Having woven the most vital, need-to-know background into the start of your story or feature (see previous tip), what can be done with the in-depth background? For text journalists, often the best way is to keep most of it out of the main narrative by breaking it up into one or more accompanying "boxes". These can be made eye-catching by use of thumbnail pictures, graphics and different fonts. Examples: a chronology of important historical developments; a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs); previous records; brief biographies. Throughout the planning and writing of your story keep an eye open for material that could be better exploited as a separate box rather than as a solid chunk of background that interrupts the flow of the narrative. But remember: the main story must still contain sufficient background for it to make sense by itself, even if it's only a brief line followed by (see box).
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