Writing Leads

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Writing Leads

• Four purposes
• Attracts Attention
• Establishes the Subject and Angle
• Sets the Tone
• Guides or Bridges to the Article

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15 Possibilities

• News peg
• Description
• Anecdote
• Personal involvement
• Summary
• Context
• Philosophic
• Definition

• Multi-example
• Opinion
• Startling or Surprise Statement
• Question
• Quote
• Mystery/kicker
• Make-believe

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1. News Peg

• Events of the moment can prompt a story, either
  directly or indirectly
• James Blunt scares up new album
• By MARK DANIELL -- For JAM! Music
• TORONTO - Back in Britain, Halloween just isn't
  a big thing, James Blunt says. "I come from a
  place where we just don't do that. I never got
  dressed up for Halloween."
• But that doesn't mean he isn't looking forward
  to seeing fans' costumes when he rolls into
  Winnipeg's MTS Centre tomorrow night. "A few
  tutus would be nice," he says laughingly in his
  Yorkville hotel room. "Some nurses would be good
  too."

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1. News Peg

• Axl Rose and other scary thoughts
• By ALLAN WIGNEY -- Ottawa Sun
• Word on the street is Chinese Democracy, the
  long-overdue fifth studio album from Guns n'
  Roses, will reach us Nov. 21. Which, if true,
  transforms the band's Scotiabank Place concert
  into something akin to a CD release show. Expect
  posters and advertisements for the gig should be
  adjusted accordingly.
• Of course, we are approaching Halloween. So it
  could be merely an attempt to frighten us. Axl
  Rose is good that way.

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2. Description

• Sometimes an article calls for mood or scene
  setting or a getting-to-know-you start. That's
  when descriptive material may function as a
  starter.

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2. Description

• Set the stage with careful attentionto visual
  details
• Never one to look down upon his public or
  peers, the tall and lanky Rufus Wainwright
  adjusts his stance so his eyes meet mine. He
  bends slightly at the knee, straightens his torso
  and shifts his pelvis just slightly forward as if
  to straddle an imaginary pony.
• Star-struck onlookers browsing through the
  Montreal record store stop to point and stare.
  Yet despite these unnatural surroundings and his
  even more unnatural pose, the radiant
  singer/songwriter appears happily relaxed

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3. Anecdote

• Anecdote a concentrated narrative or fragment
  of action that typifies the problem or situation
  to be covered in the article.
• Anecdotes are action-oriented. Since we are
  attracted to action around us, an active lead is
  likely to lure.

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Anecdotes may be over-used, but writers recognize
what succeeds, and so do editors

• When Alicia de Larrocha was two and one-half,
  they took her favorite toy away, and she banged
  her head on the floor in a tantrum until she got
  it back.
• The toy was the family grand piano.
• Lead for an article about the renowned Spanish
  pianist

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4. Personal Involvement

• If you're part of the story, an openingaction
  can become intensely personal.

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4. Personal Involvement

• Jon-Rae Fletcher is drunk and breathless. After
  working an afternoon shift at a nearby bar, he
  just ran to his Toronto home in Kensington Market
  to find me sitting expectantly on his front
  porch. Tall with shoulders hunched, he is
  dishevelled and winded from the jog. Hey Vish,
  he says warmly, grinning that Jon-Rae grin an
  equal mix of angelic innocence and problem child
  mischief. Im pretty drunk, he confesses and,
  even though we both laugh self-consciously,
  somehow Im not really surprised.
• Over the past two years, Jon-Rae and the River
  have blossomed into Torontos wildest and most
  unhinged indie rocknroll band

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5. Summary

• If you prefer to tell the reader immediately and
  precisely what your article is about, then
  summarize. That's like putting your thesis first.

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Summary Example

• Our long national nightmare is over. After
  decades of shame and humiliation, Canadian music
  fans can finally travel abroad and hold their
  heads high. Critically acclaimed indie-rock acts
  like Broken Social Scene, The Arcade Fire, New
  Pornographers, Feist, The Weakerthans and The
  Dears have made it safe to admit you're from the
  country that unleashed Celine, Shania and Bryan
  on the world.
• It's been a long time coming.

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6. Context

• The reader may, in your view, need background to
  understand the significant or the new in your
  subject.

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6. Context

• Eurythmics recapture old magic
• By STEVE MACLEOD
• For a guy known for working fast, even Dave
  Stewart was impressed with how quickly he and
  Annie Lennox recaptured their old magic despite
  years apart.
• The scene was Los Angeles earlier this year and
  Lennox was visiting the home of her old
  Eurythmics partner when he suggested she check
  out the new recording studio he'd just opened.
  "We'd just decorated," Stewart related by phone
  this week from London.
• "It was done in all-white like the John Lennon
  piano room in Imagine. It's a very nice place and
  Annie really liked it. We starting messing about
  with instruments and all of a sudden it became a
  track."

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7. Philosophic

• Some subjects tempt writers to tempt readers to
  think. They lead with a contemplative question,
  statement, or quotation. What about the big
  picture? Are trees obscuring your view of the
  forest? .
• Be careful of philosophic leads. They must suit
  the subject, the objective of the article, the
  kind of reader likely to read the article.
• For example.

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René Descartes Cogito, ergo sum

• Descartes--the philosopher who surmised, I
  think therefore I am--is sitting outside a café
  in Paris, just finishing his coffee. The waiter
  comes out and asks him, Another drink, sir?"

• and disappears.

• Descartes says,
• I think not.

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8. Definition

• If you want the reader to know what a subject
  means to you, then explain by defining it,
  marking the boundaries you've set for it.

