We've talked about what separates a news story from a magazine or feature article, and part of my definition rests on the involvement of the reader and, by necessity, the involvement of the writer. The spine of any story that isn't simply a list of facts is a basic structure. It starts with the lead, a way of intriguing the reader to go beyond the first line. If I don't grab them at the start, I can't count on grabbing them in the middle, because they'll never get to the middle. For many writers, getting that lead is all-important in fact, many writing instructors would say you should not, CAN not write the rest of the story until that lead is found.
Tortured transitions are the mark of an outlined story.
By paying attention while you're assembling the story, and remembering your own impressions. It's deciding in advance what the story will be, and then just bolting the whole thing together like something out of a hardware store. Tortured transitions are the mark of an outlined story. In fact the transition, moving from paragraph one to paragraph two, is thought by many pros to be the hardest thing to do well. It involves giving up the tease and saying flat out what the story is all about.