-- Did you write a good lede this past week (aside to Sergio: did you make a lede better with your editing)? If so, post it, and tell us what was good about it.
-- If not, no worry. They will come. But find a lede from your paper that you thought was particularly good. Post that instead, and tell us what you liked about it.
-- In general, what challenges do you face when you write/ think about a lede?
-- In general, what should a good lede do?
-- And—what constitutes a bad (or lesser-light) lede?
POSTING DEADLINE: Tuesday Feb. 5. Also, don’t forget to check in with our other discussion threads: Water Cooler, News Basics, and Writing Basics.
--This was the lede I wrote after my infamous screwup. I thought it was good because the girl was truly the smallest on the field. I also felt she needed the exposure since she was in the seventh grade. Overall I felt it grabbed the readers attention to read the rest of the story.
--I wrote about six ledes throughout the game. I may think too much, but all of them fit for the moment. I want to make sure the lede entices the reader, or plays off a previous story. Mine on the other hand played off someone who wouldn’t get the publicity of a star player.
--As said before, A good lede should entice the reader to read the rest of your story and inform them of what your story is about.
--A bad lede, in my opinion, is something general that you would see off an AP story. “So and so scored 2 goals en route to Maclay’s 4-2 win.” It’s boring, but it gives you the gist of what happened.
By Carlos M. Silva Jr.
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Normally star players are looked up to in admiration. On Tuesday night, they looked down at Jenna Peck.
Peck, a seventh-grader, scored two goals including the game-winner to lead the Maclay girls soccer team to a 4-2 victory over John Paul II in the Class 2A regional semifinals.
“Tremendous game,” John Paul II coach Matt Olesnivich said. “It’s everything you’d hoped it would be in a playoff game. Both teams fought hard, showed a lot of heart.”
I dont know if this lede counts for this topic because it’s kind of a delayed lede…
Argenis et al: ALL ledes count, whether “delayed” or hard-edged or summary or double-barreled, or whatever… In my humble opinion, ledes fall into two general categories: Those that work, and those that don’t ... everything else is details… this is nice!
Normally star players are looked up to in admiration. On Tuesday night, they looked down at Jenna Peck.
Peck, a seventh-grader, scored two goals including the game-winner to lead the Maclay girls soccer team to a 4-2 victory over John Paul II in the Class 2A regional semifinals. ”
Folks: I think it’s worth it to “analyze” what Carlos has done here.. Instead of starting off with a classic “The Maclay girls soccer team won a 4-2 victory...” lede, he culled, from the universe of information in the notebook and in the head, a THEME to start with:
The underpinning to his “theme” of the players “looking down” at game-saver Peck is, Peck is the shortest and youngest player on the team. A few grafs down, carlos quotes her saying something like, “"Doesn’t matter if you’re the smallest or the youngest....” etc. So in other words, he framed the classic game story with a larger theme. Nice!
3) A bad lede is a lot of things. It’s confusing. It’s uninspired. It’s thrown on a page with hatred and disdain. It doesn’t say anything except that the journalist has too much going on or just flat out doesnt care. Whatever the deal is, a bad lede will get you nowhere.
Yep… lemme add to that if I can—a bad lede is all of the above, and often stems from the reporter’s not seeing clearly through the thicket of the information… oftentimes what we call “a kitchen sink lede”—i.e. just throw everything into it—is a result of not being able to prioritize information.
Hopefully this isn’t off topic, but I feel it is important. Our Grammar Man Ron Hartung said it best. “If a reporter can’t think of a headlin; he/she does not know the story well enough.” That was awesome advice.
. “If a reporter can’t think of a headline; he/she does not know the story well enough.”
Yes, TOTALLY awesome advice. And so true. Think about what he is saying: If you know what you’re writing about, know what the story is, don’t have a lot of extra hoo-ha, then you should be able to capture it in a sentence, a headline, even a word. THAT is focus! Thanks, Carlos.....
GUYS.. deadline drawing near for posting to the DQ....