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8. Definition

• EDMONTON - Our fast paced world demands
  abbreviations. Kentucky Fried Chicken is too
  long, so we go to KFC, while Nine Inch Nails
  becomes NIN. Weird.
• It's too bad, really. Nine Inch Nails - the
  length of the spikes used to affix Jesus to the
  cross, presumably - just sounds a lot more
  menacing, dangerous, cool and fun. Because that's
  exactly the kind of show the band delivered at
  Rexall Place last night.
• Shrouded by smoke, illuminated by white strobe
  lights, cheered on by more than 10,000 fans,
  supported by a battery of robotic sequencers,
  Trent Reznor and his venerable industrial rock
  band pumped out songs riddled with angst, doubt,
  fear, despair, hate, self-loathing - and melody!

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9. Multi-Example

• Start with 3-4 short, quick examples which prove
  the extent of the subject youre writing about.

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9. Multi-Example

• "I have three college degrees, and I make less
  than a public-school teacher," says Kimberly
  Quintero, editor of a 6,600-circulation weekly
  newspaper in Gilbert, AZ.
• "My 325 car payment is more than my parents'
  mortgage payment," laments Barbara Stevens,
  thirty, who earns 30,000 as a media buyer at a
  Los Angeles advertising agency. She owns a 1995
  Volkswagen Jetta.
• Desmond Moody, twenty-four, was graduated from
  the University of Massachusetts with an economics
  degree two years ago. He'd like to work in
  banking or finance but can't break in.
• Lead to a story about the economic problems of
  Gen-x

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10. Opinion

• If a strong point of view is what you're
  highlighting, get right into it.

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10. Opinion

• Supernatural we could appreciate. Shaman we
  could forgive. But with All That I Am, we have
  officially had enough of Santana's comeback.
• Enough of the pointless superstar cameos. Enough
  of the guest songwriters. Enough of Rob Thomas.
  Enough of Michelle Branch. Enough of the diluted
  Latin-rock and hip-hop. Enough of hearing Carlos
  Santana -- still one of the finest guitarists on
  the planet -- being forced to sandwich his rich,
  soulful leads between the traffic jam of
  appearances by the likes of Mary J. Blige,
  Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Idol wannabe Bo Bice
  and (for some reason) Steven Tyler.

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11. Startling or Surprise Statement

• Catch the reader off-guard for effect.
• Funerals are for the living. An implicit nod
  passes among the guests We're still here. Few
  rituals affirm the social order like a funeral.
  In the hierarchy of grief, mourners jostle one
  another for the best pews, eulogists duel one
  another with sharpened superlatives, pallbearers
  bask in shouldering their heavy burden.

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12. Question

• Every article could begin with a question. Too
  many do. So, be careful.
• Use the question only if you believe its the
  best introduction to what follows.
• Does the question pose a real mystery?
• Does the question lead directly to a vital
  answer?
• Does the question turn playful?
• Should you avoid Rhetorical Questions?
• YUP!

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Question example

• Q How many Who members does it take to screw in
  a light bulb?
• A Just Pete Townshend -- but only after he has
  spent years conceiving the idea, designing the
  bulb and the ladder, building them by hand,
  taking them on tour and pontificating about their
  relevance to his previous light-bulb
  installations. On the plus side, sometimes he
  lets Roger Daltrey touch the bulb.
• Review of Endless Wire

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Question example

• Gwen Stefani in Winnipeg
• Clothes minded singer offers more style than
  substance
• By ROB WILLIAMS - Winnipeg Sun
• Gwen Stefani has answered the age old question
  of who wears short shorts.
• She wears short shorts. And short skirts, short
  shirts and short blazers as a packed crowd of
  13,500 witnessed last night at the MTS Centre.
• The 36-year-old blond bombshell was making her
  first visit to the city as part of her Harajuku
  Lovers Tour, a concert high on energy and a
  showcase of Stefani's considerable fashion sense.
  

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13. Quote

• As with the question lead, so the quote don't
  overuse it.
• Make sure you have a strong quote, one that truly
  sets up your subject.
• If you lead with a quote from your interviewee,
  make sure it really encapsulates the tone or
  angle of your article.

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13. Quote

• A new polish on Diamond
• By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun
• Hands. Touching Hands. Reaching out. Touching
  Me. Touching you.
• Okay, so my phone interview with legendary
  singer-songwriter-performer Neil Diamond didn't
  quite go down like that.
• But the 64-year-old Brooklyn native, down the
  line from his home in Los Angeles, tried to make
  our 20 minute chat as cozy as possible.
• "I'm sitting here at my desk and I have the
  speaker phone on, if that's all right. I like to
  sit back and have a conversation," he says.
• Suits me, and who am I to argue with the voice of
  God?

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14. Mystery/Kicker

• Create a mystery about your subject whose
  solution will be revealed with an

ironic twist.

• In your lead, buildup toward the
• unexpected!

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15. Make-Believe

• Lead your reader into imaging that they are part
  of the story
• Imagine the Wizard of Oz but with Madonna in
  each of the climactic roles she is the
  infinitely mighty Wizard, oohing and awing her
  subjects she is the flawed, human-sized figure
  revealed behind the curtain and the vast
  machinery of her own projection and finally she
  is the girl redelivered from the profound
  Technicolor fantasy into her real lifenow with a
  womans wisdom.
• This is, more or less, the narrative leading up
  to and incorporating Ray of Light 1998, all of
  it meant to establish the new Madonna as older
  and wiser, human-sized and recovered from
  grandiose mania 349

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