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. Material not pertinent to the angle is left out of the piece. The angle is also like a clothesline from which the piece's bits of information are hung." (p. 59). He adds that a feature article's angle helps structure information around a central idea that gives the reader's mind a clear place to rest.Trying out Ideas Before WritingTo be fair to yourself and to your potential readers, you must try out the idea before you devote time and resources to it. As noted earlier, freelance writer Duquin (1987) offered a strategy for polishing your story ideas before you sit down to write. She says the approach requires asking questions and writing down the answers. Here is a much closer look at the questions posed earlier:1. Do you really want to write the article? You have to consider the motivation level. If it is interesting to you and a worthy subject, you should do it. If you cannot seem to get excited about it, how can you expect your article to show that excitement? How can you expect your readers to be stimulated by what you have written?2. Are you capable of doing the article? Some topics are simply beyond a writer's abilities to complete. Because of their technical complexity, the time involved, or the expenses, it might not be workable. Some great article ideas are just out of reach for average writers. Sometimes, a subject requires the sensitivity or personal experience that you might not have. A mature writer recognizes this and holds the idea until later or gives it up completely.3. How much will the article cost you? For both staff writers and freelancers, you have to consider the resources needed to do a story. For staff writers, you might have a news media organization behind you, but its budget has limitations and priorities that may prevent you from traveling, calling, or otherwise gathering the information you need. Furthermore, this is a serious problem when you are not sure if a publication will pay your expenses. As a freelancer, can you afford to take the Page 58chance? Some ideas will be worth the risk~ others will not be. Finally, there is the consideration of time. If you have the resource backing you need, does this idea merit the time it will require to do it right? Some long magazine pieces require a month or two of fulltime research and writing. Others features can be done in a few hours.4. What else can you do with the material? What happens to your idea and its development if a targeted publication does not want it? Do you have other publication options? Can this idea become part of another writing project? If you are a staff member, does your publication permit you to market your work to other outlets?5. Are there markets for reprints? For freelance writers, this is a concern that may not be so important to staff writers. If you write your article from this idea, can you find second and third outlets for the story in the form of reprints? Some magazines regularly reprint major feature articles. Staff writers might not concern themselves with this because they have less control over distribution of their work. However, some newspaper and magazine groups often exchange the best of their editions through news services and syndicates.6. Can you do spinoff articles? For the freelance writer, this is a critical point. To make your work pay off at a level that can sustain you, ideas must generate more than one possible story. Can you take the idea and move into several markets with it? For a staff writer on a regular income, this is a little less important. Yet, from a similar perspective, even a staff writer might consider if the idea would have potential for a series approach or other stories for later issues and editions.Developing an Idea into an ArticleTwo steps in developing your idea into a finished manuscript are:1. Giving the idea an angle. Narrow it down. Cut out unnecessary approaches.2. Testing the idea for its soundness. Does it seem logical? Does it make sense on its face? Would you want to read this article if someone else had written it? Page 59Once you have satisfied yourself these steps are taken, then the prewriting and editing process continues with your first efforts to gather and organize materials for your article. These additional three steps are:1. List the research sources you will need. This subject is covered in depth in chapter 3, but in developing an article idea before the writing stage, you now should consider what research would be necessary. Where do you go?2. Make a rough outline of the idea as you turn it into an article. You should have some idea of the thrust or angle of the story by now and can begin to list major sections of the article on paper. This will help you understand what needs to be done next.3. List possible interviews/sources you will need
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