20 Feature Writing Ideas to Inspire Your Next Story

Feature writing thrives on curiosity, character, and narrative depth. Whether you’re a journalist, content writer, or creative nonfiction author, the strongest features are built around people and the human-interest angles that bring issues to life. Below are 20 proven types of feature stories, drawn from Bruce Garrison’s Professional Feature Writing and Susan Pape & Susan Featherstone’s Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction. Each one offers a doorway into compelling, memorable writing.

1. Profiles of People

Profiles focus on individuals who represent something larger than themselves. It could be a beloved local teacher, a community activist, or a small business owner balancing passion and survival. Good profiles go beyond résumés and accomplishments to capture quirks, contradictions, and challenges. They are stories about humanity as much as achievement. Done well, they make readers feel like they’ve met someone new.

2. Slice-of-Life Stories

Slice-of-life features capture the beauty in the ordinary. Watching commuters on their morning bus ride or observing neighbours at a local coffee shop can reveal the rhythms of a community. These stories often serve as mirrors, showing readers themselves in the habits of others. They can also expose inequalities or unexpected bonds hidden in daily routines. The power comes from finding meaning in moments most people overlook.

3. Human-Interest Stories

Human-interest writing is designed to move readers emotionally. It may follow a family adapting to rising food costs, or trace a community’s recovery after a devastating fire or flood. These stories remind us of resilience and vulnerability in equal measure. They succeed when they balance empathy with accuracy, giving readers reasons to both care and understand. In many ways, this is the backbone of feature writing.

4. Anniversary Features

Looking back is often as revealing as looking forward. Anniversary features revisit key events after 10, 25, or 50 years to see how time has reshaped meaning. What once felt urgent may now seem distant, or conversely, unresolved. These stories allow readers to reflect on history through a contemporary lens. They connect the past to the present in ways that news reporting rarely has the time to do.

5. Obscure History Brought to Life

Every community has forgotten corners of history waiting to be uncovered. A nearly lost festival, an old superstition, or a curious tradition can provide rich material. By tracing the origins of these forgotten stories, writers breathe new life into the past. Readers are drawn in by both novelty and recognition — the sense that something old still echoes today. It’s journalism that satisfies curiosity and fuels imagination.

6. Behind the Scenes

Everyone loves a peek behind the curtain. Whether it’s the controlled chaos of a restaurant kitchen, the tension of an ER shift, or the discipline of a sports team in training, these stories reveal what’s normally hidden. They thrive on sensory detail — the clatter of pans, the buzz of monitors, the exhaustion of athletes. Readers feel privileged to glimpse what they’re rarely allowed to see. It’s the intimacy of access that makes them compelling.

7. Explanatory Features

Explanatory writing makes complex issues understandable. By blending narrative with clear explanation, these stories show how systems, policies, or technologies shape daily life. For instance, a piece might explore how climate change is reshaping regional farming, told through the struggles of one farm family. Readers come away not only informed but emotionally engaged. This is storytelling as education, delivered in a memorable way.

8. Cultural Shifts

Cultural change often becomes visible first in small communities. How dating apps altered relationships in a rural town, or how plant-based diets spread through workplaces, are both rich entry points. These features work best when they connect global trends to local lives. They help readers understand not just what is happening but why. At their heart, they explore the tension between tradition and transformation.

9. Trend Pieces

Trend stories put a spotlight on what’s new, now, or suddenly everywhere. They can cover food (fermented kimchi and kombucha), fashion, technology, or social behaviours. The hook is immediacy — why is this happening right now, and what does it say about society? To avoid shallowness, strong trend features dig deeper into origins and implications. They balance timeliness with cultural context.

10. Profiles of Unusual Jobs

Unusual work is inherently fascinating. Readers are intrigued by snake catchers, ice road truckers, or grave diggers — people whose livelihoods feel both strange and essential. These stories often highlight courage, eccentricity, or resilience in ways traditional jobs do not. They also shine a light on work that most people never consider. A good feature makes these jobs feel both exotic and relatable.

11. Place-Based Features

Places hold stories just as much as people do. A single street corner, a neighbourhood park, or a historic landmark can be the focal point of a narrative. Place-based features weave together history, memory, and lived experience to show how location shapes identity. They often explore the connections between people and their environment. The best of these make readers feel like they’ve walked the ground themselves.

12. Generational Contrasts

Each generation leaves its mark on culture, work, and identity. Features that explore these contrasts can be both revealing and humorous. For example, how Gen Z approaches food compared to Boomers, or how Millennials and Gen X differ in their views of technology. These pieces give insight into change across time and perspective. They remind readers that identity is always shifting with age and era.

13. Solutions Journalism

Rather than focusing only on problems, solutions journalism highlights what’s working. A school implementing zero-waste lunches or a community reducing food insecurity offers concrete lessons. These stories show innovation, creativity, and resilience in action. They give readers hope while remaining grounded in evidence and outcomes. They are powerful because they prove change is possible.

14. Education Stories

Education provides endless opportunities for narrative. A program introducing land-based learning, or a school building cultural revitalization into its curriculum, can become the heart of a feature. These stories often intersect with broader issues like inequality, innovation, and resilience. They work best when told through the experiences of students and teachers. The combination of individual voices and systemic context makes them resonate.

15. Conflict and Resolution

Conflict is the engine of drama, and features are no exception. Neighbours battling over land use or residents debating urban development provide real tension. What makes these stories powerful is the resolution — or lack of one. They highlight the ways people clash, compromise, or continue to disagree. Readers are drawn into the process as much as the outcome.

16. Hidden Community Stories

Every community has groups that are overlooked in mainstream narratives. Whether it’s a small cultural association, a youth collective, or an immigrant community, these stories provide representation. They also expand readers’ understanding of who lives alongside them. Often, they break stereotypes or reveal resilience where it’s least expected. Hidden stories become powerful when they shift perspective.

17. Seasonal Features

The cycle of the seasons offers built-in storytelling rhythms. From harvest festivals to back-to-school rituals, these traditions reveal how people adapt to time and nature. They can be celebratory, nostalgic, or practical. Winter survival habits, for example, show the mix of culture and necessity. Seasonal features work because they connect readers to the passage of time in relatable ways.

18. Narrative Reconstructions

Narrative reconstructions retell major events through multiple perspectives. They weave together voices from those who lived through the moment, creating a collective experience. This format works especially well for disasters, protests, or community-defining events. It allows readers to step inside the story rather than just observe it. Done well, these features are immersive and unforgettable.

19. Science Explained Through People

Science often feels abstract until it’s grounded in lived experience. Following a patient through a cancer trial or a farmer adapting new technology makes the subject relatable. These stories translate jargon into human terms. They remind us that scientific breakthroughs aren’t just headlines but lived realities. They work best when the personal and the technical are in balance.

20. “Day in the Life” Stories

Few formats are more immersive than shadowing someone for a day. Whether it’s a firefighter, farmer, or social worker, this style shows the demands and rhythms of daily work. Readers gain a sense of time, pressure, and personal sacrifice. These stories thrive on detail: what it feels like at 3 a.m. on call, or the quiet satisfaction at the end of a shift. They humanize professions by putting readers right inside them.

Final Note

These feature types remind us that at the heart of strong writing lies human-interest, curiosity, and narrative craft. Each one is a tool you can adapt to your own beat or community — proving that even the smallest story can hold universal resonance.