Meryl's Notes Blog

Ever read a book or see a movie with a great beginning and a disappointing ending? What about vice versa? If a book starts off too slow or lousy, will you keep reading it? In the past, I did. But not anymore unless it’s for a gig.

Sometimes I luck out in coming up with a wonderful analogy for an article. When you write all the time, you don’t have the luxury of brainstorming creative approaches. It takes time to brainstorm, try different tricks like mindmapping, or flip through books related to getting ideas … time that you don’t have.

One easy trick does work that doesn’t take much time. You can do this after writing the article, in the middle… whenever. Come up with an analogy or theme that relates to the article topic. Unfortunately, that didn’t work well in this entry. So it’s not a perfect trick.

In this best advice response column about someone struggling to break through the glass ceiling, I used Superman to add color. Dorothy and her Oz friends appeared in When Good Newsletters Go Bad. A story on crisis management incorporates science fiction. The Wireless City 2.0 weaves in city planning through the years.

OK, so some ideas work better than others. Sure, I’d like to have every article grab the reader. I practice by writing often and digging for creative approaches while I work through the writing. Sometimes it pays and sometimes it doesn’t. What matters is the practicing and doing it often.

Doing this while blogging is hardest. I can’t spend too much time blogging. Occasionally, I come up with a post I’m proud of, but not enough. The good thing about blogging — whether it’s a good or lousy post — is that it’s writing practice.

This ending is nothing like Citizen Kane, The Crying Game, or The Sixth Sense. But they all have surprises near the end.