Kicking off a story with an anecdote before getting down to the nitty-gritty is a much loved but sometimes misused technique. When it works, it catches the reader’s eye and leads him onward. But it can easily be a turn-off. It must be relevant to the main story. It must be interesting. And most of all, it must be short – usually a couple or three paras is long quite enough. One example, created by the legendary Reuters trainer George Short, who died in his prime in 1997, had to do with a supposed ban on the famous London black taxi cabs on grounds of health and safety. George told his trainees you might start your story effectively, thus:
Joe Bloggs rose early as usual to start his morning shift. He shaved, pocketed his dark glasses and walked disconsolately to the nearby garage where he kept his beloved ‘Betsy’.
This was no ordinary day for Joe and ‘Betsy’ - registration number B4TSY. Today would be the last time that Joe was allowed to drive ‘Betsy’, as new EU regulations came in banning London’s iconic black taxi cabs for health and safety reasons.
Okay so far, so good. Now is the right moment to get into the nuts and bolts of the story – how many cabs and drivers affected, what’s wrong with them, what will replace them, etc. We can get back to Joe and Betsy later. But George wanted to demonstrate the trap of extending the anecdotal lead, and went on:
Joe, 48, a ‘cabbie’ for twenty years, pulled out a cloth and lovingly polished Betsy’s already gleaming body.
“Bye-bye, old girl,” he muttered.
A tear came to his eye.... etc.
No, no, no. You’ve gone too far already. By now, impatient readers will be yawning, or laughing in derision, or turning to the sports pages. The point is that this story is not about Joe’s emotions but about transport in London.
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