Please tell us a bit about a lede you have done/ someone else has done/ you are struggling with that nails the points made in the column.
Remember—the lede is like the curb appeal of a for-sale house. If it stinks, it won’t sell. Why are ledes even more important these days, ie, the internet age????
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One of the things I am struggling with here in Baton Rouge can be likened to having a good lede as a photographer. I came from two newspapers that were more web-focused than print and thought more about taking as many good pictures as I could for a slideshow. The whole “one picture says it all” mantra went out the window for quantity. I don’t mean that I sacrificed quality, but I guess it would be akin to having a great novel of short stories and a synopsis that is so good you’re dying to read it. I really struggle with that synopsis, which is a problem at a paper that very rarely runs more than one photo.
To reconcile with that, I have been asking myself “what’s the story and how do I illustrate it?” when I walk in to every assignment. While it’s good journalistically, I have really taken a step back in my creativity. My shots lack the spark and spontaneity they once had. My editor told me the other day that I was either turning in safe shots or APAD shots, but nothing in between. APAD stands for aphotoaday.org, a photojournalism website devoted to crazy creative shots.
So now my goal is to get in between the safe shots and the APAD shots. If you would like to track my progress, check out my blog at http://bettinahansen.wordpress.com. I’m not generally allowed to post what I turn in for the newspaper, but I put up the stuff I wish I could put in the newspaper. And while you’re at it, check out aphotoaday.org. Cheers guys.
I have been asking myself “what’s the story and how do I illustrate it?” when I walk in to every assignment. While it’s good journalistically, I have really taken a step back in my creativity. .
wow, Bettina—this is really interesting! Reframing your discussion in a reductionist way, you are saying (I think) How do I tell a whole story, a good story, a compelling story (with creativity thrown in for good measure) in One Shot???
That is, to be sure, akin to writing a great lede....wie’ll look at the blog and see if anything jumps out as an addendum to this good thinking. In Photojournalism, I always try to reference those great photos (you know, the shot of the back of Babe Ruth’s jersey (http://tinyurl.com/auzonj) kinda thing, and ask, why is it such a friggin Great Photo???? And the answer is always, “Becuase it tells a whole story” (In Babe Ruth case: the back of the Jersey shows his Number, which is being retired, rather than his face, which would be any shot.... he is leaning on his bat, which evokes his frailty, so you get: Great Athlete, now frail, maybe on last legs, creates international sensation with his giving it all up, teammates on the sideline, it’s the end of an era, oh shitsky, versus, here is be Ruth waving to the crowd giving his final farewell .... ooooh. Wanna see some!
Just reading the column I was reminded of a lead I had way back when I was still pretty new at the UT Arlington student paper.
A former dean of the college of sciences - my beat - had passed. But he didn’t live in the area anymore, and the science dept. let us know a week after his death.
Timeliness and proximity weren’t on our side, but I was able to talk to his widow, and this is the lead I had:
--Even during S. Peter Rosen’s three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, which included surgery, chemotherapy and experimental drugs, his love of life, people and the outdoors remained as strong as ever.
“We would walk along the Potomac River, and he could walk up to 12 miles in a day,” his wife Adrienne said. “He was just a gentle soul who lived his life to the fullest. He was not one to idle. He had to be doing something.”
Dr. Rosen, who was the science dean from 1990 to 1996, died Oct. 13 at his Rockville, Md., home. He was 73.--
I really liked it, defended it with my editor, and our adviser thought it was good. It’s all about how you get readers in and, more importantly, how you don’t lose them.
i think i struggle with every lede, but once i get it, i get it. i spend a lot of time looking at a blank screen until inspiration strikes, usually in the form of a heavily caffeinated beverage, a quick walk outside of our windowless newsroom or some trolling on facebook.
most of my ledes contain a very strong human element, unless i haven’t done enough reporting because the editors are poking me to get ‘er done.
here’s one example i did last week of an advance on a concert.
Richard Hilario, 19, remembers when he first joined Vallejo’s Pilipino Youth Coalition.
