Don

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Dont Stop There!!!

• Some ideas
• for writing
• better heads

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• Tips from John SchlanderSt. Pete Times

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Word association

• Think of key words and do some free association
  to develop angles.
• So close, so Favre (when Brett Favre and the
  Packers stole a game from the Bucs).

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Mental picture

• What picture comes to mind as you read the story?
  Use that in your headline.
• Wearing jackets of ice, crops weather freeze
• Bashful moon to blush as earth passes by

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Perfect verb

• A fresh verb can really make a headline.
• Summer muscles its way into spring
• Deputies inch toward unionization

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Perspective

• Come at the head from a different viewpoint. For
  example, instead of writing the head from the
  government's perspective
• Officials consider later high school starting
  times
• write it from the affected person's perspective
• High schoolers, don't reset alarm yet

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Emotion

• Hit 'em in the gut or the heart.
• In the hot glare of fame, secret is revealed
  
  (Classy but still emotional head on story
  about Dr. J acknowledging Wimbledon sensation
  Alexandra Stevenson is his daughter.)
• Heal ever, forget never (on a post-Columbine
  story)

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Quote

• Is there a great quote that sums up the story?
  Don't overuse this technique, but it can be
  effective
• He never had a chance

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Foreshadowing

• Give readers a compelling detail that foreshadows
  the action and makes them wonder, but doesn't
  frustrate them with vagueness.
• The "hot glare of fame'' head fits in this
  category, too. Instead of banging people over the
  head tabloid-style with Dr. J admits tennis star
  is his love child, we took another, better route.

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Specifics

• Sometimes, just making a headline more specific
  really helps. If you have a rather vague head,
  sub in specifics. This method works on many
  everyday heads. Change
• Slain woman mourned at service
• To 1,500 attend funeral for slain woman
• How many people have that great a number of
  mourners show up for their funeral?

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A touch of the poet
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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant alliteration

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant alliteration
• Reference to previous work

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant alliteration
• Reference to previous work allusion

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant alliteration
• Reference to previous work allusion
• Comparison to unlike object

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant alliteration
• Reference to previous work allusion
• Comparison to unlike object metaphor
• A double meaning

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A touch of the poet

• Use tropes (turns)
• A trope is a return (repeat)
• Repeated end sound rhyme
• Repeated start consonant alliteration
• Reference to previous work allusion
• Comparison to unlike object metaphor
• A double meaning pun

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A touch of the poet

• Rhyming heads signal humor (or at least a light
  topic)
• Library might allow patrons to snack within the
  stacks
• Ham on the lam // Illegal Inky the pig bolts from
  stinky house, but now the
  sprinting swine is fine

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Alliteration

• It took a lot of labor
• to find love on this day
• (on a column about a birth on Sept. 11)
• Fancy felines compete for the 'kitty'

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Allusion

• Theyre off to seek the lizard!
• Sex Drug Rocks 'n' Rolls, on Pfizer's success
  with Viagra
• Youve got wail Hospital webcasts newborns

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Metaphor

• Comcast lets/ cable pirates/ off the hook
• Bureaucrats / creep into garden / of well-seeded
  / retirement plans
• Thousands / sink in sea / of bad debt //
  Overloaded credit cards, bankruptcies, home loans
  soar

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Puns

• California smokers are rebels without a pause
• Record highs mean there's no business in snow
  business
• To dye for Bodies become canvases in San Pedro
  tattoo and piercing store

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Puns

• A word of warning Puns are addictive
• Once you get started, its hard to stop
• But whats funny to you may not be funny to
  others
• Use sparingly!!!

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Ive got rhythm

• The best trope of all

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Ive got rhythm

• The best trope of all
• Spoken English typically comes out in iambs

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Ive got rhythm

• The best trope of all
• Spoken English typically comes out in iambs
  (Unstress/stress)
• Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mers DAY?
• Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per
  ATE

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iambs opposite
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iambs opposite

• A trochee

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iambs opposite

• A trochee
• AKA the doo-dah

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Jim Barger (Pitts. P-G)

• Everybody has at least hummed or whistled
  "Camptown Races," and it was out of the
  comfortable cadence of that old song that the
  doo-dah principle was born

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Jim Barger (Pitts. P-G)

• The best headlines are the ones after which you
  can say "doo dah." They just sound right. Readers
  like the way they feel. And they're everywhere.

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Jim Barger (Pitts. P-G)

• Mary had a little lamb (doo dah, doo dah)
• London Bridge is falling down (doo dah, doo dah)
• Nixon makes his final plea
• Steelers win fifth Super Bowl

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Improving heads

• Use the techniques here
• Pay attention to language
• P(l)ay attention to language
• Word choice, visual imagery, emotion,
  perspective, details, allusion, alliteration,
  metaphor, rhythm
• Mix match

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Practice

• Write a better head, using one or more of these
  techniques (alliteration?)
• First individually
• Then in groups
• Display critique