by E.L. Miller

Created on: October 03, 2007   Last Updated: November 08, 2009

Writing is like a relationship: it's easy to miss all of the good things about it if you can't get over all the little problems. When a writer courts a reader, all of the romantic gestures are for naught if the writer forgets a birthday or misspells the reader's name. Writing requires more than mastering the art of storytelling; it demands that its creator adhere to an accepted format to woo the reader. Talented journalists, authors and poets find appreciation for their compositions by avoiding the five most common break-up reasons, er, story-slayers.

1. It's called a "lead" for a reason.

A poor lead will lose a reader before they even begin. Think of it like a pick-up line. It's not necessary that the lead be the first sentence, but this catchy line works best when it introduces or finishes the first paragraph of a writing. In news-writing, the lead is the all-important clarification to the headline that first grabbed readers. It must quickly lay out the who, what, when, where, and usually the why and how. Feature writing is a little more flexible, allowing the writer to use the lead to capture the reader, but not requiring that all of the information be contained within. Longer articles need several lesser leads to draw the reader through each subtopic and to preserve a cohesive manuscript. The author of a book must repeatedly churn out good leads to recapture the reader at the start of each chapter.

Good leads take many forms. As mentioned above, the lead may begin or end the opening paragraph. It may also be the opening paragraph, or the first three, depending on the length and subject of the work. Leads that hook readers are often creative, ranging from an anecdote to a question to a surprising statement. The possibilities are endless, so writers should flex their imaginative muscles to develop the best hook every time.

2. A tragedy of errors.

It's hard to be taken seriously as a writer when your latest piece wouldn't receive a passing score in English 101. Would you keep reading a love note that said, "Your the 1 for me"? Most errors are not the result of ignorance, but of carelessness. Fortunately, that's an easier problem to fix. Writers should always use the spelling and grammar tools provided in word processing software (if you don't use word processing software, it's time to upgrade). Still, it's important to remember that these tools don't catch everything. Simple typing mistakes such as writing "form" instead of "from" are under the spellchecker's

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