The “according to” part is almost always secondary to what he or she actually said. What’s the nugget, the little gem you’re trying to impart? Put that information first, and then follow it up with who said it. Not only is it OK to address them as such, I think it helps create a personal connection with them. This is the writer’s equivalent to breaking the fourth wall in theatre, and while some editors will disagree with me on this one, I stand by it. Compare “Dog bites man” to “A man was bitten by a dog” - the passive voice is timid and bland (for the record, Stephen King feels the same way). Mark Twain said it best: “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” 3. Why are readers clicking on this content? What problem are they trying to solve? What’s new or different? Determine which aspects are most relevant and important, and lead with that.
#Marketing storywriting how to
How to write a lead sentence or paragraph: Top 10 do’s 1. Writing about aromatherapy for a yoga blog gives you a little more leeway than writing about investment tips for a retirement blog. What am I writing about?Ĭertain topics naturally lend themselves to creativity, while others beg for a “Just the facts, ma’am” presentation. There are some things you can get away with on that would be your demise on the Chronicle of Higher Education. Tailor your words to those reading the post. Tax attorneys looking for recent changes in the law don’t want to wade through your witty repartee about the IRS, just as millennials searching for craft beer recipes don’t want to read a technical discourse on the fermentation process.
If you can make your question lead provocative, go for it - Do you think you have it bad? This lady just gave birth in a barn - just know that this is accomplished rarely. Do you want to learn more about the recent virgin birth? Well duh, that’s why I clicked in here in the first place. It feels like a cop-out like a writer couldn’t think of a compelling way to start the piece. People are reading your content to get answers, not to be asked anything. Most editors (myself included) don’t like this type of lead. A creative lead is great - just don’t make your reader hunt for what the story’s about much after it.Ī note about the question lead. A variation of the creative lead, the question lead is just what it sounds like: leading with a question. If you go this route, make sure to provide broader detail and context in the few sentences following your lead. Better suited to feature stories and blog posts, these leads are designed to pique readers’ curiosity and draw them into the story. This can be an anecdote, an observation, a quirky fact, or a funny story, among other things. Claiming a celestial body guided them to the site, magi attending the birth say the boy will one day be king. In this type of lead, you want to determine which aspect of the story - who, what, when, where, why, and how - is most important to the reader and present those facts.Īn alleged virgin gave birth to a son in a barn just outside of Bethlehem last night. It sums up the situation succinctly, giving the reader the most important facts first. Most often found in straight news reports, this is the trusty inverted-pyramid lead we learned about in Journalism 101. There are two main types of leads and many, many variations thereof. If your content doesn’t hook readers up front, they’ll bolt. And, dare I say, a compelling lead is even more important in today’s rapid-fire digitalized world, where we have notoriously short attention spans and even less patience. Old-school reporting ace and author of ‘The Word: An Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing,’ Jack Cappon, rightly called lead-writing “the agony of square one.” A lot is hinging on your lead, because from it readers will decide to continue investing time and brain power in your content or jump ship. And now I’m on deadline, and here we are. This, in turn, prompted me to eat an entire bag of mini powdered donuts from the gas station, clean out my desk, poll my co-workers about their shower preferences (morning or night?) and watch several ‘America’s Got Talent’ clips. Then I got all stressed out about it - I mean, if any of my Dear Megan posts had BETTER have a really freakin’ good lead, it’s this one. The lead should capture the essence of the who, what, when, where, why and how - but without giving away the entire show.įunny thing about this blog post: When I sat down to write it, it dawned on me that I was trying to write a good lead for a post about how to write a good lead. What is a lead in writing? It’s the opening hook that pulls you in to read a story.