The thing to do, then, upon sitting down to write a news story, is to
ask yourself, “What is the most interesting thing about this story?” If
the principal figure is a man or a woman very prominent in the world or
extremely well-known to your readers, the problem is very likely solved
immediately, since the name alone is sufficient to arouse interest and
catch the reader’s attention. Otherwise, some other element of the
story is taken as the most interesting, and in this connection you must
remember the list of interests which has just been enumerated. Go over
any copy of even a moderately well-written newspaper, and you will note
the comparatively small range of interests to which reporters feel that
they can safely appeal in beginning most of their stories. Of course
the interest in the unusual gives an almost infinite field of adventure
in writing, and the trick then becomes one of getting the strange set
of circumstances most quickly and most effectively before the readers.
When it has been determined what the most interesting thing is in the
story, this fact must come first, in as vivid and compact a form as
possible. It is better if the main facts are gotten into the first two
lines of the story, which means usually the first twelve words as a
maximum. But the five essentials must also all of them be gotten into
the beginning of the story, either in the first sentence or in the
first paragraph, at all odds. Not only WHO did WHAT, but also WHEN and
WHERE and WHY or HOW. As a matter of fact, of course, the WHY or the
HOW may have been the most interesting thing about the story and will
then have been “featured” at the beginning of the story. “Having sworn
revenge for his dead sister, Tony Wallace yesterday shot Tom Kelly,”
or “By jumping from the fourteenth floor of the Hughes Building,
Charles Hight committed suicide this morning” are both of them possible
beginnings to news-stories, although neither of them begins with the
WHO or the WHAT. Two of the five essentials, however, are very rarely
used as features in a news-story. These are the WHERE and the WHEN. It
stands to reason that people are ordinarily not interested in either
WHEN a thing occurred or WHERE it happened until they know what it
is. Thus a news-story very rarely begins “On the corner of Third and
Ludlow,” or “Late last evening,” except in very primitive newspapers or
in a type of story to which reference will be made later.
It can happen that the place or the time are interesting enough in
themselves to warrant their being featured. “Exactly at midnight last
night the Senate voted in favor of light wines and beer,” is a feasible
type of feature. So is “At Death Crossing an A. B. & C. train claimed
another victim last night, raising the month’s total to eighteen.” But
unless there is something extremely unusual or noteworthy about the
place or the time these are not featured.
“The” and “A” are in some offices banned as opening words to a
news-story, and generally if the news can be stated without starting
off with these words, it is better to do so. But frequently it would
be awkward to start in any other way, and in such a case there need be
no hesitancy about using the words. “There are,” or “There is,” on the
other hand, are hardly ever excusable in opening a news-story. They use
up valuable space and valuable time and only retard the statement of
the vital facts which constitute the news.
Figures are never used to start off the lead nor are they ever used at
the beginning of any sentence in the story. Either some such word as
“About” or “Exactly” is used, or the number is written out in words.
“Another” is obviously a bad word, generally, with which to open a
news-story. What the people want is news, and ordinarily “another”
weakens this sense of the novel. In case of a series of fires or
murders or fatal accidents, however, the word may have a power of
adding to the forcefulness of the news, and so its use here would be
good.