First of all, I didn’t even know there was an official name for recycling an article. Turns out there is: “repurposing” an article is what the pros call it.

Secondly, although I had some vague thoughts about recycling my work, I hadn’t done anything about it. Oh, I rewrote some fiction pieces, making them shorter for flash, or making them longer when I gave up on the “flash” idea. And I save almost every word I’ve ever written because you never know when you might need a scathingly brilliant turn of phrase. But “repurposing” a non-fiction article? Uh, no.

But when I read how an article could be reworked to fit several different markets, I had one of those Eureka! moments. Now, I find myself looking over old pieces, wondering where I can send the “new and slightly re-purposed” article off, thereby adding to the Cathy C. Hall Fortune-O-Meter.

What I’m trying to say here, grasshopper, is hold on to your articles, whether you’ve sold them or not. You never know when you can recycle some of those ideas to fit another market. And don’t sit around thinking about it. It works better if you actually do something.

Something about May puts me in mind of a competition I entered a few years back. Maybe because the competition comes around every May? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is the result of that particular competition. And it was not good.

Oh, I don’t mean the “not winning” part. You win a few, you lose a few. But I think I paid for a critique, along with the story I entered. I LOVED that story. LOVED it. The judges liked little parts of it. The writing was beautiful, they said. But something was missing. Something rather integral to any short story: conflict.

What was that, grasshopper? How could a writer leave out the conflict? Easy. Sometimes, writers get carried away with the whole art of writing, creating images, capturing a moment and before you know it, the story ends…without any conflict ever being resolved.

I wish I could say I learned what not to do and have applied it ever since. But the truth is, I still get carried away with my writing once in awhile. So grasshopper, after you write that short story you absolutely love, sit back for a moment and ask yourself, “Where’s the conflict?”

The conflict’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the Fame and Fortune. Which I intend to do with the next competition I enter (before May runs out!).