Hola mundo
Open with no heading. Two or three sentences that put the reader somewhere specific and say what this piece is about. The published features start from a scene or a number, never from a definition.
First section
Say the thing the headline promised, plainly, before the reader has to look for it. Everything below is evidence for this paragraph.
Second section
The detail nobody else has: a name, a number, a thing you were told standing there. This is the section that makes the piece worth publishing rather than aggregating.
A quote from somebody who was there. Attribute it in the line under it -- an unattributed quote reads as invented.
Third section
The counterweight. What the first two sections leave out, who disagrees, or what it costs. A feature with no tension is a brochure.
What it means
Land it. One paragraph that says what a reader should do or think differently, then stop -- a feature that keeps going past its ending loses the line it earned.
If you go
- Getting there: the drive, in numbers
- When: the months, and the one to avoid
- Cost: what a day actually runs