Lead 1

 

Feature writing tells the reader a story. It has a beginning (lead), middle, and end. It uses quotes liberally and allows the reader to see the story through detailed description and vivid writing. A lead story is the opening sentence of a story, it must grab and hold the reader's attention by using specific words. A lead must catch the spirit of the story and create a proper tone for it. For example, it can be serious, ironic, or even melancholic. There are various types of leads such as narrative, descriptive, direct quote, starling statement, compare and contrast and twist. 

A lead should grab the readers' attention, be specific to the story, not include cliches unless necessary, be in third person, be longer than one sentence, and fit the mood or tone of the story.

Feature Example:

Someone called 18 people in the city last night. The caller identified himself as the president of Rutherford Ford, Inc., 2780 Doss Boulevard. He told each of the people that they had just won a new car from his dealership. Interviewed by reporters today, most of the people who received the calls said that at first they just couldn't believe it. And they were right. They couldn't. The person who called was a prankster, and Allen Rutherford, president of the dealership, says he has no idea who placed the calls, and that he's spending all his time today trying to explain the situation to those 18 people. "Someone apparently has a sick idea of humor," Rutherford said. After convincing people they had won a new car, the caller asked them to drop by the dealership this morning to pick it up. All 18 were there when the dealership opened its doors at 9 a.m. "I told them we never offered to give away a car," Rutherford said. "One woman told me she couldn't believe she'd won, and then she told me she couldn't believe it when I told her she hadn't. Two other women began to cry, and a man is threatening to sue me."