your ideas, asking the right questions, advanced-level organization, storycraft, wordcraft, and stretching out into long-form, which is the topic I was most interested in. I'm currently sitting on a pile of about 35,000 words (more like 40,000 once I add the most recent interview I did with the guy) about one artist, which I'm trying to carve and smooth and nuance into something like a solid 25,000 word piece with some narrative motion and not too many herky-jerky transitions. I turned to this book for that, and I got some very good advice. Blundell mostly works with articles around 1,500 to 2,500 words in length, which is pretty far below what I'm shooting for, and frankly, the section on stretching out was basically a long transcribed article with a few minor bits of commentary between sections. Kind of like going to your first meeting with your thesis adviser and having them hand you a previous student's thesis and telling you to really study it hard, because "this guy really did a nice job."
I wasn't exactly hoping for this book to knock me to the ground like Saul on the road to Damascus, so I was happy with the meat-and-potatoes advice I got. It was mostly what I expected -- know your topic well in advance of interviewing your first person, ask yourself the big questions about the nature of the piece, what you're trying to answer, and really build the exoskeleton before you even think of pouring in the guts. I'll definitely have it nearby when I'm trying to drain the swamp of my own making and turn it into a usable piece of writing.
Frankly, though, I was also glad that Blundell noted that he still gets nervous and unsure every time he starts a new feature story, and that he just pushes through, and that sometimes, all the pieces don't add up. Which is why you have your next feature to redeem yourself. As Jackie Kashian says, "the only remedy for a bad standup set is a good standup set...get back out there tomorrow."
I bought this book because I've felt like I can write well enough when expressing my own opinions (book reviews, record reviews, concert writeups), but I have a lot more trouble working on larger pieces that involve multiple interviews, precise chronology, or narrative tension. As a zine writer, it's easy enough to write an intro, a few thoughts of your own, and then present a transcribed interview, but I have to think it can be done better. I call it "through-written", even though I'm not sure if that's really a term. I want my articles to be through-written, not just blobs of information I've mined. Which is why I decided to turn to a writer for the Wall Street Journal, circa 1986, for insight on the structuring of a long-form feature story.
The book is broken into eight parts, covering all of the extensive pre-prep that must be done before you even think of putting two words next to each other. Sections include raw materials, polishing your ideas, asking the right questions, advanced-level organization, storycraft, wordcraft, and stretching out into long-form, which is the topic I was most interested in. I'm currently sitting on a pile of about 35,000 words (more like 40,000 once I add the most recent interview I did with the guy) about one artist, which I'm trying to carve and smooth and nuance into something like a solid 25,000 word piece with some narrative motion and not too many herky-jerky transitions. I turned to this book for that, and I got some very good advice. Blundell mostly works with articles around 1,500 to 2,500 words in length, which is pretty far below what I'm shooting for, and frankly, the section on stretching out was basically a long transcribed article with a few minor bits of commentary between sections. Kind of like going to your first meeting with your thesis adviser and having them hand you a previous student's thesis and telling you to really study it hard, because "this guy really did a nice job."
I wasn't exactly hoping for this book to knock me to the ground like Saul on the road to Damascus, so I was happy with the meat-and-potatoes advice I got. It was mostly what I expected -- know your topic well in advance of interviewing your first person, ask yourself the big questions about the nature of the piece, what you're trying to answer, and really build the exoskeleton before you even think of pouring in the guts. I'll definitely have it nearby when I'm trying to drain the swamp of my own making and turn it into a usable piece of writing.
Frankly, though, I was also glad that Blundell noted that he still gets nervous and unsure every time he starts a new feature story, and that he just pushes through, and that sometimes, all the pieces don't add up. Which is why you have your next feature to redeem yourself. As Jackie Kashian says, "the only remedy for a bad standup set is a good standup set...get back out there tomorrow."
