It’s not easy to get excited about events that seem routine. Why, for example, should the umpteenth crime story, the 10,000th fire, or yet another celebrity divorce raise an eyebrow? Well, they won’t, as long as we see them that way.

Take the time to read that wire copy again. Look at that tape one more time. Maybe firefighters battled some extra tough conditions. Maybe that divorced actor just finished a movie role as a devoted family man.

Every story has a “whoa!” factor. It may not be an earth-shattering revelation that changes civilization as we know it, but there’s always something, even a little thing, that makes you WANT to get out there and tell everybody. It may be a couple of poignant words that someone said, or a few frames of video that caught your eye, or even an obscure fact that makes the story just a little bit different. Taking the time to find the “whoa!” in the story helps generate an enthusiasm that carries over into the actual writing process.

One useful technique for achieving this is The Invisible Lead. It’s a sentence that’s never actually written, but it begins every single story. Here’s how it works:

Think of a friend. Now say to him or her, “Hey! You’ll never guess what just happened!!” That’s your starting point... your Invisible Lead. Now you’re ready to write the story with some energy, because when you begin this way, it’s impossible to follow with something boring like, “Suspected mass murderer Joe Blow was arraigned today”. No way. More likely the next line will be, “The man accused of massacring his family swears he didn’t do it.” Start with “Hey! You’ll never guess what just happened!” and it’s impossible to continue with, “Another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.” Rather, the energy flow will pour out something like, “That home you want to buy just got more expensive!”

Sure, this may feel like a gimmick, but it’s really much more. It’s a powerful mental exercise. It forces us to ditch the old newswriting ways, to lose the jargon, the boring overused phrases, the same old formula scripting. It gets us into the habit of “telling” instead of “reporting”, person-to-person instead of “news department” to “audience”. Makes all the difference in the world.

More Writing Tools