Start With a Strong Lead

Most readers will make up their mind within the first 10 seconds of skimming through a story in the paper.  Creating an attention-grabbing lead will engage the reader and spark their interest – resulting in them reading the article in its entirety.  A great lead will usually contain a question or scenario.  This is a good place to start.

Take Them to Their Destination

Once you have their attention – it is time for you to get directly to the point.  The last thing you want to be doing is beating around the bush.  They are reading your story because the headline/lead intrigued them and now they want to get to the meat and potatoes.  If you fail to get to the point right away, you will most likely lose their interest.  Keep your sentences short, hard-hitting and sweet.

With Words, Less is Better

Your story will need to have a minimum word count, but you want to accomplish this in the most efficient way possible.  Long, drawn-out sentences will get you nowhere.  For example, “The girl was taken down the street to St. Joseph’s Hospital” could be shortened to “The girl was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital” getting rid of the unnecessary “down the street” portion.

End on a High Note

Remember that hard-hitting lead you started with?  Well now it’s time to bring everything back around and give them everything you’ve got.  Ending with the answer to your initial lead question is the most common technique.  How about giving the answer followed by another question?  This will keep them satisfied as well as have them pondering on what was just read for the next 5 minutes.  Leaving the reader thing about what they read is always a good thing!