The organization was thriving in 2004 when Hilario signed on as a freshman at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School, he said.
But as members graduated, moved away or just grew disinterested, PYC’s heyday began to fade.
“When I’ve seen it go from a lot of people to how it is now, it’s sad ... to see it low in numbers,” said Hilario, who now attends Diablo Valley College in Concord.
Hilario, who is still active with PYC, and other members of the youth group hope Friday’s Show C-Log event will increase interest — and maybe membership — in PYC.
Timeliness and proximity weren’t on our side ...
It’s all about how you get readers in and, more importantly, how you don’t lose them.
Anthony—yep, when timeliness and proximity aren’t on your side, you gotta troll for the meaning… This is a relaly good example of doing that—taking the HUMAN thing, and making it current, the window, the hook for the interest.... cool!
What’s going on in Storyland way up there in Ore??? Clue us.
i spend a lot of time looking at a blank screen until inspiration strikes, usually in the form of a heavily caffeinated beverage, a quick walk outside of our windowless newsroom or some trolling on facebook.
LCB—this is a good example of the “story top” thing we were talking about via email the other day—hwere the lede is really a two or three graf “story top” that completes a pic: Guy remembers heyday, guy watched the dwindling, guy thinks it’s sad, guy hopes his new endeavor will kcikstart the thing ....!
I also like your def of waiting for inspiration to strike above. Who was it—John Steinbeck, maybe??-- who said, “Writing is the profession where, when you’re sitting staring out the window, and someone asks what you’re doing, you can say, ‘Working.’”
i think i struggle with every lede, but once i get it, i get it. i spend a lot of time looking at a blank screen until inspiration strikes, usually in the form of a heavily caffeinated beverage, a quick walk outside of our windowless newsroom or some trolling on facebook.
i’m with you. ledes are always the hardest part of a story for me and i struggle with all of them, unless it’s a short straightforward breaking news story (which i have a lot of). i struggle and struggle with them, often writing, rewriting and starting over with a completely different lede below what i already have written, until i get it just right. sometimes i never come up with one that i’m satisfied with and just settle on the one i hate the least. my editor changes my ledes sometimes and when she does that, i look to see how she wrote it to try to better improve my lede-writing abilities.
i feel like i’ve gotten better but i know i still have a lot to learn. i wrote down those questions from the link and put it up at my desk, and i’m hoping that will help me when i go to write each lede.
here’s the top of a story i did last week. it was a multi-graf lede and i think it worked well. and it was one my editor didn’t change, which was even better
The bathtub drowning of an 8-month-old baby in Avondale over the weekend served as a cautionary tale of the importance of water safety.
“We need people to stop and think that it doesn’t have to be a swimming pool. It can be a bucket of water, it can be a sink, it can be a bathtub,” said Art Snapp, fire chief for Avondale Fire-Rescue. “Water can kill you. Never leave a child unattended around water.”
His warning comes in the wake of the Valley’s first child drowning of 2009.
About 3:30 p.m. Saturday, a 16-year-old mother placed her 8-month-old son in the bathtub, turned on the water and left the bathroom, Snapp said. The mother’s 9-year-old brother came home, heard the water running and found the baby face down in the water.
my editor changes my ledes sometimes and when she does that, i look to see how she wrote it to try to better improve my lede-writing abilities.
interesting drowning story, jackee, and i’m glad your editor didn’t change the lede.
i, for one, find it extraordinarily offensive when an editor changes my lede. it’s only happened twice in my short reporting career, but it was enough to piss me off for days on end. in fact, i still get mad thinking about it. garrrh!!!
writing is ego, put on paper. when someone messes with my lede—which, for me, is usually the heart of my story—someone messes with me.
Aw, I remember being pissed about changed leads… now I guess I’m more like Jackee, where if they change it I want to see what made theirs better. I will stand up for one I really believe in before they even read it, though - but I do hate when my lede and intro graphs are changed and my story hardly resembles what I turned in, because I think that’s almost always done out of spite.