A pesar de los esfuerzos de algunas personas por opacar la celebración de despedida de Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro el pasado miércoles, el agradecimiento y el cariño de la comunidad predominaron.
-Laura Bucio/Reportera de Excelsior
Translation:
Despite the efforts of some people to diminish Consulate Luis Miguel Haro Ortiz’ farewell celebration last Wednesday, the community’s appreciation and love dominated the event.
-Laura Bucio/Excelsior Reporter
The lede is well written because it indicates that something unprecedented occurred during the celebration and triggers a curiosity to want to find out more.
The biggest challenge is writing a lede that is unique and attention grabbing. Aside from the headline, the lede is your sole opportunity to sale your story to the reader. If you drop the ball, then you’re done. I know when I’m reading a story and it’s a snoozer (from the start), I’m may or may not skim through the rest of the story (I’m a news junkie, therefore I may look past the BORING lede). However, not all readers are as forgiving and I don’t want to be the reporter who takes that chance.
A well-written lede should definitely have that special something that pulls you in. It should spark a curiosity in the reader to make them want to read more. I constantly change my lede. I’m always asking myself, “How could I make it better?”
A bad lede is bland, boring, droning, seen it before, stiff…you get the point. My worst nightmare would be if I begin writing my stories with, During the city council meeting on Monday…..*yawn*!
My worst nightmare would be if I begin writing my stories with, During the city council meeting on Monday…..*yawn*!
Martha et al: Yes! Keep alert for snoozers.... Your comment above reminds me of a wonderful story that was in the HErnando County version of the St. Petersburg Times, about “during the meeting on Monday, etc. etc....” Here is story top. Too great!
“At Monday night’s final meeting of Hernando County’s Citizens Advisory Committee on Capital Improvements, someone suggested that things might move along more quickly if the committee had a keg of beer.
(No such luck.)
The fractious committee had been sitting at folding tables in the recreation center on Fort Dade Avenue for nearly two hours. The chairs felt harder, the sky outside grew darker. Inside the brightly lit conference room, committee members fielded some increasingly peculiar motions, like cutting all proposed road projects in half.
It was the ninth meeting of the 25-member committee. The County Commission had appointed five members each in December, hoping the group could get a bead on how much money the community was willing to see spent on public projects like courtrooms, offices and roads.
Chairman Len Tria didn’t want to meet again, and pushed to complete the committee’s recommendations that night.
“You know the Pope said to Michaelangelo, “When will it be done?’ And he answered, “When it’s finished,’ “ Tria said optimistically before the meeting started. “I’m saying, “It’s finished.’ “
But it wasn’t finished. “
An older woman comes into a travel agency to book a cruise. Something isn’t quite right though. The excitement one usually sees in the face of someone planning an exotic voyage just isn’t there. With a tear in her eye, she books a room for one. “My husband and I had been talking about going on this cruise for 10 years. We never got around to it. Then he got sick...and now I’m alone.”
- David Loe, The Ventura County Star
I like this lead because it gives you a sense of suspense and you want to know why the woman is not excited about going to the trip and why she booked a room only for one. I wish I can write like that some day so far I’m just doing hard news. I got my fist feature story about some bicycle competition how can I make my lead more interesting Mary Ann?? Because I have to write a preview of the event so how can I make it more of a feature story if I won’t go to the event????
Brookside Glen tenants get word to get out
By Chris Vongsarath
Try moving into a new place in 60 days without a moving allowance while balancing a full-time job on the side. Oh, and do it over the holidays.
That’s the dilemma the residents of the Brookside Glen apartments faced after they received an eviction notice on Dec. 1 from property manager David Morrison. The eviction is to make way for developer JSM Enterprises, which plans on demolishing the apartment complex and building 20 two-story townhouses in its place.
This is the best lede I wrote last week, which is sad to say now that I’m reading it over again. I thought I captured what the residents of Brookside Glen were going through, but it doesn’t quite bring it home as well I as initially thought. Maybe I worded it wrong or something. However, reading the rest of the story does the lede some justice. It was an interesting story about how the developer was abusing its power and kicking these residents out during the holidays.
