In class today we discussed how to generate a lead. Remember, our goal for leads is to get the reader interested...this means we have to trick the reader into continuing regardless of whether or not they enjoy our topic.
For example. I don't like vegetables. Am I going to read an essay that starts with "I am going to tell you some interesting things about vegetables."? Of course not. You need to think and give me some information that will force me (the reader) to ask a question about the topic...hopefully something you will address later on.
How about..."Before kids were spitting them into napkins to make them 'disappear', vegetables were being used to conquer the cuisine and culture of continents."
Now, regardless of my attitude towards veggies, I have something that I can relate to and a question that draws me in...how does a veggie take on a continent?
As a writer our goal is to identify the topic and then ask some questions about the topic
Example:
Topic - My dog
Questions - Does he do anything funny? What kind of dog is he? Is he friendly?
Then you take one of those questions and develop it into a lead.
Another option for generating the lead is to give a small amount of info that will force the reader to ask themselves a question...
"Though I never want to talk about them, the events of last week are certainly noteworthy." what happened last week?
"Dinosaurs don't know how to stand on one leg." how can you know this about dinosaurs?
When a reader asks a question in their mind they are engaging with the text, something that we as writers must have!!!
48 comments:
I think all of our leads got better after we actually learned how to do it. Hmmmm i wonder why.....
I think that "leads" are the most important part of a story.
If the reader is not interested by the lead,the reader will not want to read on or will not want to focus their full attention to the piece of writting.
When writing a lead it is important to engage the reader into the writting weather they love or hate the topic.
leads can be hard to write but they will make your story worth reading!
Leads are what make the reader want to read further into the story because they will want to know what is going to happen next. If you don't have a great lead then most likely the reader will get bored and put the story down. If you want to have a great story, then you must have a good lead.
Leads are what makes a reader want to read a story. I wouldn't want to read a story about fall sports (not soccer) if they state it up front. However, I would probably read the story if they were more creative. Our leads at first were horrible, but after, our leads were a lot better.
I think that leads are the one of the most important elements in a peice of writing. Like Horvath said it makes the reader ask questions about the peice and want to read on, but it also shows a lot about the writer. It sets the tone for the whole story and shows what kind of writer that person is.
To me if a piece of literature doesn't have a good lead, then its not worth reading. When it doesn't grab your attention in the beginning then most likely you will loose interest halfway through reading it. If someone were to start out writing a book by telling the reader what its about, most people would think that its a horrible book written by a horrible author. The lead should make you ask questions because asking questions is what keeps you reading. I think that after this year not only our leads, but our writing will improve this year.
I think that if a story doesn't have a good lead why in the world should i read on or anyone else. A lead is supposed to hook the reader, not make the reader fall a sleep! For example, this lead, "they murdered him!" makes me wonder who is they, why did they murder him, and who did they murder in the first place, and why. this lead, "today i went to school." Is boring in the frist place, and secondly, why do i care if you went to school today. I'm not left thinking, or wondering what is going to happen next. It's going to make me want to throw the book right into the trash. That is not what you want a lead to do. Writing that is a wasted of paper and time.
Leads to me are the most important and interesting part of an essay or story. I think this because the lead makes me wonder what is in store for the rest of the story.
i think that leads are the most important part of the story. The lead is what makes me want to read further to see whats going on.Even though i don't like football or reading about football if the lead is good then i might want to read it. I think that a good lead is when the reader has a lot of questions in their mind.
I disagree with leads being the most important part of a story. I do think they tell the reader what kind of book they are reading (sometimes more than the summary) and what the author's style is. I sometimes like the summary of a book, but put it down after reading an uninteresting lead.
I find it can be hard to always grab your readers interest because you need to look from their point of view and though i do play the role of a reader a lot it becomes hard for me to switch back and forth between reader and writer. As a reader I'm always looking for words to see how they fit together and trying to brake down my characters but when I write I already know all that and i often forget that I'm not making sense to the reader.
kinda like bailey i think the the lead is not the most important part, but it is the eye catcher. but if you dont try for the rest of the story the reader will put down your book.
The lead should be the most interesting part of the story. Its when i as a reader, get most excited about the book and when the author should be able to get me hooked pretty effortlessly. It sets the tone for whats to come, not always for the plot but more to see what kind of writer this person is. Its the showcase of the whole book and without a good lead its hard to want the reader to pay attention to what you have to say as an author or even flip to the next part. There are too many books out there to wait and find out if a book is any good by keep reading one that doesn't get you hooked right away.
Last year we learned that questions are a good lead. I used to always start stories with questions as leads. Now I am much better at leads and Im pretty confident that my story has a good lead.
A lead gives the reader his/ her first impression on the story, it can make a story very successful and popular or it can ruin the entire piece because if it's boring nobody is going to want to continue reading it. However I do agree with Bailey and Kase, a lead is not the MOST IMPORTANT part of a story, there are a few books that didn't have very good leads, but turned out to be good after i got past the first few chapters. On the other hand many people give up on stories if the lead doesn't create a good first impression so it is still very important to have a good lead.
