We present optical spectroscopic and photometric observations of the nearby type Ic supernova (SN Ic) SN 2014L. This SN was discovered by the Tsinghua-NAOC Transient Survey (TNTS) in the nearby type-Sc spiral galaxy M99 (NGC 4254). Fitting to the early-time light curve indicates that SN 2014L was detected at only a few hours after the shock breakout, and it reached a peak brightness of M_V_=-17.73+/-0.28mag (L=[2.06+/-0.50]x10^42^erg/s) approximately 13 days later. SN 2014L shows a close resemblance to SN 2007gr in the photometric evolution, while it shows stronger absorption features of intermediate-mass elements (especially CaII) in the early-time spectra. Based on simple modeling of the observed light curves, we derived the mass of synthesized ^56^Ni as M_Ni_=0.075+/-0.025M_{sun}_, and the mass and total energy of the ejecta as M_ej_=1.00+/-0.20M_{sun}_ and E_ej_=1.45+/-0.25 foe, respectively. Given these typical explosion parameters, the early detection, and the extensive observations, we suggest that SN 2014L could be a template sample for the investigation of SNe Ic.