What writers & others say
“A feature story should begin with velocity. It shouldn’t just mumble and meander.”
— Joel Achenbach, staff writer, The Washington Post
“Probably the best lead ever written is: ‘Giant vampire fleas have gone on a pet-killing rampage in the Midwest,’ which was in The Sun, sold at better supermarkets everywhere.”
— Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald
“Think of your article as a train. The lead is the engine that pulls everything.”
— Stephen G. Bloom, associate professor, University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication
“The best day is the one when I can write a lead that will cause the reader at his breakfast the next morning to spit up his coffee, clutch at his heart and shout, ‘My God, Martha, did you read this?’”
— Edna Buchanan, legendary cops reporter, Miami Herald
“Put your best stuff near the beginning and at the end; hide weaker stuff in the middle.”
— Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, Poynter Institute
“There are so many decisions for the writer: Should I open with the news? Should I open with a scene? Should I ease the reader into the story or toss her in? How good does a lead have to be? Should I swing for a grand slam or a clean single?”
— Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, Poynter Institute
“In journalism, and in many other forms of writing, the first words are crucial. Consider the first line of Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’: ‘Call me Ishmael.’ The lead, though short, holds weight — especially given the length of the novel.”
— Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, Poynter Institute
“Lead with what is interesting, lead with what is newsworthy, lead with what is mysterious, lead with what is dramatic, lead with what is captivating. Inform the reader, tease the reader, anger the reader, challenge the reader, tickle the reader or prepare the reader for what is coming next. But don’t bore the reader. There is never an excuse to be boring. Picky, these readers. If your lead bores them, they retaliate. They refuse to read the rest of what you’ve written.”
— Robert M. Knight, author, A Journalistic Approach to Good Writing: The Craft of Clarity
“A lead should shine like a flashlight down through the piece.”
— John McPhee, pioneer of creative nonfiction
“What surprised me when I was reporting the story? Anything that surprised you will usually surprise, interest, and inform the reader. It often helps to take a few moments to reconstruct what you thought the story would be before you went out and did your reporting and then to compare that with what you learned.”
— Donald M. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, in Writing to Deadline
“When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.”
— David Ogilvy, “the father of advertising”
“Classically, there are two ways to begin a story: ab ovo and in medias res. Ab ovo means ‘from the egg’ — from the beginning. In medias res means ‘in the middle of things’ — in the middle of the action.”
— Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, in How to Write: Advice and Reflections
“Think of the feature lead as a close-up. The nut graph is a wide-angle shot.”
— Chip Scanlan, The Poynter Institute’s writing workshop director
Hook readers with great leads
You’re not still packing all of the Ws into the first paragraph, are you? Cranking out “XYZ Company today announced …” leads? If so, your News Writing 101 class called and wants its leads back!
To win today’s fierce competition for your readers’ attention, you need more sophisticated, nuanced leads — not the approaches you learned when you were 19.
Learn how to hook readers with great leads at our lead-writing workshop.