March 28, 2024
This book, man. It was both the longest slog and possibly the most useful and important book on writing I have read. Months after I started it, my spouse would look at me dutifully diving in every evening and say, "You're STILL reading that book??" I only read like 5 pages a day because it's so dense, and I did a lot of re-reading. Now that I'm done? I probably need to pick it right back up and start again.
What makes this book so useful is that it applies better to the kind of writing I'm doing than any other book. There are bazillions (technical term) of books for aspiring novelists, and dozens of general stylebooks, but books on how to write journalism? Rare. For feature writers specifically? This might be the only one.
Feature writing is different from daily news writing: it can be fluff, but mostly I think of the feature as a deeper dive. That's what I do these days. The first section covers how and where to get ideas: I would never have said this is a problem for me, I have a list of ideas as long as my arm, but Blundell has advice that was a game-changer for me: he says to have lots and lots of "wandering around the office" conversations, conversations that might appear pointless or a waste of time on the surface. I immediately put this into action and began meeting with key people off the record, for coffee, just to hear what they have to say. This has been incredibly productive over time. There's so much I don't know; the only way to learn is to ask. Not every conversation has to lead to a specific story, not every phone call has to be on the record. A good reporter vacuums up information everywhere they go and saves it up for when it's useful. (Caveat: always let whomever you are talking to know that you ARE a reporter, and whether they are on the record.)
What readers like and don't like: readers like dogs, and they don't like reams of data. Because of Blundell, my most recent story starts with a dog. I look back on my first stories and I now see too much data: numbers are important, but people can't process them very well. Be judicious with their use.
Adding energy and interest to tired topics: you do this by getting the scope of your story right, which is something I have a fairly good feeling for over years of practice, but I do tend to aim big. Blundell reminded me it's not only OK to zoom in, it's critical. There are countless stories on homeless encampments that cite national statistics, or that talk about how furious comfortably-housed people are at having to step around rough sleepers, or that interview a mayor about how much of a headache unhoused people are for his re-election campaign. There are very few journalists who get to know homeless people themselves, who stay in touch over time. So: change the scope, change the story. (This is, of course, also a much riskier take, not because unhoused people are dangerous but because housed people are judgmental: people let you into their lives, and you don't know what readers will do with that.)
Getting from first ideas to finished article: I have not figured out a way to do this other than sheer bloody effort, and Blundell pretty much agrees that's what it takes. He does have some story-mapping ideas that I have not put into practice, involving index cards and the like. From this section I mostly gathered smaller pieces of advice, like this one: "A more prevalent mistake, however, is any lack of tone at all. When this happens, and it happens too often, the story is a dead fish. ... The reporter has failed to see and develop points of drama that might dictate the tone of the story, or has been reluctant to take a stance, an attitude, toward developments he is writing about. I don't mean editorializing, which involves the taking of sides. I mean empathizing: the reporter briefly putting himself in the shoes of sources on both sides of an issue so he can write with a bit of their feeling showing. Solution: approach your story idea as a novelist might..."
I felt shocked when I read this initially, and then I felt so freed of my chains, and then I felt terrified because the idea of allowing color and life and drama into a story is so contrary to the training I got as a daily news reporter. But the impact this has had on my writing is obvious when you read my last year's worth of stories.
The rules of organization: I really struggled with this section, the "block progression line" vs the "time line" vs the "theme line." But there is some solid advice in here about not getting stuck waiting for the perfect lede to come to you. You can write the whole story and not know the lede until the end: don't let yourself get stuck just because you don't have a rocket of a beginning.
How—and whom—to quote and paraphrase: Journalists need to paraphrase far more than they do. That's the bottom line, and I am no exception. I believe Blundell with all my heart on this one, but I still have such a hard time doing it. When I paraphrase, it's hard for me to get past the notion that I'm putting words in someone's mouth. I mean, that is what a paraphrase is, after all. You just have to get over it and learn this skill. It saves so many precious words, saves your reader their own sanity (exact quotes are rarely pretty), and adds clarity. You can always check back with your source if you start to worry you're not capturing them correctly. Over time, it gets easier.
