Creating an Image in the Mind of your Reader

This is a lead I found in Cosmopolitan Magazine:

“In the middle of fall, lie two glorious weeks (more or less) where the weather literally could not be better and you're equally comfortable sipping on a warm coffee drink as you are a cold one. You're also probably going on a stroll in the park because this is the only time of the year that that sounds like something nice to do too.”

I love this beginning because it is quirky and it gets your attention. I like the idea of adding just the slightest touch of humor into the lead to get your readers hooked. 

Even though it is a little long, I like that it is really expressive. You actually get the idea of what she’s talking about.

 An image forms in your head.

 As I was searching for all those different types of leads for that assignment, I found lots of really crappy ones.

 I found that the ones I liked the least were the ones that were more abstract and used lots of numbers. My favorite ones were the ones that used visual language so you could understand what was going on in the story and you “see the movie” in your head as you read.