Follow My Lead May 10, 2008

You know it's a good story. You went to that Blackfeet reservation college, spent an hour with the college president, then stood alone under the buffalo skull in the atrium, wondering how 500 students and faculty could vanish, and why is the president, initially as surprised as you, backpedaling to make excuses rather than summoning outrage? Good so far. Your nonfiction feature story suggests a problem to be solved. Where do you take it from there? You will look at ways to shape what you've witnessed into a feature story idea and you will experiment with leads that excite editors and that suggest a story line that will keep readers reading.