How to Write a Good Story Lead
Every morning, news lovers browse through the morning paper over a cup of hot coffee. The readers' eyes skim the black and white columns, they look at the photographs and some daring individuals might even attempt a crossword puzzle. But when it comes to reading the news articles, what is it about a story that entices a reader to spend a few extra minutes and read the story start to finish? It all starts at the beginning.
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Instructions
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Writing a News Lead
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After hours of searching through magazines, books and newspapers and time spent interviewing sources, a journalist should have an easier time starting an article. Research your story. The lead, sometimes spelled "lede" is the most important part of a news story, as it is used to pique interest in the readers and inspire them to read the full story. A key to journalistic writing is for journalists to fully research their story. Sitting down to write the first few words of a story can prove to be a daunting and extremely challenging task when a writer does not have a thorough understanding of the topic.
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Determine the most important information. Every story presents numerous questions and among them are always who, what, where, when, why and how? According to a lead-writing guide on the Purdue University Online Writing Lab, the writer should emphasize the most important of these questions and explain the rest later.
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Determine the type of lead you want to use. There are a few different types of leads a writer can choose from. It also depends on whether the story is a feature or a hard-news story. For a hard-news story, seek out the conflict or problem you are addressing in the story. Purdue's Online Writing Lab says that the conflict of a story often makes a powerful lead. For a feature story, perhaps an anecdotal lead would be more appropriate. Anecdotal leads give stories a human face. Anecdotes inform readers of a personal experience or story which ties back to the bigger picture: the news. Usually anecdotes are used to tell the story of an individual featured and to suck readers into the rest of the article.
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Be specific. When writing a news lead, be specific and to the point. The last thing you want is to confuse the readers in the first paragraph. The point of a good lead is to draw readers in and make them want more. But just because sentences are simple and easy to understand does not mean that leads have to be boring. It is still possible, and very common, for journalists to entice their readers and have fun with the lead.
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Time and deadline pressures are constantly on a journalist's mind. making writing a creative and stimulating lead more challenging at times. Don't waste too much time. Sometimes, leads are easy to write, other times it's a struggle. Sometimes the easiest way to move on with a story is to get something down on the page and come back to it. It's a good idea to write "rough drafts" of leads and come back to narrow them down, spruce them up and tighten the writing later. In an article titled Chip on Your Shoulder on Poynter Online, author Chip Scanlan reminds writers that just because a lead is on the page, doesn't mean you've made a successful one. Scanlan suggests looking at leads as a piece of clay: something you can mold, play with and refine.
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Tips & Warnings
If you have time to take a break from writing, do so. Sometimes after a little time has passed, going back and re-reading the lead and the story helps bring fresh ideas to the table.
Paint a picture. Make leads visual and appealing; even if the news story is serious, try and find a clever way to draw readers in.
Find a human face. Leads come out much easier and are much more interesting if writers find a human face to illustrate the issue.
Stay away from quote leads, unless the quote is absolutely amazing. Quotes are meant to support claims in articles and sometimes used to add color. But starting with a quote is an easy way out and generally frowned upon in hard news writing.
Don't get off task. Make sure the lead makes sense and gives a hint as to what the story is about. Leads should directly relate to the story and a reader should have an understanding of what the story is about before launching into the article.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit fresh news image by Alexander Oshvintsev from Fotolia.com notebook and books image by Sergey Galushko from Fotolia.com time. image by Alexander Lukyanov from Fotolia.com
