What has four legs, temporarily blurred vision and reeks of nacho cheese? A cat with a Doritos bag on its head.
-- Chris Cary,
The Times News (Burlington, N.C.)
That's the lead paragraph of a news story published in 1990. I can repeat it from memory and have many times, because it grabbed my attention. It made me read the story. I had no choice.
It was a report of a fire department call in Burlington, N.C. where curiosity got a cat into a jam that the firefighters got him out of. The whole story was three or four short paragraphs.
It was a report of a fire department call in Burlington, N.C. where curiosity got a cat into a jam that the firefighters got him out of. The whole story was three or four short paragraphs.
It doesn't matter what you are writing, if you made the effort you want people to read it. Whether it's an e-mail or a novel, your work is wasted if it isn't being read.
So, look for the most interesting thing you have to share and put it out there first. Use strong verbs, vivid description, or an analogy to help your audience absorb your message. Your entire piece needs to be clear and well organized, but a great lead (or lede in the journalism biz) grabs them by the collar and gets them started.
In this example from a story I wrote in 2005 for The Associated Press, the unexpected is highlighted to draw people into the story:
It's a crop largely unheard of in Tennessee and mostly unseen, growers say. But hundreds of miles from any ocean, about 20 farmers in places like Springfield, Jackson and Morristown are raising shrimp.
And here, for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, I took a piece of jargon and turned it upside down:
Maybe this is the reason the trendy term "revenue stream" was coined: Sport fishing is a more than $3 billion river of cash in the economies of Tennessee and Georgia, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For the group, it would be great if you could share a favorite lead to something you've written. We can learn from each other.
Next: Let's Talk Books
So, look for the most interesting thing you have to share and put it out there first. Use strong verbs, vivid description, or an analogy to help your audience absorb your message. Your entire piece needs to be clear and well organized, but a great lead (or lede in the journalism biz) grabs them by the collar and gets them started.
In this example from a story I wrote in 2005 for The Associated Press, the unexpected is highlighted to draw people into the story:
It's a crop largely unheard of in Tennessee and mostly unseen, growers say. But hundreds of miles from any ocean, about 20 farmers in places like Springfield, Jackson and Morristown are raising shrimp.
And here, for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, I took a piece of jargon and turned it upside down:
Maybe this is the reason the trendy term "revenue stream" was coined: Sport fishing is a more than $3 billion river of cash in the economies of Tennessee and Georgia, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For the group, it would be great if you could share a favorite lead to something you've written. We can learn from each other.
Next: Let's Talk Books
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