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Dr. Michael Ray Smith interview on MaryAnn Diorio's Blog

Michael is an expert in journalism and currently teaches at Campbell University. I know you will be blessed by his interview... more

Photograph by Cheryl Cruickshank

From left, front row, they are: Leslie Parnell, Raelyn Miller and Gretchen Ross, second row, Rachel Haskins, Rhiannon DeBaylo, Jason Beck, Courtney Willey, Marissa Snow and Michael Ray Smith. These writers worked on free-lance stories for the mainstream press and some of their work appeared online and in newspapers such as the Fayetteville Observer.

About 30 people came to a recent writer's seminar at Barnes & Noble.

In early September Michael spoke to poets and creative writers of the Writer's Ink Guild at Fayetteville, N.C.'s, Barnes & Noble.

Michael signs a book for journalism educator Mike Murray at a book signing in San Antonio, Texas, where journalism educators from across the nation met in August.

Michael Ray Smith holds feature writing workshop

Michael recently held a Feature Writing Workshop at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Cary, North Carolina.

Smith uses gonzo reporting technique to get feature story

Writer Michael Ray Smith, left, applied some feature writing techniques as a freelance writer in late June 2005. Scott Rohrbaugh, Lakeland, Fla., right, took Smith on his Harley-Davidson with a motorcycle ministry to deliver toys to Nashville’s Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Gonzo reporting is a technique used by writers to personally experience the activity of the sources involved in the story. A wire service published Smith’s work.

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Express yourself, write a freelance article

Want ideas from the pros on publishing free-lance articles?

Michael has spent the last five years talking with writers on how they can break into print and his new book, FeatureWriting.Net, is designed to make the process easier.

A teacher for nearly 20 years, Smith pushes his students to get bylines while still in school, giving them an edge over newly minted graduates with less experience.

“Not until Dr. Smith’s feature writing class my sophomore year did I realize I did not have to wait to write,” said Melissa Lilley, a rising senior. “I had never thought…being published was something I could do as a student—it was always a goal I thought would come later.”

In 2005 Lilley had two feature articles published in her hometown newspaper and one in the Daily Record in Dunn, N.C. A freelance article she submitted to the Biblical Recorder, the state Baptist news journal, landed her an internship there. Other students published in periodicals across the state including the News & Observer in Raleigh.

“Getting bylines before graduation allows students to have a portfolio ready for potential employers.” Lilley said. “Dr. Smith encourages students to apply skills learned in class to the real world and to do it now.”

A seasoned reporter himself, Smith, in FeatureWriting.Net, takes the new writer on the insider beat as if he were coaching the writer every step of way. His teaching gift is evident as he reveals his own reporting secrets in colorful detail. As an award-winning photojournalist, he explains how to take quality photographs that enhance stories and double paychecks. The book is punctuated with interviews from 15 successful writers who offer their own nuggets of wisdom, and includes samples of their writing. Smith hammers out numerous timeless feature article ideas using a SHOP format: Selection, History, Observation and Perspective, a theme in his book.

Smith practices what he preaches. On a recent trip during a Nashville convention, he applied a feature writing technique called gonzo reporting. It’s a technique used by writers to personally experience the activity of sources involved in the story. Smith rode on the back of a Harley-Davidson during a motorcycle ministry’s toy distribution to a Nashville children’s hospital. His freelance story on the FAITH Riders’ mission was published by a wire service along with another piece.

The book can be purchased on this site or through Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com or Epistelogic Publishing, Bloomington, Ill.