The Beast Ate My Writing Skills, by Amy Seed and Leah Girard, Ink Tank, February 23, 2010

"The Beast" Ate My Writing Skills

By Amy Seed and Leah Girard
Ink Tank
February 23, 2010

http://wjcblog.typepad.com/ink_tank/

The day we landed in Washington, DC was the day we forgot how to write.

Everything we thought we knew about writing we quickly learned was false. OK, not everything, but it sure felt that way. From the beginning, WJC staff Terry and Greg told us stories of ledes gone wrong. Terribly wrong. A couple weeks ago, they introduced us to "The Beast."

This is the most common and boring lede that could possibly be written. It sounds something like this: "This group met on this day and did this."

Lame. We realized we've been writing ledes like that for most of our young journalistic careers. Can you say, "Uh oh?"