The Opener

When I lived in South Georgia at the start of this decade, I used to read the Savannah Morning News almost every day. I noticed a strange pattern in the writing. Almost every front-page story started with a paragraph that consisted of a single short sentence, usually no more than five to seven words. I think it was the paper's attempt to be distinctive, to move away from the stilted gray traditions of its counterparts, but to me it came across as a cheap gimmick. The ledes were short but I generally found them neither clever nor snappy. Since then I've avoided starting stories that way.



These days I tend to err on the other side of things. My first paragraphs often contain at least one…