{"id":21528,"date":"2019-09-10T08:50:36","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T12:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=21528"},"modified":"2024-01-18T10:45:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T14:45:51","slug":"quotes-on-weak-leads","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/how-to-organize-an-article\/feature-story-structure\/quotes-on-weak-leads\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on weak leads"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers and others say<\/h2>\n

\"Quotes

\n

“Any story whose lead is ‘Former President (name of former president) said today that …’ should be destroyed immediately via blowtorch so as to avoid any danger that it might appear in the newspaper.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami<\/em> Herald<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cYour opening has to be good \u2014 or the rest of the story won\u2019t have a chance because nobody\u2019ll stick around to read it.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Lawrence Block, mystery novelist quoted in POP! Stand Out In Any Crowd<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
“Even if you\u2019ve never seen a story start with \u2018The times, they are a-changin\u2019,\u2019 consider whether some other story somewhere might have. When something is the first thing that pops into your head, yours is probably not the first head it popped into.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mitch Broker, columnist, the Gannett Suburban newspapers<\/h6>\n
\n
“Moving from the general to the particular is seldom as effective in feature writing as the other way around. A broad-brush opener tends to be duller, unless the writer is unusually lucky or adroit. Whenever possible, raise the curtain on a human actor and human action, not a juiceless stage setting.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Rene J. Cappon, author, Associated Press Guide to Newswriting<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
“Editors instinctively reach for the \u2018delete\u2019 key when they see a story starting, \u2018Imagine \u2026.\u2019 That may have made a lovely John Lennon lyric, but it\u2019s a weak way to engage readers\u2019 interest: \u2018Imagine you\u2019re on a sandy beach,\u2019 or \u2018Imagine you\u2019re an electron.\u2019 Rather than asking readers to imagine a scene, paint it for them in words.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 David A. Fryxell, former editor of Writer\u2019s Digest<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
“Some of us are attracted to chronological order. Such an attraction can result in stories that read like the minutes of a meeting. The most interesting stuff may not show up until paragraph 19. With each story you edit, ask yourself: Does the most interesting and important stuff show up in the lead \u2014 and do so quickly? If not, fix it.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Malcolm Gibson, journalism professor at Kansas University<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201c\u2018What\u2019s black and orange and the worst nightmare for teams headed to the state football playoffs?\u2019 \u2026 Readers want answers, not questions.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Jack Hart, editor at large, The Oregonian<\/em>, in A Writer\u2019s Coach<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cThe first villain is the natural tendency to bury the lead \u2014 to get lost in a sea of information. One of the worst things about knowing a lot, or having access to a lot of information, is that we\u2019re tempted to share it all. High school teachers will tell you that when students write research papers they feel obligated to include every unearthed fact, as though the value were in the quantity of data amassed rather than in its purpose or clarity.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cWe\u2019re turning to a more fictional, literary way of writing in newspapers. Even when we use the inverted pyramid, it\u2019s more gracefully written. All five elements don\u2019t need to be included in the lead. The \u2018fact pack\u2019 we don\u2019t do at all any more.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Larry J. Horney, writing coach, Central Newspapers Inc.<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201c\u2018The cat sat on the mat\u2019 is not the beginning of a story. \u2018The cat sat on the dog\u2019s mat\u2019 is.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 John Le Carre, author, The Little Drummer Girl<\/em> quoted by Sam Horn<\/em> in POP! Stand Out In Any Crowd<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cReporters who write clich\u00e9 leads haven\u2019t invested the time to answer key questions. The more key questions you ask of yourself and your story, the better prepared you\u2019ll be to become original with your lead.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Gregg McLachlan, associate managing editor,\u00a0The Simcoe Reformer<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201c\u2018In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.\u2019 The creation of the universe has a ten-word lead! So why do you need 40 words to say that your chief accountant has just completed the necessary certification? The answer, of course, is you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 John McIntyre, copy desk chief,\u00a0Baltimore\u00a0Sun<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cI try not to write the conventional \u2018who-what-when-where\u2019 lead that we all learned in Journalism 101 because I believe that in most cases that lead makes dull, and sometimes difficult, reading. There isn\u2019t much point in cramming all that information in the first sentence if it produces an unreadable sentence.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Donald M. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, in\u00a0Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work<\/em><\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cYou can start a story with a quote twice in your career. Once when you\u2019re an intern, and again if the Pope ever says f***.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Overheard Newsroom<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cDon\u2019t begin with a so-so sentiment with which there can be no possible disagreement. \u2018Retirement means many things to different people.\u2019 Well, yes.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Lawrence Ragan, late founder of Ragan Communications<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cThe idea of writing a lead containing all answers to all questions in one sentence went out a bit after Woodrow Wilson.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Lawrence Ragas, late founder of Ragan Communications<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cClich\u00e9s and stereotypes float on top of our brains, easily making their way to first drafts. To write well, you may have to write badly at first \u2014 yet another reason to start writing earlier. That gives you time to weed out the tired, the poor, the huddled clich\u00e9s yearning to be erased.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Chip Scanlan, senior faculty-writing, The Poynter Institute<\/h6>\n
\n
\u201cThe most important word in most stories is usually the first verb, and too often it is \u2018said.\u2019 If you only have time to improve one aspect of a story, just look at the verbs and try to make them better. For example, make them more active.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Carl Sessions Stepp, senior editor, American Journalism Review<\/h6>\n
\n
“The beginning is rarely the most interesting part, and certainly no way to capture your readers’ attention. The lead of an article should be less the start of a chronology and more like an opening gambit at a cocktail party. If that fascinating person across the room decides to ask you something about yourself, don’t talk about your birth.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Art Spikol, president of Art Spikol Inc.<\/h6>\n
\n
“The lead of a story is too important to waste on insignificant background; it must grab readers fast, rope them in and lead them along until the article is impossible to put down.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Art Spikol, president of Art Spikol Inc.<\/h6>\n
\n
“A lead should lead \u2014 into the point of the story. If the CEO’s point isn’t the weather, why do we so often start his messages with the changing of seasons?”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ann Wylie, writing coach, Wylie Communications<\/h6>\n
\n\t\t\t