Recycling is something we’ve been told since childhood is vital for protecting our Earth, and I don’t dispute that. Today, however, I want to talk about another kind of recycling, one which may serve writers well, especially if they are suffering writer’s block. This is literary recycling.
And no, I do not mean recycling entire plots or characters. Definitely not. That would be counterproductive. Every writer, in my opinion, ought to strive for something different in every project. Recycling entire plot structures or character arcs would not only be boring for readers but also indicate to them that the writer isn’t showing any growth in their art.
What can you recycle literary wise, then? Scenes, scenarios, passages, anything that will not simply fit during the editing process. This was something I first discovered during my long and checkered history of writing Mystical Greenwood. New scenes were written, and some were altered, characters removed, names changed, etc. All for the sake of pace and telling a better story. That left some passages cut through different drafts, ones which I simply couldn’t fit back into the story. But I liked them. I didn’t want to simply trash them.
Instead, I used some of them as starting points in Beneath the Deep Wave. And you know what? The same thing happened again! Some bits were moved around, and a few would no longer fit within. So I’ve decided to simply use them again, but this time for the third One with Nature book. A few others were also saved for other projects that I thought they would work better in. They simply would require a few tweaks, such as changing names or other factors to accommodate different settings and structures.
It’s a good feeling to not entirely throw out some words you’ve written, especially when it might be possible to fit them into a different puzzle, perhaps even better that what they might have been before. The only other thing I would caution is be careful not to inadvertently use the same plots or plot elements over again. When I first started my pets mystery in college, at some point I realized I was using some similar elements to my fantasy story. I knew I had to make some changes.
Don’t forget that Beneath the Deep Wave is coming out next month! One another announcement: I have reopened my social media accounts on Twitter/X and Tumblr, with the same usernames as before. It wasn’t an easy decision, nor a light one. I remember leaving them for the sake of my mental health, and in the former’s case, it hasn’t had the best reputation, especially since its rebranding. but I am also aware that I did gain followers and readers/reviewers on each. Hopefully, I will be able to use them now wiser than before. So, if you were following me there before, you can do so again. Don’t forget about my other sites as well.
To all my fellow Americans, I hope you had a happy 4th of July yesterday.
Andrew McDowell 
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