The Seven Most Important Lead Types for Bloggers

Most bloggers are technically terrible writers.

Did I get your attention? If I didn’t grab your interest then I haven’t done my job as a writer. Sure, using a harsh (and basically untrue) statement like that is gimmicky as hell, but, it’s not a bad trick if I don’t overuse it. That punchy single sentence is what is referred to as a one-line hook lead and it is just one of the seven types of leads I am going to talk about in this week’s post.

For those of you who think you aren’t familiar with leads, you actually are. Lead is just the fancy writer-speak word for the introduction to a nonfiction article; your leading sentence. There are many types of leads and many combinations of those types. The type you use will depend upon the purpose of the article, the intended audience and the response for which you are aiming from your readers.

Even if you don’t know it, you are all familiar with at least one specific type of lead: the journalistic lead. A journalistic lead tries its best to hit as many of the five Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) as possible in the first sentence or two. The reasons for this are twofold: (1)the reader can quickly learn the basics of the story without being led through some sort of mysterious maze and (2) the editor can cut as much of the story as necessary for space later without necessitating any sort of rewrite.

Journalistic leads are generally not the best fit for blog articles. Although you will occasionally want to cover the five Ws right off the bat, it is almost always better to allow your story more of a feature-y feel instead of the hard-hitting pointedness of a news story. As bloggers, we are not often news-breakers. This means that we rarely find use for a journalistic lead and so I am not going to include it in my top seven.

Some types of writing do not require leads: novels, some short stories and other works of fiction rarely have need for a lead. Books are much longer than blog posts or other nonfiction articles so there is more time available for building a story. You can sustain suspense and slowly reveal “the point” because readers have settled in for a long read.

With short nonfiction, like blog posts, you have a very short amount of time to grab your reader and hold on tight. Whether or not you are able to do this is entirely dependent upon the lead that you construct. For this reason, the lead is the most important part of an article. If you can’t get readers through the first few sentences, then the rest of the page is irrelevant.

As I mentioned before, there are many common lead types. However, I am only going to share with you the seven that I have found most useful as a blogger.

• Comparison
  
  A comparison lead is exactly what you’d think: it is simply the comparison of one situation, object, etc. to another. We all know that technology changes every day. You go to bed with the coolest iPod on the planet, but when you wake up it’s passe because it doesn’t have a touch screen. For this reason, a comparison lead lends itself very well to a blog post.
  
  Example: My officemate has a shiny red Motorola Q that makes my Blackberry 7100i look about as high-tech as a block of stone and a chisel. (True story. I am very jealous.)
• Question
  
  This one is also very straightforward in definition, but it is often misused or overused. Take a look through your archives and come up with a rough estimate of the percentage of posts that begin with a question. If it is more than 5% then this article is definitely for you. A question lead, when overused or abused is simply a copout for finding the right way to “tell.”
  
  When you are using a question lead, avoid rhetorical questions like: “Are you tired of hearing about the Google pagerank update?” Used correctly and thoughtfully, a question can be a very strong lead. By starting out with a question, you can immediately engage your readers’ by challenging them to think of an answer.
  
  Example: Could you survive a week alone in the wilderness?
• Statistical
  
  If you can find numbers related to your article that are surprising or help tell the story, it can be a great way to get things going. By using a list of numbers to start off your article, you run the risk of scaring off people or boring them to death. Make sure that when you use this lead the numbers are relevant and interesting.
  
  Example: Forty-two percent of college graduates never read a book again.
• Anecdotal
  
  Blogs started out as personal diaries and some of them are still written in the same conversational style. My writing style often has the feeling of verbally addressing an audience. With readers used to this format, it’s really no surprise that an anecdotal lead can work very well. The personable nature of a storytelling introduction makes the piece feel more intimate than if you were to start with facts or figures.
  
  Example: Sunday afternoon was windy and rainy so it was the perfect time to plug in the electric blanket and catch up on some much-neglected reading. Just as I got perfectly situated in my chair, Sadie decided it was time for her to get her snuggle on as well. The problem is, Sadie requires an active snuggle; one that involves a good deal of petting and scratching, actions that don’t really allow for concentrated reading.
• One-Line Hook
  
  This is the type of lead I used to kick off this article. The one-line hook is one of the most difficult types of leads to write effectively because you have so few words with which to work. Your goal, with a single sentence, is to evoke a strong enough response in your reader to make them stick around for the whole story. One-line hooks work very well for bloggers because our readers often have short attention spans and more than enough other blogs to read. With a one-line hook, you throw your lead out there, wait until you feel the bite and then yank that pole up to ensure that the reader is good and caught. That might be a bit too gruesome a metaphor in our politically correct times, but you get the point.
  
  Example: Most bloggers are technically terrible writers.
• Quotation
  
  A carefully chosen quotation can be just the powerful punch an article needs to really get going. Like Question Leads, Quotation Leads are often overused and should only be used when they are the best choice for the particular story. If you are writing about a particular person, a quotation lead would be a great fit.
  
  Example: “Every writer I know has trouble writing.” – Joseph Heller
• Controversial
  
  I have seen a lot of controversial leads in the past couple of weeks referring to Google. A controversial lead is used to make the reader feel surprise at what the writing is imparting. This type of persuasion tactic shows the reader why they should react a certain way rather than just telling them: “Hey you, Be shocked!” It is subtle enough to help the reader feel that he/she is in control of their emotions and is an effective way of avoiding a condescending tone when you are attempting to get your readers to feel a certain way about something.
  
  Example: Scores of sex offenders in Anderson, South Carolina, will be corralled for Halloween tonight in a move authorities say is needed to keep kids safe as they trick or treat. (From CNN.com, October 31, 2007)

As a writer, you hear a lot about “style” and “voice.” This can be confusing when you also hear that you need to switch things up to keep people interested. When it comes to leads, you are definitely in a situation where you need to switch it up. It is fine to love Question Leads with all your heart, but if you commit to a monogamous relationship with them your writing will become boring, tired, too predictable.

As you learn different types of leads, you will become more adept at choosing the right lead for a story. If you use a different type of lead for each article you write in a week, that doesn’t mean you are lacking style. It doesn’t mean that you haven’t found your voice. What it means is that you are educated enough as a blogger to have many choices when it comes to the most critical section of an article: the beginning.

Written by Sara Christensen from Pajama Professional
Posted on October 31st, 2007 and filed under Blogging, Writing
Do not forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for updates

7