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You need not have any great skill as a writer to pursue this pleasant hobby. To show how everyday situations produce ideas for them, let me tell you about my first story. One night as we were leaving for an evening out, our baby sitter, an elderly woman, was starting work on her mending, which she had brought along. The mending consisted of repairing an American flag and she told how she made flag repairing her hobby. I learned that she was keeping the flags on all the public buildings in town in good condition. I wrote a very short article on her unusual hobby, took a picture of her working on a flag and sent it to the New Haven Register. Within a few days I received a letter from the state editor saying he liked the story and hoped I would send in more features. I answered that indeed I would and then proceeded to find out just what a "feature" is.

The newspaper feature is an article running anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand words, which depends on the new, the unusual, the dramatic, or the personality of the subject for interest. Almost all papers use them, from the local weekly to the large metropolitan daily. Sunday papers always contain several. Pay for them, at least in the area of my home in Madison, Connecticut, is $5 each, with more for those landing in the Sunday magazine section of the paper.

IF YOU are interested in spending a few hours talking with and, more important, listening to, interesting people, those who in some way stand out from the rank and file, and then writing up their stories, there are four basic things you should know in order to do it successfully. They are: how to get an idea, how to arrange for an interview with the person you have chosen as your subject, how to write the story and how to market it.

Getting the idea is the first, most important and perhaps the easiest of the four steps you will take in writing your feature. Ideas are all around you waiting to be recognized. Here are some of the people I have found in my town and other near-by towns, and used as subjects of features: a woman who built a house; identical twins, both telephone operators; a young drum majorette; two sisters who play the xylophone; a man who spent his life sailing the seven seas; a woman who makes, and sells artificial flowers although she lost both legs in an accident and is practically blind; a retired member of the Merchant Marine; a minister who paints murals; an author of children's books; the owner of an airport; a female mail carrier; a ceramist; an ex-communist; an art surgeon—a man who restores old paintings; a boy who won a trip by writing an essay at his school; a glass blower; an army wife; a "furniture doctor"; a woman in the Coast Guard Auxiliary; an outstanding clarinetist; a man who spends days assembling a tiny village under his Christmas tree each year; a cabinet maker who specializes in making church furniture; a pet shop owner; an army major returned from Korea; a decoy duck manufacturer, a retired doctor who makes crossword puzzles.

Do not overlook groups of people, who may be doing the unusual. I came upon a summer school with no buildings, all classes being held on the beach, an amateur art group, a little theater group of teen-agers being taught by a former actress, some Brownie scouts, a group of 100 women working on a school lunch program.

Animals, child prodigies and centenarians are all grist for your mill. Anniversaries are your field days. When your church, club, library or town announces that it will observe its fifth or 200th anniversary, that's your cue to look up the history of the group, its past record, any unusual activities, future plans, and incorporate them into a story. Collectors are another good source of material. The world is full of people who collect things—dolls, stamps, guns, coins, bells, antiques, old books, glass and china, baseballs and autographs. And if you run across someone who collects something nobody ever heard of, so much the better. I have just finished a feature about a collection of face-pieces (amulets or charms attached to a horse's harness in the old days).

Men and women returning from travels in strange places and those retiring after forty or fifty years in the same job can be good subjects for features. In short, almost anyone, anything or anyplace can be worked into a feature if you use a little imagination and originality in finding an angle, or reason for writing it. You will soon find there is no shortage of subject matter—only of time to investigate it.

YOU HAVE the idea. Now you want to get the information by way of an interview. Chances are that for your first couple of features you will choose your subject from among your friends. But after that you'll have to approach strangers. This, I think, is the hardest part for the novice. But you will soon learn that almost everybody is pleased at the idea of being featured in a story. If he is a hobbyist, for instance, he finds his avocation fascinating and wants others to be interested, too. Of the sixty-seven people I asked for an interview, only two refused; the rest not only consented but were enthusiastic about having been asked. Through trial and error I found that by far the best way to get your story is to telephone your subject first and make an appointment for a definite day and time. The conversation might go something like this: "Mrs. Doe, this is Mary Jones. I understand that you have an unusual hobby of—and I called to ask if you would have any time in the next few days to discuss it with me for a newspaper story." Later on you can add, "Probably to be used in the Blank Daily News," or whatever the name of the paper for which you are writing.

