Creativity and Feature Writing How to Get Hundreds of New Ideas Every Day

Creativity and Feature Writing explores how to generate ideas in feature writing. Using clear explanations, examples and exercises, experienced feature writer and teacher Ellie Levenson highlights how feature writers, editors and bloggers can generate ideas and how to turn these into published, paid for articles. A variety of approaches to idea generation are explored including getting feature ideas from: objects, your own life and the lives of others the news and non-news articles, including books, leaflets, the internet and any other printed matter press releases, and from direct contact with charities and press officers new people, new places and new experiences. The book draws on a range of tips from practicing journalists and editors and displays case studies of example features to chart ideas from conception to publication.

Part 1: How to get ideas 1. What is an idea? 2. Getting ideas from objects 3. The Lego example 4. Getting ideas from your own life and the lives of your friends and family 5. Getting ideas from the news 6. Getting ideas from other (non news) articles, including books, leaflets, the internet and any other printed matter 7. Themagazine example 8. Getting ideas from people you don’t know, places you’ve not been and things you haven’t done before 9. Getting ideas from press releases, and from direct contact with charities and press officers Part 2: You’ve got an idea, now what? 10. Finding a hook 11. Key components of your article 12. Pitching and writing your article 13. Ideas!

Ellie Levenson is a freelance journalist and lecturer in journalism at Goldsmiths College, University of London. As a freelance journalist, her work has appeared in many publications including the Guardian, Independent, The Times, Financial Times, Daily Express, Cosmopolitan, Easy Living, Times Educational Supplement, Local Government Chronicle and New Statesman. She also runs journalism courses for www.journalism.co.uk and for think tanks, businesses and other organisations. She is the author of two non-fiction books, The Noughtie Girl’s Guide to Feminism (2009) and Fifty Campaigns to Shout About (2011), as well as two books for children.