Daniel B. Honigman's site - Latest Comments in Tidbit of the Day: How to write awesome headlines

Re: Tidbit of the Day: How to write awesome headlines

Tom Whitwell — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:53:08 -0000

Robquig: Thanks! The advice about writing the headline first was only for journalists - if you're a sub editor / copy editor, you definitely have to read the story first. I'm still surprised that newspaper journalists can write a story with no idea what the headline might be or how it might be presented on the page.

Re: Tidbit of the Day: How to write awesome headlines

lthanlon — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:55:02 -0000

I agree with writing the headline first. This tried-and-true method has worked for movies, too. Something tells me that the film titles "The Thing With Two Heads" and "They Saved Hitler's Brain" preceded the shooting scripts by a considerable length of time.

Re: Tidbit of the Day: How to write awesome headlines

Daniel — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:23:46 -0000

Rob - I like having some sort of dummy headline in there, even though I always go back and change it after. Just a habit, I guess.

Bob - Those definitely were some cool old stories, huh?

Re: Tidbit of the Day: How to write awesome headlines

Bob Wieszcholek — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:09:34 -0000

I understand the point of the presentation, which actually has relevance when writing just about anything. However, what I really enjoyed was reading some of the actual articles.

Re: Tidbit of the Day: How to write awesome headlines

Robquig — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:10:55 -0000

Nice presentation. I was a copy editor in a former life, and I've written thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of headlines. There is good advice in this presentation, though I would NOT write the headline first. Read the story first, even if quickly. Too many headlines miss the point or misread the point of stories. The best explanation for that is often that people write a headline then breeze through the story.