Wordcraft, leads, and narrative flow: This is a very practical section, closer to a classic style guide but tailored to the feature. I bought this book for each of my colleagues and this is the section I told them to read. The very last chapter, on self-editing, is similarly practical. My favorite piece of advice? Edit the piece to make it longer before you make it shorter. This is contrary to what most of us are taught, but makes so much sense: your piece is probably missing information, basic who-where-when-what stuff. Have a fresh reader look for this and mark it. Add the missing information. Another excellent piece of advice: cut very surgically. If your piece is too long, do not lop of entire paragraphs unless you really have to, because the holes left behind are hard to repair. You can get rid of hundreds of words with careful rephrasing, preserving paragraphs and transitions.
(Like a lot of other reviewers, the "Stretching Out" section was not compelling to me, so I skimmed it. Just another example of how one editor's example of brilliant writing is a snooze to another editor: a lot of editing is very subjective!)
This book is not an easy read, but it's invaluable for the feature writer. Highly recommended.
What makes this book so useful is that it applies better to the kind of writing I'm doing than any other book. There are bazillions (technical term) of books for aspiring novelists, and dozens of general stylebooks, but books on how to write journalism? Rare. For feature writers specifically? This might be the only one.
Feature writing is different from daily news writing: it can be fluff, but mostly I think of the feature as a deeper dive. That's what I do these days. The first section covers how and where to get ideas: I would never have said this is a problem for me, I have a list of ideas as long as my arm, but Blundell has advice that was a game-changer for me: he says to have lots and lots of "wandering around the office" conversations, conversations that might appear pointless or a waste of time on the surface. I immediately put this into action and began meeting with key people off the record, for coffee, just to hear what they have to say. This has been incredibly productive over time. There's so much I don't know; the only way to learn is to ask. Not every conversation has to lead to a specific story, not every phone call has to be on the record. A good reporter vacuums up information everywhere they go and saves it up for when it's useful. (Caveat: always let whomever you are talking to know that you ARE a reporter, and whether they are on the record.)
What readers like and don't like: readers like dogs, and they don't like reams of data. Because of Blundell, my most recent story starts with a dog. I look back on my first stories and I now see too much data: numbers are important, but people can't process them very well. Be judicious with their use.
Adding energy and interest to tired topics: you do this by getting the scope of your story right, which is something I have a fairly good feeling for over years of practice, but I do tend to aim big. Blundell reminded me it's not only OK to zoom in, it's critical. There are countless stories on homeless encampments that cite national statistics, or that talk about how furious comfortably-housed people are at having to step around rough sleepers, or that interview a mayor about how much of a headache unhoused people are for his re-election campaign. There are very few journalists who get to know homeless people themselves, who stay in touch over time. So: change the scope, change the story. (This is, of course, also a much riskier take, not because unhoused people are dangerous but because housed people are judgmental: people let you into their lives, and you don't know what readers will do with that.)
Getting from first ideas to finished article: I have not figured out a way to do this other than sheer bloody effort, and Blundell pretty much agrees that's what it takes. He does have some story-mapping ideas that I have not put into practice, involving index cards and the like. From this section I mostly gathered smaller pieces of advice, like this one: "A more prevalent mistake, however, is any lack of tone at all. When this happens, and it happens too often, the story is a dead fish. ... The reporter has failed to see and develop points of drama that might dictate the tone of the story, or has been reluctant to take a stance, an attitude, toward developments he is writing about. I don't mean editorializing, which involves the taking of sides. I mean empathizing: the reporter briefly putting himself in the shoes of sources on both sides of an issue so he can write with a bit of their feeling showing. Solution: approach your story idea as a novelist might..."
