Whatever you write, it needs a headline and a killer first sentence. If readers aren't grabbed by your headline, it doesn't matter how beautiful and emotional your writing is -- they won't read your story, blog post or oped.
And if they don't like the intro, the first sentence (also called a lead, lede or hook), they won't read the rest of the piece. I'm going to use the British term of "intro" throughout because it's a lot less confusing than "lead" or "lede."
Writing killer headlines and intros is an art and a science, and a lot of people spend as much time crafting the perfect headline as they do writing the body of the text.
In journalism and public relations, they've developed different terms for different parts of headlines and stories.
Even if you're an amateur doing a little PR on the side, you need to know what reporters and editors are talking about when you hear these words or see them in an e-mail.
Hed - headline for any piece
Deck (also called dek or subhed) - a subheadline below the main head, in smaller text, that explains the story more
Kicker - basically a teaser that goes on top of a headline instead of underneath; kickers are just a few words and don't try to explain the entire story
Intro (also called lede, lead, or hook) - the first sentence of any piece
Hard - a hard headline or intro that gives readers a straight explanation of the story with the five W's of journalism: who, what, where, when and why
Soft (also called grabber, delayed or feature) -- headlines and intros that don't sum up the story in the traditional hard style; instead, a soft headline or intro tries to grab reader interest by posing a question, painting the scene, opening with a shocking quote or using other techniques
Nut graf (also: nut paragraph) - if you go with a soft intro, the nut graf is where you tell the readers basics, the nut of the story, in a more traditional, hard news way
The easiest way to write a great headline and lead is to boil things down. If you only could use two words for the headline, what would those two words be? How about three words?
Once you've boiled the story down to its essence, it's a lot easier to expand on it. Doing the reverse -- writing long, then trying to cut things down -- is always harder.
Also, avoid jargon and long words in intros and especially in headlines. If you can replace a three-syllable word with a one-syllable word, do it. Readers will thank you.