Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
If you take care to answer these in your story, you would have created a first-class story. You would need to keep reminding yourself to cover these six questions till they become inherent for you. Here is an example:Let’s say you want to write a story concerning a local sports team that is going to participate in the forthcoming competition. Now, let’s try answering the above questions in this particular case.
• Who; You need to mention who forms the team, meaning which team you are talking about, and who is its coach. You should also mention who are its chief players and who is supporting this team.
• What: It means what sport the team plays, who it would be competing against and what is the competition.
• Where: You need to inform your audience where the competition is going to be held and from where has the team arrived.
• When: Include the date, time and venue of the competition to answer “when.” You could also mention how long the team has been practicing.
• Why: Why is the team keen to participate in the current competition?
• How: How did they qualify for this competition? How they raised funds for the purpose and for how long have they undergone training? How can they win the game?
Many journalists follow the other way of writing news items, known as the inverted pyramid. In this style of writing, the most significant part of the news is narrated in the very beginning of the item and from there it works down. On going through the first paragraph, the reader would get adequate information about the story. Basically, it is a synopsis of the story, which is subsequently explained and expanded in the rest of the article.
In this case, the writer would do well to imagine that the story may be truncated due constrains of space. So, it needs to be written in a manner that even if only its first few paragraphs get published, it should look complete to the readers.
Here are some more tips:
• Remember, it concerns people
You should understand that readers are interested in knowing about the people connected with your story. You may focus on one or more persons. In the above example, you may tell readers how the morale of the team is or how their supporters are feeling.
• Give an angle to your story
It is quite normal to present your story with a particular angle. It means you chose a point in your story and highlight the same. In the present case you could highlight your story, focusing on any of these: “A big challenge for a new coach” “Local team requires funds” “Team undertakes national competition”
• Remain Objective
You need to be totally unbiased. Cover all the aspects of the story without giving your personal opinion.
• Quote People
Avoid using “I” and “ME” except when quoting others. For instance "We're truly thrilled about this competition," says Coach Bob Dobalina, "It's going to be the toughest challenge we've ever faced".
• Don’t use flowery language
Use short sentences and paragraphs. Avoid being too expressive. Having finished your story, go through it once again and remove all unnecessary words.