I felt shocked when I read this initially, and then I felt so freed of my chains, and then I felt terrified because the idea of allowing color and life and drama into a story is so contrary to the training I got as a daily news reporter. But the impact this has had on my writing is obvious when you read my last year's worth of stories.
The rules of organization: I really struggled with this section, the "block progression line" vs the "time line" vs the "theme line." But there is some solid advice in here about not getting stuck waiting for the perfect lede to come to you. You can write the whole story and not know the lede until the end: don't let yourself get stuck just because you don't have a rocket of a beginning.
How—and whom—to quote and paraphrase: Journalists need to paraphrase far more than they do. That's the bottom line, and I am no exception. I believe Blundell with all my heart on this one, but I still have such a hard time doing it. When I paraphrase, it's hard for me to get past the notion that I'm putting words in someone's mouth. I mean, that is what a paraphrase is, after all. You just have to get over it and learn this skill. It saves so many precious words, saves your reader their own sanity (exact quotes are rarely pretty), and adds clarity. You can always check back with your source if you start to worry you're not capturing them correctly. Over time, it gets easier.
Wordcraft, leads, and narrative flow: This is a very practical section, closer to a classic style guide but tailored to the feature. I bought this book for each of my colleagues and this is the section I told them to read. The very last chapter, on self-editing, is similarly practical. My favorite piece of advice? Edit the piece to make it longer before you make it shorter. This is contrary to what most of us are taught, but makes so much sense: your piece is probably missing information, basic who-where-when-what stuff. Have a fresh reader look for this and mark it. Add the missing information. Another excellent piece of advice: cut very surgically. If your piece is too long, do not lop of entire paragraphs unless you really have to, because the holes left behind are hard to repair. You can get rid of hundreds of words with careful rephrasing, preserving paragraphs and transitions.
(Like a lot of other reviewers, the "Stretching Out" section was not compelling to me, so I skimmed it. Just another example of how one editor's example of brilliant writing is a snooze to another editor: a lot of editing is very subjective!)
This book is not an easy read, but it's invaluable for the feature writer. Highly recommended.
October 30, 2011
This book was dry and outdated. It did have some useful material and pointers, but Blundell relied entirely too much on extensive article examples that lacked interesting and dynamic substance.
It was a painful read with minimal reward.
It was a painful read with minimal reward.
September 9, 2008
The best guide to writing compelling newspaper stories published.
July 7, 2010
Is it fair to take out my dislike of this particular class on the assigned textbook? Maybe not, but it's all I have left of my foray into features writing.
February 6, 2017
Veel bijgeleerd van dit boek. De eerste (en ook laatste keer) dat ik fluostift in een boek gebruikte om de belangrijkste zaken te arceren. Kan niet wachten om de theorie om te zetten in de praktijk.
October 31, 2019
The Art and Craft of Feature Writing is William E. Blumdell’s valiant attempt to create a few thousand rules & suggestions that, when followed, results in a well-told story. He gets credit for the attempt, if not for the execution. This book has something of a reputation as being a holy bible on feature writing. I just don’t see it. It’s a mystery to me. The writing even seems to violate its own precepts. I can’t even recall the last time I abandoned a book only half-read. I mean, I can read St. Augustine, Joyce, and A. N. Whitehead, for crying out loud; but Blumdell did it for me. I threw in the towel after just over one hundred pages. TAaCoFW is an old book. Hopefully no one is still suffering from having it as an assigned textbook.
May 2, 2018
I first read this book around 2011, about 5 years into my journalism career and found it quite helpful. It’s a great introduction to the process of straight up feature writing. That being said, after revisiting it in 2018, it’s still good but this book needs a big old update — not solely for the expectations of an online audience, but just to update the way we approach storytelling and reporting. Still, a great primer for greener journalists looking to up their game as well as readers who want a sense of how reporters work.
April 12, 2020
I’m a journalist and love writing feature stories. I’ve been writing for publications for about 5 years, and I come back to this book here and there to get some inspiration. I would highly recommend beginning writers this book.
