Breaking Into Features

Breaking Into Features Tired of the â€Å"1,000 words for $5† markets? Break out of them and into writing features. Editors pay good money for excellent writing. All it takes is solid ideas and unique angles. FEATURES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM Hard news is a magnifying glass, and features are an aerial view (i.e. CAR ACCIDENT CLAIMS 5 vs. CAR ACCIDENT VICTIMS SPEAK OUT). They present a different look at a topic with a unique spin. Word count varies, from 500 to 5,000 words, and there are many types. Interview pieces, profiles, how-to pieces and testimonials are all features. Your main market will be magazines (print and online), so your first step is research. As a practice exercise, pick out a feature piece and familiarize yourself with the topic, the content, the general style of the author and publication, the side-bars as well as the ads on the page accompanying it. Deconstructing another piece is a great way to learn to find out what makes a feature tick, or doesnt. Pick up a magazine and leaf through it, go online, or go here for a list of Pulitzer-winning features: (pulitzer.org/ Have a look at the Writers Market guide to find out who takes features. amazon.com/Writers-Market-2016-Trusted-Published/dp/1599639378 GETTING STARTED As feature writers, you are essentially selling ideas. When pitching, keep it to the point. Pitches should run no more than 250-700 words. An editor wants to know what you want to cover, how you want to cover it (including the facts and numbers!) and why you should be the writer to do it. Spell-check before hitting send (nothing worse than ending with kind retards), and learn the editors name and general style of the publication before you pitch. The writers guidelines, which are usually on the publications website or can be requested from the editor, should tell you everything you need to know. Don’t overdo it, and avoid trying to be â€Å"fancy†. Samples and ideas should speak for you. If you impress the editor, you’ll receive a brief, including your word count, rate (usually per word, and always better than a â€Å"content mill†), topic and deadline. Make sure that you and the editor are on the same page. Get everything in writing before you start. If you aren’t sure, ask! THE PROCESS My first feature was for the Afrikaans women’s magazine Vrouekeur (on endometriosis, an important topic for readers), and it was the first time I paid the rent with my writing. I pitched everywhere until I got it right, and when I did, writing was finally worth something. No more content mills! I went on to write many more features – including for Moneyweb, The Investor, People Magazine SA and Writers Write. The writing process differs, but here’s what works for me:   Ã‚     Pre-search Do your research first. Who can you interview, quote and source? Make sure your sources are reliable; cross-reference facts. Double-checking now is always better than an apology later.   Ã‚     Pitch Tell the editor more about you and your idea. Include examples, research and consider the famedâ€Å"Five W’s (and one H).   Ã‚     Putting it together Start off with an introduction that grabs the reader, then lead into the body. Stick to the word count; make sure it flows.   Ã‚     To the editor Send it to the editor who believed in it. Your article could be rejected, sent back for changes or accepted. Once your article gets accepted for publication, you can send your invoice. Congrats! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex J Coyne is a South African freelance journalist, author, translator and language practitioner. He is available for hire through his blog. http://alexcoyneofficial.wordpress.com

The Paradox of Tragedy

The Paradox of Tragedy How is it possible that human beings can derive pleasure from unpleasant states? This is the question addressed by Hume in his essay On Tragedy, which lies at the heart of a long-standing philosophical discussion on tragedy. Take horror movies, for instance. Some people are terrified while watching them, or they don’t sleep for days. So why  are they doing it? Why stay in front of the screen for a horror movie?It is clear that sometimes we enjoy being spectators of tragedies. Although this may be an everyday observation, it is a surprising one. Indeed, the view of a tragedy typically produces disgust or awe in the viewer. But disgust and awe are unpleasant states. So how is it possible that we enjoy unpleasant states?It is by no chance that Hume devoted a whole essay to the topic. The rise of aesthetics in his time took place side by side with a revival of a fascination for horror. The issue had already kept busy a number of ancient philosophers. Here is, for example, what t he Roman poet Lucretius and British philosopher Thomas Hobbes had to say on it. What joy it is, when out at sea the stormwinds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the shore at the heavy stress some other man is enduring! Not that anyones afflictions are in themselves a source of delight; but to realize from what troubles you yourself are free is joy indeed. Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, Book II.From what passion proceedeth it, that men take pleasure to behold from the shore the danger of them that are at sea in a tempest, or in fight, or from a safe castle to behold two armies charge one another in the field? It is certainly in the whole sum joy. else men would never flock to such a spectacle. Nevertheless there is in it both joy and grief. For as there is novelty and remembrance of [ones] own security present, which is delight; so is there also pity, which is grief But the delight is so far predominant, that men usually are content in such a case to be spectators of the misery of their friends. Hobbes, Elements of Law, 9.19.So, how to solve the par adox? More Pleasure Than Pain One first attempt, pretty obvious, consists in claiming that the pleasures involved in any spectacle of tragedy outweigh the pains. Of course I’m suffering while watching a horror movie; but that thrill, that excitement that accompanies the experience is totally worth the travail. After all, one could say, the most delectable pleasures all come with some sacrifice; in this circumstance, the sacrifice is to be horrified.On the other hand, it seems that some people do not find particular pleasure in watching horror movies. If there is any pleasure at all, it’s the pleasure of being in pain. How can that be? Pain as Catharsis A second possible approach sees in the quest for pain an attempt to find a catharsis, that is a form of liberation, from those negative emotions. It is by inflicting upon ourselves some form of punishment that we find relief from those negative emotions and feelings that we have experienced.This is, in the end, an ancient interpretation of the power and relevance of tragedy, as that form of entertainment that is quintessential to elevate our spirits by allowing them to surpass our traumas. Pain is, Sometimes, Fun Yet another, third, approach to the paradox of horror comes from philosopher  Berys  Gaut. According to him, to be in awe or in pain, to suffer, can in some circumstances be sources of enjoyment. That is, the way to pleasure is pain. In this perspective, pleasure and pain are not really opposites: they may be two sides of the very same coin. This is because what’s bad in a tragedy is not the sensation, but the scene that elicits such sensation. Such a scene is connected to a horrific emotion, and this, in turn, elicits a sensation that we find in the end pleasurable.Whether Gaut’s ingenious proposal got it right is questionable, but the paradox of horror certainly remains one of the most entertaining subjects in philosophy.