All good leads, though, amigos. And sounds like y’all are keeping busy. I’m getting busier here but there’s still something frustrating me. I’m either bored or just not feeling it most of the time, not feeling like there’s much challenging me. I’ve got some stories to get to - one I should do right now for tomorrow afternoon’s paper, about a charity soup supper. There’s one that I know could be awesome, about a little boy who had a rare tumor removed and now the community’s giving his family a benefit. I would love to do video but we just don’t have the technology up here to pull off something awesome. I did a short video for a sheep story a few weeks ago that I wasn’t proud of, and the editor thought it was great. I don’t know, but I’ll get it done.
The bathtub drowning of an 8-month-old baby in Avondale over the weekend served as a cautionary tale of the importance of water safety.
“We need people to stop and think that it doesn’t have to be a swimming pool. It can be a bucket of water, it can be a sink, it can be a bathtub,” said Art Snapp, fire chief for Avondale Fire-Rescue. “Water can kill you. Never leave a child unattended around water.”
His warning comes in the wake of the Valley’s first child drowning of 2009.
IMPORTANT POINT ABOUT JACKEE LEDE ABOVE: It is a great example of a whole-story Story Top—i.e., the first graf nails the POINT of the story (caution—it can happen anywhere, anytime), not just the event (ie, kid dead) ... the pivotal quote is visual and full of good info that opens up the point (i.e., sink, bucket, etc) .... Third graf is really a NUT GRAF—gives the bigger meaning of story (first drowning of the year).
True point of this kind of compact information vetting: The above would, if it had to, be the entire story (a brief, etc) and still make good sense. Really nice!!!!!
but I do hate when my lede and intro graphs are changed and my story hardly resembles what I turned in, because I think that’s almost always done out of spite.
about a charity soup supper. .
Anthony et al: INteresting talk about whether eds change ledes because they feel like it, or they are being “spiteful,” or their way is just better.... how do you know???? would love to see and talk examples of ledes you did that got changed, and whether or not the alternative was better, and why or why not.
ACW—post the soup story. Sounds cool. Kid with tumor gets soup is definitely compelling .....
My lede was recently changed and my editor changed the name of the guy in my story too! So I filed two stories around the same time and he took the name of the guy from the first story and inserted it in the other story’s lede. What? yes. yes that happens, apparently. I have since started tracking my stories from user, source, copy and page design to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
I generally am not a fan of anecdotal ledes, but that’s what the community editors seem to like. Sometimes, though, small community stories to lend themselves to cheese factor. Here’s a recent example of my story on the oldest person in Peoria.
For her birthday, Myrtle Meilicke wanted a rack of ribs slathered in sauce and a cheesy, creamy twice-baked potato.
She got it and ate it.
“At 105 years old, Myrtle knows what she likes,” said Karen Rickard, the marketing manager at Amethyst Gardens, a retirement and assisted living center in Peoria.
I just saw this story on our home page (azcentral.com), and thought that it was a really good example of a strong lede and story top. It grabbed my attention right away and hooked me into the story. It’s anecdotal and it’s longer than most, but I thought it worked well for this story. In fact, I thought the whole story was really good. It’s kind of a sad story and I think it was written very well.
Here’s the lede:
COLUMBIA, S.C. - For 17 months, no one knew Mary Sue Merchant lay dead on her bedroom floor, her pet dog nearby, Calhoun County investigators say.
No one noticed the signs:
Her last transaction on a bank account was in October 2007, the same time she last filled a prescription.
A property tax bill for $234.38 sent to Merchant in November 2007 wasn’t paid by the Jan. 16, 2008, deadline.
The electricity was cut off in February 2008.
Her 25-acre property in the Sandy Run community was sold at a delinquent tax auction in December, authorities said.
While neighbors hadn’t seen the 74-year-old, it wasn’t unusual because she kept to herself, they said Tuesday.
Now, they wonder if they should have been nosy.
“It just blows my mind,” said Tonya Craven, who lives across the street with her husband and three children.
“If we would have known she didn’t have anyone checking on her, me and my husband would have been checking on her. I wouldn’t wanna go being alone like that. Nobody knowing. I like to be loved.”
