Many ways exist as far as how to write a lead, the styles of which likely differ based on the tone or voiceof the piece and intended audience in a story—and even the overall leng… See more

Hard news leads get the who, what, why, where, when, and how in the piece up front, the most important bits of information right up top. They're part of the classic reverse-pyramid ne… See more

"Newspaper reporters have varied the form of their work, including writing more creative story leads. These leads are often less direct and less 'formulaic' than the traditional n… See more

"There are editors...who will try to take an interesting detail out of the story simply because the detail happens to horrify or appall them. 'One of them kept saying that people rea… See more

​Joan Didion: "What's so hard about the first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down the first tw… See more