The Eco Friendly Writer

It’s time that writers did their bit for the environment. Reduce, reuse, recycle need not only apply to the earth’s resources, but to our own. Applying this motto to writing work will make us more effective writers — and we’ll earn more, too. Here’s how it works.

Reduce

Say you’ve written a 2,000 word treatise on your favourite subject. Try cutting it down to size to make a short story or a blog post. Cut out all the fluff and dross until you’re left with the essentials. This article will look very different from the original and you’ll be able to sell it to a new market without contravening any deal you had with the publisher of the original article.

Reuse

Why reinvent the wheel? If you have written something good, then use the research to create a few spinoffs. This isn’t cheating; it’s a time honored writing technique.

I was taught to look for other ways of writing the material and new angles that you could take, then you could make one set of research spawn two or three articles, all of which you could get paid for.

That’s how the most successful freelancers operate. They research a piece and then sell different angle to different publications, which brings me to the third point.

Recycle

‘Listen very carefully; I shall say this only once.’ Those words are spoken by Michelle of the French Resistance in the popular British sitcom Allo Allo.

However, for writers, there’s no rule that says that you have to use a piece of writing only once. Once you have sold the first serial rights, then you can still get people to pay for reprints, especially if you have a quality article. Why not publish something in print and then sell it online, or vice versa? It’s another way to get paid more than once.

The three Rs of environmental husbandry have a lot to teach us about squeezing every bit of mileage (and profit) out of our writing work and research.

Finally, we can be kind to the environment at the same time. All we need to do is avoid printing articles and emails unless we really have to.

Get Paid To Write Online is proud to participate in Blog Action Day.