Starting a story is the hardest part. They say a woman decides in the first five seconds if she will talk to the approaching gentleman or send him crying to his car. I think people reading a piece online feel the same way. If you don’t nail the intro, people don’t care if the cure for cancer is in paragraph three. They’re gone. The industry standard is nonexistent: I can start a blog post with whatever I want, and no one will think twice. Harder news stories don’t have an introduction. There’s no anecdote that leads a story about Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. Some weekly columns or frequent topics lead with a story of their past; the one that comes to mind first is Matthew Berry’s “Love/Hate” column. Others dive right in or briefly touch on an event from the week. Me? I prefer humor. Just as it usually can open doors when conversing, an opening one-liner can keep them reading on, hoping for another. This is all just a little look into how writers can structure some of their weekly posts.
My record is at 80-53 after last week’s 6-7 result, which keeps me in twelfth place out of myself and the 13 ESPN predictors. To those of you playing along at home, I encourage you to keep track of your records, because around this time each year, it is fun to see if you can do the professional’s job better then they can.
Washington over Minnesota
Seattle over Atlanta
Chicago over Detroit
Philadelphia over Green Bay
Tennessee over Jacksonville
Indianapolis over St. Louis
New York Giants over Oakland
Pittsburgh over Buffalo
Cincinnati over Baltimore
San Francisco over Carolina
Arizona over Houston
Denver over San Diego
New Orleans over Dallas
Miami over Tampa Bay
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and upcoming week!
Also, I would like to wish all veterans an early Happy Veterans Day. Your service and sacrifice for our country can not be described in words, and I can not thank each and every one of you enough for all you have done to keep our nation free. May you all be blessed tomorrow and every day after that.
God Bless!
– Dan