Ch. 6: Summary vs. feature leads

It's time to look at facts for writing stories again.

Feature leads and summary leads, I think I may have gone over them before in this blog before, but I don't know. I'll go over it again, if I did talk about it.

Feature leads are basically more craftier that summary leads. Summary leads are normally used when writing a story on "default". This means that summary leads are just normal leads with an objective voice and just summarizes what happens in the story. It just gives the who, what, when and where very quickly before the story goes into further details.

This is an example from the Baltimore Sun newspaper that shows a semblance to a summary lead: "Five football players at Baltimore's Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and the mother of one student were arrested in the stabbings and beatings of a 14-year-old boy and three of his friends last weekend, Baltimore County police said Friday." (by Brent Jones)

Feature leads are slightly different. Instead of cramming all the W's in the first sentence right away, a quick preview of the story is given first. It's more of a short beginning or sneek peek of what's about to happen later.

And here's an example of a feature lead from the New York Times by reporter Martin Fackler: "OMA, Japan — Fishermen here call it “black gold,” referring to the dark red flesh of the Pacific bluefin tuna that is so prized in this sashimi-loving nation that just one of these sleek fish, which can weigh a half-ton, can earn tens of thousands of dollars."

There are some facts and details in that sentence, telling the what and where, but doesn't really give the basic, specific details of what's happening. It's basically an introduction to what the article is all about and it leaves the reader slightly captivated, wanting to read more. This may be why I call it the "clincher" or "catcher" sentence.

Another example of a feature lead comes from The Sun again, only the lead is hard to pinpoint. "Cephas Thomas didn't know whether he'd laugh, cry or give a speech when "Paddy" Culbert finally returned to town. He knew it would be a moment he'd never forget. Two years ago, Thomas, security director at the Renaissance Harborplace, was at work in the lobby when Culbert, a New Hampshire businessman, happened to be driving by. The New Englander had been working crazy hours and was tired. He didn't realize he was about to have a stroke." (Johnathan Pitts)

The lead is very hard to find because all of that information is in the first paragraph and it gives more of a classic story approach. When I read this, I was compelled to read more of the article to see what happened with this man who didn't know he was having a stroke.

Rolling Stone magazine does a different take on leads. "Minutes before the official opening of Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s staged rendition of American Idiot, the members of Green Day were their usual affable selves." (Barry Walters) Then it goes into a quote from the band's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong.

The feature lead there takes a little more of a personal standpoint for an interesting story. But the whole article on Green Day making their best album into a broadway musical is mostly told in an objective voice. The story is still written with more creativity because it's more personal to the band that they're doing something different than any other rock band has done.