Usually when I am thinking of how I am going to write lede, I first think about impact: How does some event affect people? That way, it really hits home, and when it hits home, people care and want to read the rest of the story.
A bad lede is just what my classmates have said. Anything routine, cliche and/or uninspired loses reader interest and shows apathy toward the story you’re telling. I must admit that I’ve written my fair share of these ledes in the past, and I’m not proud of it. But when deadline is looming and there’s three other stories on your plate, what’re you gonna do?!
Brookside Glen tenants get word to get out
By Chris Vongsarath
Try moving into a new place in 60 days without a moving allowance while balancing a full-time job on the side. Oh, and do it over the holidays. !
Hey—this is nothing to sneeze at! I think it is immediate, and pulls people into the emotion of what’s going on… don’t beat yourself up! (Guys—interesting about ledes… notice how Chris’s is drawing the reader in by making them “imagine...i.e., this could be you!” a totally different approach from Carlos’s short hero and Argenis’ Ghost.... Interesting array of approaches so far ...all of them speaking to the QUALITIES you guys mention as being “good” in “good ledes...”
WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?????????
I got my fist feature story about some bicycle competition how can I make my lead more interesting Mary Ann?? Because I have to write a preview of the event so how can I make it more of a feature story if I won’t go to the event????
Any tips?
Ana et al: Tips for “preview” stories… i.e., you won’t be there, you are writing about something that is going to happen, usually from a press release....
-- remember that every competition has people who are striving/trying/proving/ accomplishing/ showing others they can—whatever… it is full of people doing it for some reason.
-- Key is people.
-- Get to the organizer of the event and try to find someone who is particularly interesting (someone’s first competition/ someone who has survived some huge obstacle in the past and is now competing/ someone who is finally living their dream/ someone who wants to win the thing for his dead mother/ someone who just learned to ride a bike last year, etc. etc. etc. etc.
-- Might take a few calls to screen people on the phone, but when you find the one that hits you, go there, talk to them about their story (not just the competition.... but what has brought them there? What is their backstory?
-- in other words, this person’s STORY (backstory) becomes the reason for promoting the upcoming event....
does that help?
Ana—email me personally if you wanna talk more about this, if you have time… ma
--------OAKLAND—Chris Webber has started 819 of 822 games in his NBA career, and he’s not going to begin coming off the bench now.
This is the best lead that I found interesting. I, personally, haven’t had to change much about headlines because the writer’s have been good about their leads. This lead, however captured my attention because it is one hell of a stat.
I believe you wanted to know what constitutes a good lead and a stat like this is attention-grabbing. I’ve followed sports for a while and I never knew that. This lead did capture my attention.
Here is a lead i found very exciting, written in Mike Lopresetti’s column in the Jackson Sun. It is more like a few sentences.
GLENDALE, Ariz. - And now, the inexplicable sounds of an unfathomable Super Bowl XLII.
Thud.
That was history.
Clank.
That was perfection.
Crash.
Those were the New England Patriots. The unbeaten New England Patriots. The renowned New England Patriots.
Oh, and one more sound.
Clink.
This captured what went wrong with the Patriots in Sundays super bowl perfectly. It does what a lede is designed for, give the reader a visual picture of what the story is about. This a lede that I wrote this week that I like.
Elijah Epperson and Charles Taylor are not ordinary stiffs who clog up the middle.
At 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-5, respectively, Epperson and Taylor are key components on Humboldt’s No. 2-ranked Class A team. They use their speed and athleticism to come up with multiple steals and put fast-break points on the scoreboard.
The duo made a difference in their rivalry game at Milan on Monday, beating the Bulldogs, 83-67.
When I write a lede, its difficult to find an important facet of the story to highlight, and one that I know that will interest the reader. I usually have to step back and ask myself what would make the story most interesting to the average reader. A bad lede doesn’t grab the reader in right away, rather forces the reader to dive in for more information, instead of making the reader to WANT to dive in for more information.
