Exercises with Leads:

1.  Write a lead to your autobiography.  Don’t begin with “I was born in ___________.”  Instead, find a moment in your life that defines who you are and begin there.

2.  Write questions about some of the things you wrote into the web of your life or the positive/negative graph you made of your life.  Pick the best question.  Without using the question itself, answer it in a lead and keep going.

3.  Read these questions and answer them with leads.  Pick one that intrigues you and write on.
 Who are you?
 When did you become an adult?
 Why don’t you write?
 How do people change?
 Who were you?
 Is the night sky the same as it was when you were a child?
 What’s a dream you have?
 Where do ideas begin?
 Who will you be?
 What have you lost that you wish you could regain?
 What was your destiny?
 What do you regret?
 What is something you wish someone had warned you about?
 What is something you wish someone had told you?
 When did you meet a significant person in your life?

4.  Write five questions about yourself aimed at revealing harsh truths.  Try answering one in a lead.

5.  Look through your journal.  Write down questions that a reader might have.  Answer one of them in a lead.