I think that the lead is an important part of a story. I think this because if your story didn't have a good lead or a hook then readers would not want to even read your story but if the lead was a good lead then people would want to know more and read more. The lead should make readers wonder and ask questions and that's what makes a story and good story. It is also like a first impression where people mostly judge the book by that.
when i write leads i like to make the reader think a little so they dont just sit ther and just find out about whats going on they actualy have to picture it and think about it .
i disagree with Baily because, The lead should be something like the reader looks forward to, in other words.. The author needs a great lead no matter what. If someones lead for a writinf peice was "I am going to tell you about my dog, his name is Jack, he is brown with black spots everywhere." it doesnt make me want to read more. I know whenever i start a book the first thing i read is the lead, if that doesnt interest me then the book wont.
It’s very easy to picture yourself liking your own lead. The hard part, like Maya said, is trying to criticize yourself and picture yourself as a reader. I do think that the lead is the best part of a writing piece. You have to be hooked by the lead or else you won’t read on. You can be an author and write the greatest story in the world but have a bad lead and nobody will read your book or vice versa. A question is good to start but I think this best lead is made when you confuse the reader by putting him in the middle of something where he has no clue what’s going on.
Like George just said i also think that the lead is the best part of a writing peice. i also think that it is the most important. If you dont grab the readers attention right away then they will most likely end up not reading the story.And thats exactly what you dont want. If you dont have a good lead then the story wont be very succesful.
Having a good and interesting lead is good because that is what the reader reads first and that is what grabs or attaches the reader so that they will read on. If you didn't have a good lead then the reader won't want to on anymore and what if the rest is good too?
The lead is the most important part of a story because if it is a really bad lead that tells you everything that is going to happen or if it is just not interesting, no one is going to keep reading past the first or second sentence. If you already know everything about story from the lead, why would you keep reading? If you wrote a really good lead and the reader doesn’t care for the topic, there is a good chance they will keep reading because they want to find out what will happen next. If they have a lot of questions because they read the lead, the only way to find out is to keep reading.
i think that a lead is something that is interesting and when you read a lead you should always make it sound good so then other people would want to read it.
when you right a lead it has to be interesting and it has to make the reader want to read more if the lead is not good then no one would want to read the rest of it.
I think a good lead is when the beginning sentence(s) make you wonder about something or ask a question. If you don't have a good lead then people won't want to read on because it isn't interesting. If you have a good lead people will have a question and the will read on because they want to figure out the answer to their question.
Having a good lead is important, because if your lead isn't interesting enough, no one will want to read your story. If your lead doesn't effect anyone or bring any questions to someone's mind, then you know it's not the best you could have written. The lead grabs your attention and pulls you in to reading the rest of the story!
A good lead in a story is really important. It is almost like a first impression. If you have a bad lead, the readers first impression of the book will be bad. If you have a good lead, the readers first impression will be good. A lead is what pulls the reader in, and makes them ask themselves a question about it.
I think that having a good lead effectively makes the reader want to read on in the story/Article.
But if you don't have a well written lead that make the read wonder than they wont want to read on.
Leads are important for writing storys. It is what gets the reader into it. If you have a boring lead, the reader will be bored but if you have a good lead then the reader will ask a question about it and read on.
I think leads are the most important part of the story. if the reader doen't like the lead they'll put the story down and walk away
I think leads are pretty much the most important part because if i dont like the beginning of the story i dont read more then the first page. If its not interesting in the first line then who would bother reading more?
I think leads are the most important part of writing because if the book or story is not interesting or suspenseful at the beginning then it’s probably not going to be interesting or suspenseful the rest of the book or story. This will make you put the book down.
Leads are the most important part of the story like Shelby said. If the lead doesnt hook you, then no one will keep reading. you want a lead that will leave you asking questions about what and why things are happening. also, you want the person to obviously, keep reading.
Having a good lead is good because you get the reader's attention and they keep on reading on.
I need a good lead in my book m yo bc it hjas to intrest me
Generally, in a book, I do not judge it by the lead, I judge it by the whole first page. But when I write I think this is a very good idea because I am not that very good of a writer so this halps me a lot and think it is a very good idea.
if i dont like the lead of the book im reading i simply just wont read it.. ill put it down and try another. If the author cant catch my interest in the beggining then whos to say hes going to catch it at all.
The lead is probably the most important part of a book or story. I think most people judge the rest of the book on the lead. I know if I pick up a book and it has a terrible lead then I usually put it down and automatically think I won't like the rest of the book. A good lead should catch anyones attention and make them want to keep reading.
I think the lead to a story is the most important part. I think this because the rest of the writing piece depends on it. If the lead doesnt make the reader ask a question or if it doesnt capture his/her attention, they won't cotinue reading. If the lead is good and asks a question, the reader wil probrably continue to read on.
Leads take a very important role in a story. They get the reader to ask questions to them selves whether or not they should read the story. having a good lead makes the reader read on and find out more in the story, having a careless lead makes the reader say "this looks boring."
i think leads are the most important part of a story because they make the reader ask questions about the story and it makes the reader decide whether to read the story or just stop reading
The lead is probably the most important part of a story, because if the reader doesn't think the main idea of the lead appeals to them, there is no point in reading on.
I think the lead is an extremely important part of the story. It really hooks the reader leaving him with a question. A good lead should want the reader to read more and find out what will happen next. A good lead is the best start to a good story.
A lead is one of the most important parts of your writing piece because the lead is what grabs your attention and without reading something that doesn't acknowledge you then your not going to want to read on to figure out what the story is about because no questions are being asked in your head.
-Briana Moniz
i think the lead is important because it gets the reader to read on. Without the lead most readers wouldn't read on.
Leads are a very important part of the story. They make the reader want to keep reading if they are good but if they are bad the reader would put the book right down.
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