Today I will be attempting my first lead for my feature writing
Background information: A lead is the opening part of a story that catches and pulls the reader into the story. It should capture the spirit of the story and create the proper tone. Can often be longer than one sentence, should be in the third person, and not filled with clichés.
The type of lead I will be attempting today is a narrative one. A narrative lead simply tells a story.
Story:
Thomas J. Serle works for Parker Bros. Circus, which is in town this week. Performances are scheduled at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day through Sunday, beginning today. Serle, who maintains a home in Fort Lauderdale, is a laborer who helps care for the animals at the circus, including 10 elephants.
In a conversation he had with a reporter, he said: "Some people look on work with a circus as a glamorous job. It ain't. But I been doing it all my life, and it's too late for me to change," Parker Bros. Circus Worker Thomas J. I'll be 60 next year. I was born into it. Both my folks were circus people. I started out as an acrobat until I fell and busted a leg. It never healed quite right, so they offered me this job, and I took it. What else could I do? There's all kinds of myths about circuses, like about these elephants here. Some people say they're afraid of mice, but that's crazy. When we pen the elephants up for the winter there's always mice that get in their hay, and it don't bother them none. The elephants never try to run away or stomp them or anything. They share the same cages all winter. And then some people say elephants got a good memory. Hell, some of the ones we got are so dumb they can't remember a simple trick from one year to the next." Serle said. Being the child of two circus performers, Serle was raised on the road with the circus people. Once he was an adult he became an acrobat for the same circus he was raised in. What started out as a promising acrobatic career went south when Serle broke his leg. Now at the age of 60 he tends to his 10 elephants.
Type of Lead: Narrative
For his whole life all Thomas J serle has only known about is the circus until an unfortunate took his ability to perform. As a result, he been serving as the caretaker for the circus animals. "Some people look on work with a circus as a glamorous job. It ain't" Serle said. "But I been doing it all my life, and it's too late for me to change." Circus life isn't exactly what he had hoped for but it's all he's got. Thomas has now reached his sixties and does his best for circus animals.
No comments:
Post a Comment