Don’t Write without a Headline

I’ve learned over decades of writing to say what needs saying and shut up.
(As a lecturer, that’s a lesson I still need to learn.)

Your Thesis has a Human Cost

Every subject worth writing an essay about has a human cost, or price.
It will benefit many or cost everyone, or require the cooperation of all of humanity.
(Think how many ways my Eradication of Polio essay meets these descriptions.)
The significance of your story may not be obvious. You need to make it obvious.
If the human significance is unclear to you, you have a problem:
The story will seem insignificant to your readers.

Figure out what your story is worth in human lives
enhanced, enriched, impoverished, improved, lost or spared.

What the Headline isn’t:

Horizon fills with dark clouds?
First of all, the horizon will never be the story; it’s just the location.
If it isn’t the story, it shouldn’t be the subject of the sentence.

Dark clouds Gather on the Horizon?
Clouds aren’t the story, either, until they have a human cost.
If they promise good weather for the festival, they could be a story.
If they threaten flooding and destruction, they could be a story.

But neither the horizon nor the clouds themselves are the story.
Objects are never the story. Laws are not the story. Rules are not the story.
Governments are not. Countries are not. Citizens are. We are.

Human lives are the only story.
Make them the subject of your arguments and your sentences.

The Editor offers this headline:

Imminent Storm Threatens Village.

(Can you write an even better one that makes humans the subject of the sentence
and therefore the subject of the story? Leave a Reply below.)

If the storm doesn’t hit:

Village Spared from Deadly Storm.

(Can you write an even better one that makes humans the subject of the sentence
and therefore the subject of the story? Leave a Reply below.)

One more time.

Dark clouds are not just atmospheric phenomena. They signal a possible storm.
A storm threatens flooding and massive wind damage. People may be injured or die.
Property may be damaged, houses leveled or washed away.

Of the two headlines below, which tells the story better?

1. Hundreds of homes destroyed.

2. Thousands of villagers homeless.

The answer should be obvious. Leave me your Reply.

I’ll shut up now.