I blush to confess that when I first started writing features I used to start out in the car and drive around until I came upon something or somebody appropriate for a feature story. This, of course, is a terrific waste of time, gasoline and self confidence as you are very apt to come home without any story at all. Once you've met your subject there is only one way to find out what you want to know and that is by asking questions. You may ask him how many others have his hobby (if he is the only one in the town, state, or vicinity, your article is just that much better), how he started, where he got his idea, future plans involving his hobby and many, many others.

It takes all kinds of people to make a world and nobody knows it better than a feature writer. Some people talk too much and others not enough. It's up to you to draw out the reserved and keep the ramblers to the point. I usually spend about an hour on the interview. These people, the ones you seek out as being interesting and outstanding, generally have one attitude in common—one that makes your job easier—and that is a healthy regard for their own abilities. There is very little of the "aw shucks, t'warnt nuthin'" manner. To be one of the best in their field or to have thought of and executed an original idea is something and they know it. And they will tell you about it. Except that you may ask a few more questions and take notes, the interview is no more than any friendly conversation between two people who are interested in the same thing.

NOW YOU are ready to write your story. The actual mechanics of writing an acceptable feature can be boiled down to the simple application of the who, what, where, why and when treatment you learned at school. By far the best way to learn how to get this information into a colorful, compact and lively article is to buy a batch of newspapers and study the features appearing in them. Since this is the type of thing you are aiming to create, note carefully the brevity, the use of familiar, everyday words and the punch of the lead sentence. That first sentence is all-important in a feature as it determines whether your reader will yawn and pass on to the next page of the paper or whether he will pause and finish the story. Indeed, it often determines whether the editor will finish the story.

Space is always at a premium in a newspaper and space is not made to fit your story but your story is made to fit, the space by the simple expedient of cutting from the bottom up. Write so that the last couple of paragraphs can be cut off and the reader will still have a complete story. In other words, put your most important information near the beginning.

The title or headline for your story is written in the office. You do not put any heading on it. Type, double space, starting about half way down on the first page, on newsprint or copy paper.

When your feature goes to market, a good clear picture should accompany it. An eye-catching human interest photo will sometimes sell a story which is a little weak, whereas an article of unusual interest could get by with a less perfect photo. There are several ways to get the picture you want. Of course, if you own and operate a camera, obviously you will take the picture yourself during the interview. Quite often the subject will have a photo that he will lend you. Or you may have a friend who will find features interesting from the camera angle and go along with you to take the picture. A commercial photographer will probably take it for you if he receives a credit line (photo by Sam Smith) but probably will want a fee. Failing any of these, if you have a really first-rate story send it in anyway. Newspapers always have ways of getting pictures they want.

AFTER YOU have chosen the paper which uses features most like the ones you want to write, simply mail your story and picture to the editor. You may or may not hear from him before your feature appears in print—anywhere from one day to a month later. If he does notify you, it is courteous to phone or send a note to your subject telling him in which paper he will appear on about what date.

Once you find a paper you like and one whose editor likes your stories, it pays to stick with it and keep sending them to the same market. Because as you become known to this editor, occasionally you will receive assignments from him to write special features in your locality. Also you stand a better chance of getting a "raise" after you have sold a couple of dozen features to one paper. And then again, if the time ever comes when you want to change your hobby for a full or part time job you can apply there. All of my features lately have been published in the New Haven Evening Register, a daily with a large circulation in my area. At first others went to the New Haven Journal-Courier, the Hartford Courant and the Connecticut Circle. Dailies, especially those with a Sunday edition, are your best bets as markets since, of course, they use more features. Anyone can write a feature. My thirteen-year-old son, visiting a friend, found that his mother raised champion dogs. He saw a shelf full of silver cups and ribbons, questioned her about them, borrowed a picture and wrote a story which was published. It is not unusual to have a first feature story accepted because there is little competition. The newspaper staff writers are too busy to bother with them and the professional writers are not interested because of the low pay.