Catchy Leads

We spent a lot of time in class practicing catchy leads with various exercises. An effective and catchy lead is vital to a complete and interesting feature story.

There are several types of leads that a writer can use to start his or her story. Chapter 5 in our books discussed the multitude of different leads, ranging from delayed identification to direct address to freak. There are numerous types of leads to choose from, the key is choosing the one that is most suitable and powerful for the type of feature story you are writing.

A major difference in hard news leads compared to that of feature stories is that in feature leads can be delayed leads. In other words, the writer doesn't have to get to all the important information in the very first graf. Instead the writer can allow the story and scenes to develop and reveal that information. In hard news, the inverted pyramid is used where the most important information must be crammed into the first graf. In feature writing the inverted pyramid is ditched.

It makes sense that feature leads are different than hard news leads since they are two very different styles of writing. Feature writing is a distinct variation of writing and storytelling. By catching the readers attention with a catchy lead, you set the audience up to continue reading and progressing towards the nut graf while becoming enthralled with the story.