My least favorite lede cliche

"Whap," he added.

 

my SE told me once that any lede beginning with "There is" or "It is" isn't going to work for him.

 

What a difference a _____ makes.

Hate it hate it HATE IT.

 

We already went there a couple pages ago. Keep up, please.

 

If you throw the ball and you catch it in the end zone, would that not be an illegal forward pass?

 

That made me laugh out loud.

 

Not if it was tipped.

 

Fair point about the need for speed. But if a reporter can't write both quickly and somewhat-sort of-even a little bit creatively, the reporter shouldn't be writing for a wire service. (Or, probably, newspapers.) Plus, it's not only that the cliched lead was cliched - it's that the cliche is patently nonsensical. Reporters shouldn't write nonsense, no matter how tight their deadline is.

 

NO QUESTION LEDES!

I know I'm repeating myself from another topic thread, but any lede that starts as a question is a no-no in my book. I immediately tell one of my writers to rewrite it. There is never a reason to start a story with a question, and you can argue against ever using a question in the body of a story.

I can't even think of an example right now, but I'm sure you've seen them, something like;
"Is there another team that wants to win more than Podunk High? blah, blah, blah."