A good lede should achieve three things: Give readers a summary of the story's important elements. Make readers want to read the narrative. Complete both tasks in as few words as feasible. The first thing that a good lead does is it gives readers a quick overview of the story's main characters and themes. In one sentence, the lead should provide enough information for someone who hasn't read the full article or chapter to understand what the piece is about. The lead shouldn't be so vague that it leaves room for interpretation or confusion about the subject matter. In addition to being clear, the lead should also make readers want to read more. If you can accomplish this with just a few sentences, then that's ideal. But sometimes leads are short because they need to be concise; when writing for print, there's usually no way around this limitation. In that case, a good lead will still get its message across by using different styles of writing or by including relevant images or tables. Finally, a good lead should tie up any loose ends and bring the story back to where it began. This final step is especially important if there were multiple scenes in the story that don't necessarily go together chronologically. By tying them all up, the writer ensures that the reader understands everything that has happened up until this point.