Showing posts with label starting a newspaper story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label starting a newspaper story. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Get started

WRITING QUOTES: These are all quotes I've found about getting started and putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

 "Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." — William Faulkner

 Whether I'm writing fiction or non-fiction, I just sit down and start writing. It could be in the beginning or in the middle. Then I go back and fix it. Often, the final result doesn't look like what I started with.

"The scariest moment is always just before you start." — Stephen King

 It's strange (or maybe not) that scare-master Stephen King used the word "scariest."

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." — Louis L'Amour

"Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand."
— Henry Miller

"Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down."
— Ray Bradbury

I especially like this one. I can envision what he's saying, and I suspect you can, too.

"You want to be a writer? A writer is someone who writes every day — so start writing."
— Shonda Rhomes

 Sadly, I don't write every day; most days. But, even when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about it. It's part of me.
CONTACT: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.


Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie


Entries from The Dog Blog

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Writing your article lead

So you want to grab your reader's attention fast? Well, do ya?

Maybe we can help.

A reader asked me last year to talk about the story lead. "I know what it (the story lead) is," the reader wrote, "but I don't know how you decide what it is. Is it the most interesting part for your readers? The point of the story?

"Is the lead dictated by your writing style or approach? For example, a sport story. One would assume the lead is the result of the game. But that's not always used as the lead is it. Why not?"

While the headline interests the reader in the story, the lead draws him into it. The Associated Press lead is the simplest newspaper lead. "President Barack Obama asked Congress to pass environmental legislation Wednesday..."

A more interesting AP lead might be, "President Barack Obama was worried about global warming Wednesday, and an argument heated up in Congress." The first one would draw you into the story, but the second one should really grab you. Or burn you up.

It doesn't have to be the first sentence or the first paragraph. Some leads run some several paragraphs, and I've probably written one or two like that. Over the years, I've come to prefer a quick lead, then on with the story.

I once worked with a guy who wrote long, convoluted leads, and everyone at the newspaper ragged him. So his leads got shorter and shorter. They became eight words, then five, then four. We quickly started counting the words in his leads. It got to the point that he was more concerned with the number of words rather than simply writing a good lead.

An editor and I once argued about a sports lead in which the writer wrote "Joe Schmoe scored two touchdowns and Big Muddy High beat Little Big Horn High, 24-20, on Friday night." The editor said that was the important part, and I countered that Big Muddy improved its record to 10-0 on the season. He looked at me disgustedly and told the writer to change the lead.

What did the guy write? I don't remember, but it could have been "Big Muddy High didn't play one of its best games on Friday night, but the Mud Whumpers are still perfect." Then you can add the score, give their record and talk about Joe Schmoe and all of the Whumpers' turnovers and screwups.

I've seen long, complicated leads that won press awards. My friend's opening was fairly long. But writing a short one might win as well.

The person who first taught me to edit also wrote long, metaphysical (read: boring) leads that would keep you out of her stories. But she was a heck of an editor. I often wondered why she didn't edit her leads and improve them.

So how do you find your lead? That's up to you and the story. There's no set way to write a lead, and 100 people could write 100 great leads for the same story.

Is a lead the most important part of your story? No, it's just one part. But if you do it well (and you'll know it instantly), the rest of the story will fall right into line.


Oh, one other thing: It's not a good idea to lead with a question. People will say "I don't care," and go to something else.


Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie
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