Think about how you want your story to develop. What kind of impact do you want to leave your readers. How you want it to develop. Think about what is the most important thing you learned from your observations and start with that.
5 stars for top books for writers digest ♥️🙌🏽
Think about how you want your story to develop. What kind of impact do you want to leave your readers. How you want it to develop. Think about what is the most important thing you learned from your observations and start with that.
5 stars for top books for writers digest ♥️🙌🏽
April 18, 2021
Superb for journalists; not very relevant for financial writers
I picked up this book hoping to draw inspiration for the financial writing that I’m used to. Halfway through, I knew this book is more suited for feature writers - as the name suggests. But I’m super glad I continued till the end because I found the last few chapters (esp. Wordplay) very relevant and useful for any kind of writer. Written in the plainest of English and the most convincing fashion, I would recommend this book to anyone curious about the Art of Writing.
I picked up this book hoping to draw inspiration for the financial writing that I’m used to. Halfway through, I knew this book is more suited for feature writers - as the name suggests. But I’m super glad I continued till the end because I found the last few chapters (esp. Wordplay) very relevant and useful for any kind of writer. Written in the plainest of English and the most convincing fashion, I would recommend this book to anyone curious about the Art of Writing.
October 22, 2021
For current and aspiring journalists, Blundell provides a practical approach to reporting. Interspersed with examples of actual features, he outlines methods for handling people, location, facts and statistics. Most notable is his emphasis on storytelling and the importance of engaging the reader in every aspect of the story. Highly recommend to writers of print, digital,radio and television as a foundational tool for effective and engaging reporting. True to the title, he gives valuable instruction that demonstrates both the art and the craft of non-fiction writing.
May 21, 2024
Simply one of the best books I've read so far on writing non-fiction. Though now a little dated and quaintly written, with advice and cultural references very much of the pre-internet age, many of the lessons Blundell imparts on storytelling and journalism remain timeless.
September 17, 2020
很有实操性的一本书，值得推荐。
Read
August 14, 2021I ended up roughly reading this book. The examples and explanation did not make much sense to my brain as translation.
November 7, 2022
Somewhat useful but seems hyperspecific on stylistic opinions and a bit outdated
November 6, 2023
Very helpful! I loved the insights provided within the text. I aced my final feature piece.
October 17, 2016
Iedere reporter die denkt dat hij kan schrijven en dit boek leest, moet concluderen: ik dácht dat ik kon schrijven.
March 21, 2009
A useful book for anyone out there who wants to advance in the world of freelance article writing and not entirely unusable fpr fiction writers of all genres.
Not a particularly easy read though as I found myself easily persuaded to pick up a different book, hence the long time it took me to get through it.
Not a particularly easy read though as I found myself easily persuaded to pick up a different book, hence the long time it took me to get through it.
July 4, 2011
Blundell rambles on and on. This book could be a lot shorter. That aside, the typography is horrible. There’s not sufficient spacing between the sections, and subsections just blend together. Then sometimes subheadings are centered and become lost in the sea of text. This makes reading very frustrating.
Want to read
December 20, 2015Favorite quote thus far:
"After that Hill dwells lovingly on the heroic incompetence of the San Diego Padres, whose furious owner sizes control of the P.A. system at a game and castigates his butterfingered employees, and the NFL Chargers, entangled at the time in a drug case. Noting the squad's 2-11 record, a sportscaster figures the drug has to be formaldehyde" (p. 7). I'm still laughing.
"After that Hill dwells lovingly on the heroic incompetence of the San Diego Padres, whose furious owner sizes control of the P.A. system at a game and castigates his butterfingered employees, and the NFL Chargers, entangled at the time in a drug case. Noting the squad's 2-11 record, a sportscaster figures the drug has to be formaldehyde" (p. 7). I'm still laughing.
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