Be Frugal With Your Words – Reuse and Recycle

A fellow blogathoner named Leah Ingram recently wrote on her blog, Suddenly Frugal,  a post that inspired me to think about writing in frugal terms.

In her post, 5 Frugal Lessons I Learned From Mom, she says recycling and reusing regular household items not only reduces the amount of trash you throw out the door, but you also save yourself time and money. We’ve all heard this thousands of times before, but Leah has a way of talking about the topic that makes sense to me. I think its because she gives examples on how to reuse and why you will benefit.

I think the same logic applies to writing. As a writing coach, I often make suggestions to clients on how to get the ideas flowing. In the beginning you don’t necessarily worry about grammar or even if what you write is pertinent to the task at hand. The goal is to dump your ideas onto paper with no judgment. Once you’ve “dumped” all your ideas, then you can go back through and find what is worth using in your writing project.

However, the reuse and recycle piece comes in with all that leftover text that you didn’t use. I call this extra writing “slop.”

Don’t throw away the slop.

Keep the unused text in a file that you can refer to later. You never know, the text you wrote may be helpful for sparking ideas for another project down the road. You might even be able to use the slop by rewriting and re-purposing what you have. Now that is a good example of reusing and recycling.

The No. 2 Pen is a full-service writing and communications company. Contact us to discuss your writing projects and editing needs.