Kinds of story
Colour piece
Also: colour story
A story that recreates the atmosphere of an event or place through vivid detail, so the reader feels they were there.
A colour piece is about texture: the sounds, faces, weather and small moments that a bare news report leaves out. It often runs alongside a hard news story to give it life. The skill is selection, not decoration: a few sharp details that show rather than tell. Simon's work on the pen picture and on showing rather than telling is the place to start.